I’ve been going through lots of our photos lately in preparation for my oldest son’s 8th grade graduation. Gasp!! It’s a tradition in our school to do a short photo montage of each student at the 8th grade dinner/dance (parents at my school if you’re reading this – get your photos in ASAP!!) Going through these photos makes me wonder how this now 5’7″ 14 year old was ever an itty bitty baby like the one below – how did this happen? Didn’t I “just” find out I was going to have a baby? Didn’t we just FINALLY agree on a baby name? This all makes me think about when I was pregnant and a new mom . . .

When you’re pregnant or even once you have your baby everyone loves to give unsolicited advice. They also love to touch your belly (and your newborn), but THAT’S a completely different blog post! Strangers will stop you and tell you that based on how you look they know “for sure” that you are having a (insert gender here.) They will tell you that it’s too cold out and you shouldn’t have your baby outside, or it’s too warm out, you shouldn’t have your baby outside.

Here’s my unsolicited advice. Take pictures of your baby. Ha! What did you expect!? It doesn’t have to be by me (but I would love it if it was!) Make it easy on yourself – if you want newborn photos – plan for it while you are pregnant! Don’t wait until you have your baby, things will be coo coo crazy once you deliver so take care of all of the planning ahead of time so that when your sweet little peanut arrives you can just enjoy! Even if you don’t want a professional newborn photo session, still take lots of photos of your newborn – believe me that those babies change very quickly! Before you know it, he (or she) will be heading off to high school and riding the CTA on their own. Sniff!