Don’t worry, you’re not the first mom to run out of things to say to your baby and you certainly won’t be the last. There are, after all, only so many times you can point out cows, explain the colors in the laundry basket and go through the parts of your baby. The more words babies are exposed to throughout the day, the more opportunity they have to develop their language skills. Investing in some decent baby books can help you keep talking without boring yourself. Here are some top tips for choosing a baby book:

1. Babies love pictures

I know, you’re totally ready to get your childhood copy of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland down from the loft and start reading, but you might be better letting it gather dust for a few more years. Your baby is likely to be fascinated by bright colors and decorative illustrations. He loves listening to the sound of your voice and seeing the pictures on each page, but he’s probably not ready to follow the complex and mind-boggling adventures of young Alice just yet.

2. Put yourself first

It’s a book for your baby, but your baby isn’t going to be the one forced to read it three times a day for the next two years. Nope, that’ll be you, so make sure you pick a book you love. Make sure you read before buying to make sure it’s a book you can read over and over again. Don’t worry, at some point it’s bound to get ‘lost’, all favorite books do.

3. Get recommendations

Don’t judge a book by the cover and don’t base your purchasing decisions on online reviews. When it comes to kids books, parents are the best people to ask for advice. After all, they’re knee deep in bedtime stories. Speak to your mom friends, find out what books they love reading – and which they don’t.

4. Don’t blow your budget

You can pick up secondhand books really cheaply at thrift stores and secondhand bookstores. There’s no need to splash out on the latest best seller, there are plenty of entertaining books that can be picked up for next to nothing. Instead of blowing your budget on one book, why not buy a few cheaper books? That way you’ll be able to mix it up each night and won’t tire quite so quickly of reading the same words over and over again.

5. Get other people to do the work for you

Books make great gifts. If your baby has new toys and adorable outfits as far as the eye can see, it might be time to ask friends and family for books instead. The next time someone asks you what your baby might like as a present, you could suggest they give a copy of their favorite childhood book. You’ll get some new reading material and your baby will inherit a very special and sentimental gift.

Which is your favorite book to read to your child?

Written by Fiona (@Fiona_Peacock), mother, writer and lover of all things baby related.

This information is not intended to replace the advice of a trained medical doctor. Health & Parenting Ltd disclaims any liability for the decisions you make based on this information, which is provided to you on a general information basis only and not as a substitute for personalized medical advice. All contents copyright © Health & Parenting Ltd 2016. All rights reserved.

Inevitably at your baby shower, someone probably gave you a baby book. And as you flipped through the pages, you oohed and awed and promised not to miss a thing. You would be committed to documenting baby’s milestones, the doctor’s appointments, and everything in between.

Unfortunately, if you’re like a lot of new moms with the best of intentions, you may have recently stumbled across that baby album for the first time since that fateful shower—realizing only now that you haven’t documented a thing. No remembrance of any of baby’s milestones to be found.

Don’t fret! There is still totally hope!

First of all, if the baby album just feels too overwhelming to you (there are SO many questions to answer, and you can start to feel a bit bad if you don’t remember all the answers)—toss it. You don’t need a baby album to document your baby’s milestones. Some people like them, because they are already organized and they can guide you through what to memorialize, but you are by no means locked into that book.

A very simple alternative can be to pick up a blank notebook—one you use to write in every night (or every week) before bed as you document your baby’s journey from this point forward.

Another idea is to begin a photo album. Even if you haven’t done anything with your baby’s photos up to this point, you likely still have them (maybe they’re even still on your camera) and you can easily upload them to any online printing company and either have them turn it into a book for you, or take the time to organize those photos yourself and add text memorializing the milestones you remember.

The good news is, most of the biggest milestones are still yet to come! You can keep that notebook (or baby album) handy now so that you are ready and waiting to write down your baby’s first words, the date of his or her first steps, and even funny sentences and phrases that your little one may utter in years to come.

Pssst… We’ve got one great piece of advice for you: our baby app allows you to document these things on your phone, thus, you have plenty of options to document your baby’s milestones. It’s all just about finding what works best for you!

Written by Leah Campbell, infertility advocate, adoptive mama, writer and editor. Find me @sifinalaska on Twitter.

This information is not intended to replace the advice of a trained medical doctor. Health & Parenting Ltd disclaims any liability for the decisions you make based on this information, which is provided to you on a general informational basis only and not as a substitute for personalized medical advice. All contents copyright Health & Parenting Ltd 2016. All rights reserved.