Keeping up with your baby can be quite a challenge. There are things you can do to make it easier.

Be Prepared
The Boy Scouts were right. Always have your digital camera out and ready to go with your batteries charged so you never miss a moment. Unexpected moments often make the best photos. Carry with you extra batteries. To save money invest in rechargeable batteries.

Teamwork Pays Off
One moment, baby is posed perfectly and the next, she’s crawling away! Babies are easily distracted, so have a relative or friend keep baby’s attention with a toy or noise while you capture the moment. Plan some of your pictures to be of your baby moving so that when she starts crawling away you can get the perfect shot.

See Eye-to-Eye with Baby
Don’t take photos from grown-up level. Instead, get down to baby’s level so that you can catch shots from a new perspective. Your pictures will turn out much better face to face than looking down.

Light of Your Life
Choose or use a camera with Scene Modes. Some digital cameras have pre-programmed settings to capture the perfect picture of baby under difficult situations such as dawn or dusk, bright sunlight or near darkness. Consider using filters on your camera in order to make it seem like a different time of day or to correct lighting problems.

May You Never See Red-Eye Again
Baby’s bright eyes are more likely to produce “red-eye” so try to choose and use a camera that has the In-Camera Red-Eye Fix feature to show your child’s true “baby blues.” If you can’t correct it when taking the picture, you can buy software programs that will allow you to correct it after you have uploaded the picture to your computer.

Family Affair
Baby might be the shining star these days, but don’t forget the rest of the family. Be sure to jump in some shots yourself even if you prefer not to have your picture taken. These are the days to remember and when your baby is 20 years old you will be happy that you have pictures of the two of you together from when he was younger.

Why do some baby gifts stand out from the crowd and others seem to get lost in the recipient’s memory, never to be found again?

Surprisingly, it has little to do with cost of the baby gifts. Rather, it’s the little, thoughtful touches that make all the difference.

Some tips:

Add an Element of Humor
You don’t have to spend a lot of money to give baby gifts that are memorable. Try putting together your own “Nursing Survival Kit,” with breast pads, Lansinoh cream, frozen peas (to ease nursing soreness), and a copy of The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding.

Put Together a Creative Baby Gift Basket
Create a “Sleep Like a Baby” baby gift basket with a soft baby blanket or lovey, a white noise CD (vacuum sounds are great!) and a Miracle Blanket (for easy swaddling).

Or transform a simple baby book into a “Remembering the Moment” baby gift basket, by adding a copy of the local newspaper from the day the baby was born, copies of Time and People magazines from the week the baby was born, a current postage stamp, and a sales flyer from the local grocery store.

Twenty years from now, the parents and grown child will have fun looking back at everything from the price of a dozen eggs to who the hot celebrities were back when junior was a baby.

For more gift basket ideas, check out The Baby Gift Basket: Finding the One That’s Guaranteed to Please

Include Everything the New Parents Will Need to Make It Work
Nobody likes extra work. So do whatever you can do to make it easy for the new parents to enjoy your baby gift.

For example, if your present requires batteries, include a small package of batteries (the correct type, of course,) with it. You don’t even need to give the whole pack — just the right amount for the item you’ve given. You’d be amazed how grateful the new parents will be.

Put it Together For Them
The best baby gifts for new parents are those that require no work on their part to enjoy.

However, this is a strategy that’s best used when you are absolutely positive the new parents want what you’ve gotten them. Remember, baby gifts that are put together aren’t so easily returned. So do this when you’re buying something off the registry or when the recipients have specifically asked for what you’re giving them.

Include a Gift Receipt
They may love what you’ve gotten, but they may have also gotten two or three baby gifts just like it. Make it easy to return yours, and they’ll be grateful.

Include Your Full Name and Address on the Card
After 36 hours of labor and two weeks of sleep deprivation, a new mommy can’t be counted on to remember her own last name, let alone yours. That’s true even if she’s your sister or best friend. So make it easy for her by writing your full name on the card. Including your address, too, makes it easy for to write the thank-you note.

About the Author:
Stephanie Gallagher, a.k.a., The Shopping Mom, is the author of several parenting books and Editor of The Shopping Mom’s Guide to Baby Gifts