As a new parent you feel like you can never put the camera down. You want to document absolutely everything about your new baby’s life. At least I did. And since our videocamera had unfortunately been stolen the year before, the only thing I had to capture all of those great memories was my trusty digital camera.

But don’t be deceived. Sure, there are plenty of things you should be documenting. But there are also plenty of things you’ll be surprised to find are OK if you miss. Forget about the guilt of not getting that perfect shot. Read on to find out about the key things to digitally capture as a new parent.

When our daughter Sophia was born, my husband and I came to the hospital prepared with the essentials – pillows, slippers and, most importantly, my Canon PowerShot SD110. We took pictures and blogged througout the entire labor, thanks to an epidural that kept me sane. I am so thankful for those photos. Not just the obligatory gooey baby shots and mommy recovery shots, but also the scene-setting and background shots. I am thankful for my husband’s foresight to shoot my swollen feet with free booties, my hospital bed cell phone conversations with my brothers in San Francisco and the future grandmas reading magazines during the hours of waiting. All of these types of photos set the stage. Of course, you want the post baby shots – the weigh in, the cord cutting, the family bonding. But don’t forget about mom before and about everything that goes into preparing for the big arrival. It makes the story whole.

And then there are the months to follow, and all the firsts. Here’s a little secret no one tells you. You don’t actually have to get a picture of all those firsts. In fact, if you followed your baby around with your digital camera all day, you would likely miss experiencing the joy of that first precious smile. I didn’t have my camera there for hers (it was a 2:00am moment while I was nursing), but I was just as happy to set her up a couple days later and coax a few gummy grins out of her for some really great shots. Also not necessary to capture? Baby’s first bath. New parents are fumbling around enough with a slippery wet baby to worry about their camera and getting a good angle. It’s cute, yes. But it’s much cuter later when you’re all more comfortable and everyone is having fun, like the photo here.

If so many of “baby’s firsts” aren’t necessary to capture, then what is? Most importantly, you want to capture baby in her environment - peacefully sleeping in her crib, playing with the dog, afternoon napping on daddy’s belly, drooling and slobbering and just being a baby. There is a time and place for staged shots, but mostly you’ll be happy that you captured every day life with your kids.

Now don’t get me wrong. Even if I sound like I am against staged photos, I’m still a sucker for a good baby costume picture. My daughter was not even two months old for Halloween, but we took her to the pumpkin patch for some costume shots, nonetheless. If you really want to get staged photographs when they are still very little, you will just have to learn how to get and settle for cute shots of baby sleeping. That is what she will be doing. All the time. Our trip to the pumpkin patch proved the perfect place to nap for Sophia, so we opted for sleepy shots instead.

All in all, just follow your baby’s cues when photographing. She’ll let you know when she really wants that camera out of her face and just wants her parents to be with her, mentally capturing some of these precious moments. We can’t expect to catch everything with our cameras, but from the hundreds and hundreds of photos I’ve downloaded to my computer over the last four months, I’m learning that we sure can get a lot.