Taking the Best Milestone Photos of Your Baby

This post is sponsored by Finn + Emma and includes affiliate links which means that if you buy something via this post I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. All thoughts and opinions below are my own!

As a mama of 5 kids, I have had the joy of taking my fair share of monthly milestone photos! At this point, I think I’ve mostly done it all. Keep reading to see what I’ve learned along the way.

1. Lighting - I know it’s easy to lose track of time when you have a newborn, but I can’t stress enough about how important it is to get that natural sunlight behind your baby for these photos! It really makes all the difference, and I always regret the days when I accidentally wait until the sun is down to do my photo shoot. When planning your nursery, try to place your rocker or glider in an area that would make it easily positionable in front of the window. No rocker? No problem! You can still take photos on a blanket in front of the window as well. We just want the window behind the baby for the best results.

2. Background - In the past, I have used our glider chair as the background for our monthly photos. One major issue with doing that is that it becomes a problem if you happen to be traveling on a monthly milestone day. If you aren’t a stickler for these things, then go ahead and take your photo a bit early or late, but I like to take those monthly photos on the exact day so it did drive me a bit crazy in the past. With my newest baby, I’m trying the blanket technique. Pick a blanket with some texture because then you don’t really have to worry about wrinkles taking over your photo. Just a cautious reminder, if you are taking photos of your baby from the top-down, make sure you have something to loop your finger through on the back cover so you don’t accidentally drop your phone on your baby!

3. Comparison Item - Next pick a cuddly companion or object to pose next to your baby. I’ve seen so many creative versions of this, and I love to see how baby grows over the months! I like to opt for a stuffed friend that’s somewhere between 18 and 20 inches long so it’s similar to baby’s size at birth! It’s hard to go wrong here as long as you stick with the same thing each month.

4. Outfit - I’m so thrilled to be using Finn + Emma’s Monthly Milestones Gift Set to do Matilda’s monthly photos! In the past, I used number stickers, and they were a huge pain! As my kids got older, they would rip them off, and once Layla even managed to get one into her mouth before I got it out of her hands. And as the babies wiggled around, the stickers would wrinkle. They were also single-use which isn’t that great. Now I’m loving these bodysuits for a few reasons! First, they are organic cotton, and Finn + Emma’s design is one of the best there is. I especially love the quality of the snaps and the double-layered fabric they are attached to. The shape of the bodysuit works so that the diaper doesn’t peek out - a detail that I really appreciate. If you get this set for your first baby, then you can keep them to use with your other children too. And I can’t tell you how nice it is to not have to think up a special outfit for each month’s photo so you really get to focus on how your baby has grown over time.

5. Capturing Smiles - The last step is to somehow capture that perfect smile for your photo! I like to sing songs and use rattles to get my baby smiling. One trick that I find works well is to play peek-a-boo using the camera! And I may even tickle some toes too.