Best Sites for Creating Baby’s First Year Photo Book

With my first child, I bought a traditional baby book and brought it with me to the hospital to fill out all the details. For my new guy, who’s at the sixth month mark, I haven’t even thought about a baby book until now. Such is the life of the second kid.

Fortunately, it’s easy to get caught up. Photo book sites do pretty much all the work for you, guiding you through the process of creating your photo book for the first year, with layouts that prompt you for photos and details of important milestones.

After handpicking your photos, you choose from a variety of baby-centric templates, and many photo book sites can auto-fill the book for you. Memorializing that first year couldn’t be easier...even for the second, third and fourth child.

Kidmondo

Kidmondo offers a detailed online journaling experience. Parents can keep tabs on baby's growth with helpful online features such as weight, height, medical and dental charts, and diary entries, which then are integrated into your photo book, which Kimondo calls a “KidBook”. The KidBook begins at $28.00 for a 20-page softcover book.

Shutterfly

Shutterfly's Custom Path photo book software lets you customize just about every element on each page, including adding scrapbooking sticker-like embellishments. For someone who’s looking for a little more handholding, you can choose a baby template and then add helpful Idea Pages, which prompt you to include photos of major milestones, such as baby's first steps and first foods. There are even pages to highlight each month of the baby's first year. Prices start at $12.99 for a 5x7 photo book.

Mixbook

Mixbook is my favorite site, with its easy-to-use software, large selection of cute baby themes and selection of virtual stickers for a scrapbook-like feel. I also appreciate the ability to tap into my Instagram photo stream. Mixbook also offers fun page suggestions in its Baby’s First Year theme, where mom can explain how baby’s name was chosen, insert a copy of her baby’s birth certificate and show baby’s first bath. Prices start at $12.99 for a classic square photo book.