7 Things to Do before Your Baby Turns One Year Old

The first year goes faster than anyone warns you it will. You blink and the newborn who fit in the crook of your arm is pulling herself up on the coffee table, babbling, and trying to feed herself with a spoon (badly, but with real determination). Between night feeds, nappy changes and the general fog of new parenthood, it’s easy to feel like the months are slipping past without you fully noticing them.

You don’t need to turn the first year into a checklist of milestones to tick off. But there are a few things worth being deliberate about, both for your own memories and for your baby’s development. Here are seven worth prioritising before that first birthday cake gets smashed.

1. SOAK UP THE SNUGGLES WHILE THEY’RE STILL EASY TO GET

Right now, your baby needs you to hold her. Once she’s crawling and then walking, she’ll wriggle out of your arms because there’s a whole room to explore. That’s normal and healthy, but it does mean the easy, unhurried snuggle time has a shelf life. Try to notice it while it’s happening, during the 2am feed, the nap on your chest, the moment after a bath when she’s calm and heavy against you. These are small things, but they’re the ones you’ll miss most.

2. TAKE THE PHOTOS AND VIDEOS, EVEN THE MESSY ONES

Don’t just photograph the polished moments. Get the mid-cry face, the porridge in the hair, the exhausted 3am feed if you can manage it one-handed. These are the photos that actually capture what the first year felt like, not just how it looked. A quick tip: record short videos with sound every so often, not just photos. You’ll forget the exact pitch of your baby’s laugh or the noise she made before she could talk, and hearing it back years later is a genuinely different kind of memory jolt than a photo gives you.

3. BACK UP YOUR PHOTOS SOMEWHERE OTHER THAN YOUR PHONE

Phones get lost, dropped in the bath, stolen, or simply run out of storage at the worst moment. Set up a proper backup system now rather than after something’s gone wrong. A cloud service like Dropbox or Google Photos works well because it backs up automatically once you’ve set it up, so you’re not relying on remembering to do it. It’s also worth printing a handful of favourites every few months, or making a simple photo book once a year. Digital files are easy to lose track of; a physical album tends to actually get looked at.

4. GET OUT AND ABOUT WHILE TRAVEL IS STILL RELATIVELY SIMPLE

You don’t need a big holiday to make this worthwhile. A trip to the local park, a baby-friendly museum morning, or a weekend away all count. Babies under one are, in some ways, easier travel companions than toddlers: they nap on schedule, don’t have big opinions about the itinerary, and are generally happy as long as they’re fed and warm. Once your baby is mobile and has stronger preferences, days out need more planning. If you’ve been putting off a trip because you’re not sure your baby’s “ready,” it’s worth reconsidering, within reason, and always with your usual common sense around routines, feeding and sleep.

5. FIND YOUR PEOPLE

A local baby group, whether it’s through your health visitor, a children’s centre, or a private class like baby massage or sensory play, does two things at once. It gives your baby some early exposure to other faces and voices, and it gives you a group of people going through the exact same stage of life. Ask your GP surgery or health visitor what’s running nearby, or check community noticeboards and local Facebook groups. The friendships that come out of these groups can be some of the most useful support you get in the early years, whether that’s swapping hand-me-downs, sharing advice, or just having someone to text at 6am who’s also awake.

6. LINE UP CHILDCARE YOU ACTUALLY TRUST

Whether you need a babysitter for the odd evening out or you’re starting to think about nursery or a childminder for when you go back to work, this takes longer to sort out than most people expect. Good childminders and nurseries often have waiting lists, sometimes six to twelve months long in busy areas, so it’s worth starting the search earlier than feels necessary. For a babysitter, ask other parents for recommendations rather than relying on an app alone, and always do a trial visit while you’re still in the house before you leave them alone together. Trust takes time to build, both yours and your baby’s.

7. TALK, READ AND SING TO YOUR BABY, EVEN BEFORE SHE CAN ANSWER BACK

Language development starts long before your baby says her first word. Talking through what you’re doing (narrating nappy changes, naming foods, describing what you see on a walk), reading board books together, and singing simple songs all help build the foundations for speech and understanding. It doesn’t need to be structured or educational-sounding. Babies respond to tone of voice, repetition and eye contact more than to any particular method. If you ever have concerns about your baby’s hearing, babbling or general development, it’s always worth raising this with your health visitor or GP rather than waiting to see.

None of this needs to be perfect, and you won’t manage all seven all the time. Some weeks you’ll be lucky to get everyone fed and into clean clothes. That’s completely normal, and it doesn’t mean you’re doing this wrong. The first year is short, but it’s also relentless while you’re in it, so give yourself credit for getting through it, not just for the photos you managed to take along the way.

If you enjoyed this article read our other articles on parenting:

• Things To Do With a Newborn
• Newborn to Toddler; Mental Leaps, Growth Spurts, and Sleep