You’ve just come home from the hospital with your new baby. You’re excited, sore, not sure what you’re dong. Your whole life has just been turned upside down, and it will never be the same again. All the relatives descend on your home to see the new baby. You just want some quiet time to bond and figure all this out.
You don’t have the time or the energy to think about portraits. Before you know it, the first year has gone by, and though you have loads of snapshots on your phone, you don’t have a portrait that reflects how you felt about your baby as he grew through the quickly changing stages of the first year.
Planning ahead helps. The best time for a newborn portrait is within the first two weeks. You can set up a tentative date with your photographer when you have your maternity portraits made or sometime before you give birth. 
What, you think, how can I do anything within the first two weeks after my baby is born?? This is a time to photograph that sweet, sleepy, snuggly newborn and your new found love. It is also a time to RELAX, let the photographer tend to your baby for awhile, and create beautiful images that will be cherished by you and your child forever. This is also a great time to write a note and attach it to the back of your portrait. When that little baby is a full grown adult you may want to gift the portrait to her, maybe when she graduates or on her wedding day, and she will discover the note your wrote when she was a newborn on the back
.
Other Milestones to Preserve in Portraits:
3-4 Months – This is a wonderful time to capture all the amazing expressions your new baby is making. Also, if you’ve missed the newborn stage, this is still a great time to get baby cuddling with mom and dad. Now baby’s eyes can focus and you get great images of an awake baby. 
Sitting Up – around 8 months – when baby is sitting up without toppling over but before crawling. Your child is developing a distinct personality. Your relationship has changed since he was an infant. He can sit and play and interact. This is the last stage as a baby because by the next stage (1 year) your child will be a toddler. 
1 Year – You’ve made it through the first year! This is a milestone that needs to be commemorated. This is a great time for a family portrait.
You now have a comprehensive story of your child’s first year. You can create a piece of art that shows how your child and your relationship changed over that first year. Your child will never experience such rapid change again. Don’t let this story go untold!