6 Things to do After Baby is Born

Once the waiting game of pregnancy is over, it's a whirlwind of events surrounding your delivery and recovery. With everything suddenly revolving around your precious new baby, it can be easy to forget (or find time to) document your birth story, share pictures, or do other things to help you remember the day.

Add these 6 things to your list of things to do after baby is born so you won't miss a detail, and can remember the day clearly for years to come.

1. Write down the birth story

Write down the details while they’re fresh – the evolution of emotions as you drove to the hospital, arrived there, got to your room, progressed through labor, and then when baby finally arrived. Specific thoughts that went through your mind will fade with time, but remembering that the sun was shining and you saw a cloud shaped like a baby on the way, or being nervous when you got to the delivery room but the doctor calmingly reassuring you, are all things you may forget in time but will help you relive the experience more fully if you write them down.

2. Write a letter expressing your love to your baby

Every stage of your baby’s life will evoke new emotions and a new kind of love you never felt before. As a newborn you will love specific things about your baby that may change as he/show grows. Begin a tradition of writing letters to your child, whether it’s continued monthly or annually, expressing your specific love for them at this phase of life. This will show them in time that your love is constant through their changes, no matter how they look or what they do, and it will be a powerful testament to your love as a mother they will cherish forever.

3. Send out pictures

Friends and family, especially those unable to visit will be very eager to see your new baby. Even if all you have are phone photos, choose a few to send out or post to social media, if you’re comfortable with all of your baby’s new adoring fans. You may consider starting a shared folder on Google Drive or creating a shared album through your iPhone that only specific people can access. After you take your photos, just drop them into that album and then the audience will be able to see your photos.

4. Put the special hospital documents in a safe place; start a baby box

You will acquire some precious keepsakes from the hospital, like an ink footprint of your baby, your baby’s hospital wristband with their name or simply “baby [last name].” You may have decorations or special cards, as well, that are special to you. Upon leaving the hospital these will probably go in a folder from the hospital along with paperwork, making them easily forgettable. But these are special and should be kept somewhere special, like a baby box. Start a baby box, or in my family we call it by our names, as in the “Olivia Box,” or the “Angie box,” and make it a place to keep things you’d like to keep throughout their life. In time it will evolve in contents, filled with scribbled artwork, class pictures, and perfect attendance certificates. But one day you will realize it has become a time capsule of sorts that will remind you of their journey, beginning with a tiny footprint in your local hospital.

5. Schedule newborn pictures or a family picture session

Plan to replace your phone pictures with professional pictures as soon as possible. Newborn photoshoots are a great investment, and will capture the tiny details that disappear all too quickly. A family photoshoot should shortly follow, even if a few months later, to begin documenting your growth as a family.

6. Update pictures in your home to include baby

Along those lines, make it a priority to print out some pictures of your baby, even if it’s just your phone photos, to frame and hang around your house. I procrastinated doing this and when my first baby was 6 months old I walked in my house after a trip and realized there was no evidence of her belonging to us, because all of the pictures on the walls were still only of my husband and I (the toys all over the floor were a giveaway, of course).