Should expecting parents start a baby diary before the birth?

Yes — especially then. Pregnancy is the only chapter of the story that happens before the first photo: the waiting, the shortlist of names, the first kick. Setting up the diary now means missing nothing later — because the most intense moments arrive in the first days, exactly when nobody has time to go app shopping.

Why the best time to start is before the birth

There's a pattern almost every parent knows: you firmly intend to "capture everything" — then the baby arrives, and the first six weeks vanish into a loving fog of feeding, healing and three-hour sleep. The stretch with the most first times is precisely the one where nobody has the energy to set up a system.

The fix is unglamorous: set up the system beforehand. During pregnancy you still have the calm to decide how you want to remember — so that from day one, all that's left to do is capture, not configure.

What you can do right now

1. Write a letter to your unborn child

There is no other moment in life when you can write to your child before you've met them. What you imagine they'll be like. Which names made the shortlist (and which one almost won). How the first kick felt. In Lunita, you can seal that letter — until the first birthday, or the eighteenth. Sealed means locked for everyone, even you, until the chosen day. More on the time capsule letter page; writing prompts live in the guide letter to your baby.

2. Decide who belongs in your family circle

Who should watch this child grow up — the grandparents in another city, the godmother abroad? In Lunita, parents invite family as view-only members: they see only what you share, and they get a warm weekly family recap. The conversation ("Mom, you'll get the photos here from now on — not on Facebook") is far easier to have before the birth than after. Why this beats social media is covered in share baby photos without social media.

3. Agree on a memory ritual as a couple

Usually one parent ends up documenting alone — not because the other doesn't care, but because it was never agreed. Lunita is built for two: one shared diary with daily duet questions, where you see your partner's answer only after both of you have written. See how that works in Lunita for both parents.

Lunita is here — be there from day one

For expecting parents, the timing could hardly be better: Lunita is available now in the App Store for iPhone. Download it today and set up your diary before your baby arrives. Every family starts with 30 days of the full version; after that, the diary core stays permanently free and Premium features are optional.

The newborn weeks are taken care of too: when typing is too much, just speak a few words and Lunita turns them into warm diary prose — speech recognition runs entirely on your iPhone. And everything you create stays yours: no ads, no tracking, no selling of data, export and deletion anytime.

Three things you'll want to know in 20 years

• How you imagined the person who is now standing in front of you
• What the week before the birth was really like — not the facts, the feeling
• The first sentence you said to each other after the birth

The first can only be written now. The other two only if the diary is already waiting on the day of the birth.