These monthly baby photo ideas are unique ways to capture your little one’s first year!
They’re easy and special ways to see all the growth and development that goes by too quickly!
Monthly Baby Photo Ideas for Baby’s First Year!
If you couldn’t tell already, this has been a very special time for us in the Backus household.
We’ve had FIRST BIRTHDAY on the brain for some time because our little man just hit that big milestone!
Yep, our little Rowan turned one this month.
We naturally celebrated with a dinosaur first birthday party that featured a DIY birthday chalkboard poster, had a first birthday photoshoot/cake smash session, and started a fun little birthday canvas finger painting tradition.
So many festivities, indeed!
I can’t believe how fast the baby stage goes by, and how fast development occurs.
Sometimes I swear he was a different baby in the morning than the one we put to sleep at night.
Yeesh…
That’s why I’m SO glad we took monthly baby photos of him.
It’s so special to now look back and see how teeny tiny he was in the beginning, and how much he’s developed in just these first twelve months.
Plus, all the tidbits of info are already fun to read and reminisce over.
Here, I’ll share with you the different monthly baby photo ideas we came up with AND how you can capture photos of your own tiny tot!
Monthly Baby Photo Idea #1: Collage with Mom
There are lots of monthly baby photo ideas out there comparing the growing kiddo with another object, like stuffed teddy bear, family pet, or pizza (so clever!).
For this idea, we chose an easy route, and just used Momma here for the growth comparison.
We started this project when Rowan was two weeks old.
Looking back now, I wish we would have snapped a pic of me holding him in front of me when he was BRAND brand new, either in the hospital or a day or two after we brought him home.
It would have been nice to have an official “beginning” photo, but I guess in the grand scheme of things, two weeks old is still considered the beginning.
Cuz phew…giving birth then being handed off this new living creature for the first time that you are now solely responsible for sure is quite the whirlwind, amiright?
So I’m cutting myself some slack for forgetting to do this as a new momma.
To capture each of these monthly photos, I would hold Rowan while standing in front of a plain wall while The Hubs snapped our photo, then I would edit the photos in Adobe Lightroom to make them look relatively the same.
I tried to make sure both of us had different clothes on for each month (we just couldn’t have repeats, could we??).
Looking back now, Months 4, 5, & 6 were apparently a stripey phase for us!
Here’s a fun animated gif rolling through all the photos from Rowan’s first year:
I then turned all the photos into a collage just so they would be compiled all together.
As mentioned above, I edited the photos in Adobe Lightroom, then to add the text, I would transfer them to either my iPad or iPhone and use an app.
I’m wishing now that I would have just done the editing and text in Photoshop Elements to save the quality of the images, because using the app obviously made the photos lose some of their sharpness.
During the first few months of these with a newborn, I was aiming for quick and easy, and using the app was both of those!
Monthly Baby Photo Idea #2: Collage with Mom + Stats/Tidbits
This monthly baby photo idea is super special because it not only captures pictures of your baby at regular monthly intervals to show all the development, but it also includes fun stats and extra tidbits!
For the tidbits of info for Baby Rowan, I made sure to include:
- Age
- Date
- Official stats from each doctor’s checkup
- Weight
- Height
- Head circumference
- Distinctive characteristics
- New milestones reached
- Other silly tidbits showcasing Rowan’s personality
- “Enjoys a good poop while at the dinner table” :)
All of these detailed photos were then compiled into a collage as well.
This one is so neat to look back at and see Rowan’s growth in the photos but we can also read about all the special little details we don’t want to forget.
And I just love the development of his personality and facial expressions…and crazy hair!
Just for the heck of it, here’s another animated gif of just Rowan’s baby faces.
They really capture his personality of that first year. :)
Monthly Baby Photo Idea #3: Quarterly Jam(mie) Sessions
Aside from taking monthly photos, I also thought it would be fun to take a series of photos with Rowan wearing the same footie pajamas at longer intervals so we could really see his growth.
So, starting at four weeks old, I dressed him in a set of super cute monkey pajamas and laid him down on our contrasting dark hardwood floor.
The pajamas were size 9 Months, so they were HUGE for this first shot, which is just what I wanted.
Then again at four months, eight months, and twelve months, I dressed him in the same jammies and took a photo at each age.
As you can see, he started busting out of them in no time!
And gahh, I just love his budding faux hawk at four months old!
By the twelve-month photo, he was able to sit up unsupported too.
A cute milestone captured!
Monthly Baby Photo Idea #4: Just the Faces
This next monthly baby photo idea is super simple.
If you’re anything like me (or most new parents), you’re snapping more photos of your little bundle of joy than NASA takes of Mars.
And rightly so!
New babes and their squishy faces are just the cuuuutest.
So, for this next idea, I didn’t do anything extra in terms of taking staged photos.
Instead, I just turned a photo of Rowan that I had already snapped from each age/month into a black and white image, then using an app, added a colorful month icon.
I can’t remember the exact app I used here (possibly Ink Cards since I was sending postcards to my grandma constantly at this time because she loved her snail mail, especially if it involved her newest great grandbaby…).
Anyway, there are lots of photo editing or baby apps that offer options for this sorta thing.
Or you can even forgo adding the age/month part completely and only showcase your kiddo’s face.
And I just couldn’t resist doing yet another closeup animation of those cute faces. :)
Bonus Baby Photo Idea: First Birthday Infographic
While not a monthly baby photo idea, here’s another fun idea to commemorate your baby’s first year: a first birthday infographic!
Monthly Baby Photo Ideas
While remembering and actually having the energy to take these monthly baby photos got tedious at times (“Is it really time to take another one??” was a frequent question from The Hubs), I am so thrilled that we have these to look back on.
It fills my heart with happiness.
And we get to do it all over again when we have our next baby! :)
UPDATE: We had our next baby, but we did not do these monthly photos with him!
Oops, lol.
I’ve gotta keep it real…Momma here was too exhausted with a newborn PLUS a toddler, so Mr. Brayden didn’t get any monthly photos taken.
Sorry, bud. That’s the life of the second born. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
We did make sure he got some super cute newborn photos taken though!
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