Being a new mother is such a miracle and it goes by so fast. Don’t forget to grab a few pics along the way to share with friends, family and reminisce over once they are all grown up.

Knowing which platforms to use, photos to take, keeping it organized and making it fun can be a lot to take in. We’ll share some of our favorite photos ops to enjoy with your baby bump, how to capture your best moments.

Share the exciting news, don’t break the news.

It’s such an emotional time full of fear, happiness, excitement and overwhelm when you first find out you’ll be a mother. Those tears you shed when you first find out are so powerful. Be sure to share this exciting news with your closest family and friends before you pick up the camera. This will let you share that moment you had with them and the feelings that came over you. Sharing your experience this way adds so much meaning and deepens your satisfaction with this journey you’re taking. Giving everyone the deepest satisfaction as well as initiating a bond that will be most helpful as you progress into parenthood.

Posting pics to a social media network first will only leave you open to judgement and criticism, which leads down a negative path and will only leave you feeling empty and vulnerable. Instead make the announcement in a very planned way so that others are more respectful. Here are a few tips to make your announcement.

• Show photos of you with your spouse showing your happiness
• Make a formal announcement by writing a thoughtful article explaining your excitement and happiness
• Invite others to share their congratulations and let them know they’ll have a chance to be involved
• Don’t just post profile photos as if you have a huge baby bump
• Don’t post vague comments or thing that could be misleading

Set up and use an Instagram account.

Getting an Instagram will be the easiest way to share photos and short video clips with your family and friends. First you’ll need a smartphone or other devices such as a tablet or iPod that can use the Instagram app.

Instagram isn’t available for desktop computers, though you can view the images and videos you’ve uploaded via a desktop computer. You don’t need a cell phone with service to use Instagram, you’ll simply need to be able to use wifi with your device. Here are a few devices which work with the Instagram app.

• iPhones
• iPods
• iPads
• Samsung Galaxy smartphones
• Motorola smartphones
• Window smartphones
• Blackberry smartphones
• Microsoft tablets
• Google tablets

Next you’ll need an email account that you’ll use to register for service. Once you have installed the app on your device register for an account. Choose a username that is easy to remember and will be appropriate for sharing with others.

Using hashtags can be a great way to share you photos with other new moms. Learning the most popular hashtags will help you get more people to view your images. Of course if you don’t want to do this you can just keep your images private and not use hashtags.

Some of the most popular hashtags for babies are:

#newbaby
#newmom
#cutebaby
#minime

Once you have your account setup you’ll want to invite others to follow you. You can simply give them (via email, text or FB chat) your user name and have them search in the app for you on the search tab. If you want to keep you photos super private you can set your account to private which means you’ll have to approve each person who wants to follow you.

Finally you can take cute photos and share them!

The photos you’ll want to have for later.

It’s an exciting time and you’ll want to capture this time with your spouse. Take time to sit and talk about your feelings. Get to a setting that you both enjoy and makes you happy. Remember that spot you both like to sit and look into each others eyes? That one. Take the photo there. It’ll be a wonderful keepsake.

Getting your nursery ready

Before and after images of your nursery can be a fun way to relive all the work and effort put into getting your home ready for baby. Even if it’s a small change having this memory to look back on and share with others will be a treat.

Sharing the news

Don’t exclude others from this fun and excitement. Share the news with your closest family and friends and capture the moment with them as well. Share this moment and see how it makes others feel more involved. Be sure to include moms. Moms love sharing these moments. 🙂

Daddy loving your bump

Having your spouse involved with draw you both much closer, the energy will be good for you and that will flow into baby. Spending time bonding over these small moments will draw you and your spouse much closer during this critical time. Get creative with your photos… you can take photos in a field, in cute maternity pajamas like these here, or in lingerie as shown above.

Happy couple #2 (when you’re visibly pregnant)

You’ve been dreaming about it since you were a little girl and now it’s time to finally get that photo of your love and yourself walking into the sunset, you baby bump visible, your love visible and savor that image. It’ll be the last peaceful such moment you’ll have for a few years. It’s about to get crazy!