# Baby's first year in one photo book > A monthly rhythm for the photos, chapters that follow the year, how many pages a first year needs, and copies for the grandparents without a second build. Source: https://makealbum.com/blog/babys-first-year-photo-book · MakeAlbum, Lisbon, Portugal 2026-09-04 · MakeAlbum team · 6 min read --- The first year produces more photos than any other year of a child's life and leaves less time to do anything with them. By the first birthday there are several thousand frames across two phones, a shared album the grandparents look at, and no book. This article is a plan for getting one made: a rhythm for the photos during the year, a chapter structure that follows it, the right page count, and how to get the copies the grandparents will ask for. ## A small rhythm during the year The phone will do most of the photographing without any plan. What a plan adds is a handful of frames per month that will carry the book's structure later. Once a month, take three or four deliberate photos: the same chair, blanket or corner of the room, in daylight, with the baby awake. These become the frames that open each chapter, and the repetition across twelve months is what makes the book read as a year rather than a pile. Everything else, the bath, the pram, the sleeping, the first food on the face, the phone will collect on its own. Turn location services on for the camera if they are off. The book is mostly one place, but the trips out of it, the first holiday, the first visit to the grandparents' house, are exactly what the GPS will pick out as chapters of their own. ## Chapters that follow the year MakeAlbum clusters a set by time, place and content, and a year of photos of one child clusters mostly by time. The default aims for three to eight chapters, which for a first year usually comes out as stretches of two or three months with the events that stand out, the first holiday or the christening, as chapters of their own. Two structures work well: - **By month.** Ask the editor for more chapters and rename them as the months. Twelve chapters suits a 78-page book, where each month has three spreads: the deliberate frame full-bleed as the opener, then two spreads of what happened. It is the structure grandparents like best, because it shows the change. - **By stage.** Coming home, the first months, sitting up, first foods, on the move, the first birthday, with the trips as their own chapters where they fall. Six to eight chapters, which suits 50 pages. It reads more like a story and less like a calendar. Either way, write the brief before curation runs: the baby's name and birth date, the parents' and grandparents' names, where you live, the places you went and when. Titles and captions are drafted from it and treated as ground truth, so names are spelled your way and nothing is invented. The [family year-in-review](https://makealbum.com/photo-book/family-year-in-review) page describes the same flow for a whole family year. ## Two phones, one book Both parents photograph the same moments, and the same cake from two angles is the most common duplicate in a family album. Export the year from both phones and upload everything into one album; the pre-filter compares frames across phones, not just within one, and keeps the sharper of two versions of the same moment. The other stays in the tray in case you prefer it. Do not pre-select. Between 50 and 300 photos per album works best, and a first year on two phones is usually well past 500, so pick by month or by event rather than by frame: the deliberate monthly photos, the events, and a fair sample of the ordinary days. The filter handles the bursts, the blurred ones and the screenshots of the paediatrician's appointment card. The [preparation guide](https://makealbum.com/blog/prepare-photos-for-a-photo-book) lists what not to bother with. ## How many pages Fifty to 78. The curation selects about 2.2 photos per interior page, so a 50-page book holds around 105 photos at €225, and a 78-page book around 170 at €279, shipping included. The 26-page book at €179 is a fine gift edition, but a year is too much for 60 photos unless you are ruthless. The 130-page book at €379 is heavy in the hand and is more than a single year needs. Price is linear, about €1.92 per page, so add a spread where a month needs one rather than jumping a size. The [page count article](https://makealbum.com/blog/how-many-photos-for-a-photo-book) has the full ratio. The format is a 300 × 300 mm square layflat hardcover, matte or glossy paper, white or black leatherette cover. Matte is the default and handles fingerprints better, which matters for a book that will be held by small hands. The layflat binding means a single frame can run across the spread, and the first-birthday cake is the frame to do it with. ## Grandparents' copies Every set of grandparents will want one, and so will the other set. Do not build the book twice. Once the album has been printed, its layout is frozen and there is an order-another-copy option on the order page in your account. Each copy goes through checkout again at the price for its page count and options, with the delivery address entered at checkout, so one copy can ship to you and the next to a grandparent's address in another country. MakeAlbum ships to 25 EU countries, tracked and included in the price. For the copies that are gifts, a leatherette gift box in the same colour as the cover is coming as an add-on. It turns the book into something that can be handed over at a birthday without wrapping. The [gift for parents](https://makealbum.com/blog/photo-book-gift-for-parents) article covers timing and what to avoid. ## Timing around the first birthday Production typically takes 4 to 6 working days after you approve, and delivery inside the EU another 2 to 4, so plan on roughly 6 to 10 working days door to door and add your own review time before that. If the book is meant to be at the party, start it three weeks before. If you would rather not build it at all, Done-for-you adds €59 to the album price. Upload at least 30 photos and the brief; our team curates, designs and captions the book, sends a preview by email typically within 2 to 4 business days, and makes changes until you approve. Nothing is printed until you do. Add those days to the timing. ## Privacy Photos of a child are the ones people ask about. Uploads are stored privately in EU object storage, never sold, shared or used to train AI models, and deleted 90 days after the order ships or as soon as you delete the album. If you chose Done-for-you, the MakeAlbum team building the album sees the photos; nobody else does. ## The plan, in short 1. During the year: three or four deliberate frames a month, in the same spot. 2. After the first birthday: export both phones, upload by month and event, write the brief. 3. Chapter review: by month or by stage, rename, swap heroes where you disagree. 4. Choose 50 or 78 pages, edit, approve. 5. Reorder from the order page for each set of grandparents, with a gift box once that option is available. The [how it works](https://makealbum.com/how-it-works) page has the full sequence, and [the examples](https://makealbum.com/examples) show what a family session looks like on the square page.