What are the main baby firsts?

The ones on most milestone charts are the first smile, first laugh, rolling over, sitting unsupported, first tooth, crawling, pulling up, first word and first steps. Alongside those sit the everyday firsts no chart tracks (first bath, first outing, first night away, first haircut, first birthday), which parents tend to value just as highly in hindsight.

What is a good list of baby firsts for a baby book?

The sixty above are grouped for exactly that: the first days, then roughly 0–3, 3–6, 6–9 and 9–12 months, then a group of the small firsts parents say they forgot. Working through a stage at a time is more realistic than a single long list, because you are only ever looking at the ten or so that are plausibly coming next.

Do I have to record a first on the exact day it happened?

No. An approximate date with a real detail attached is worth far more than an exact date with nothing attached, and most firsts are noticed rather than witnessed: you realise they have been doing it for a week. Record it when you notice it, and say so if the date is a guess.

What if we missed one?

Then it is missed, and that is genuinely fine. Nobody records all sixty, and a list like this is a prompt rather than a scorecard. The reason to read one at all is to catch a few you would not otherwise have thought of while they are still happening.

Can grandparents or a carer add a first they saw?

With Premium live sharing, yes. Everyone in the family has their own login, and each entry records who logged it, so a first that happened at daycare or at a grandparent’s house is recorded by the person who was there. On the free plan, entries stay on the phone that logged them.

A list of baby firsts worth recording

What baby firsts should I record?

Record the developmental firsts (smile, laugh, rolling, sitting, crawling, first word, first steps), the everyday firsts (first bath, first outing, first night away), and the sensory ones that fade fastest, like finding their own feet or reaching for you across a room. Sixty are listed below, grouped by when they usually happen.

Sixty, grouped by stage

The famous ones plus the everyday and sensory firsts, in roughly the order they tend to arrive, so you can see what is coming next.

Ranges, not deadlines

Babies reach these across very different timelines. The groups say when a first commonly happens, never when it should.

The ones people forget

A separate group for the firsts parents say they most wish they had written down. Almost none are on a standard milestone chart.

The list: 60 baby firsts

Grouped by roughly when each one tends to happen. Every baby runs their own timetable, and a first arriving in a different group than listed here says nothing about your baby.

The first days

First time you held them
First feed
First nappy change
First bath
First time they gripped your finger
First car ride home
First night at home
First visitor
First time they opened their eyes and looked at you
First outfit that actually fitted

Around 0–3 months

First real, social smile
First laugh
First time they held their head up
First time they followed you across the room with their eyes
First proper stretch of sleep
First outing
First bath they enjoyed rather than tolerated
First time they found their own hands
First noise that was not crying
First time they settled for someone other than you

Around 3–6 months

First roll over
First time they grabbed something on purpose
First time they found their feet
First time they held a bottle or the breast themselves
First giggle at something specific
First taste of solid food, and the face they pulled
First time they recognised themselves in a mirror
First swim
First time they slept in their own room
First tooth

Around 6–9 months

First time sitting up unsupported
First crawl, or whatever they did instead
First time they pulled themselves up
First word attempt
First time they reached for you specifically
First food they genuinely loved
First time they clapped
First wave
First time they played a game back at you
First separation, and how it went

Around 9–12 months

First independent step
First clear word
First time they said your name
First birthday, and the cake
First haircut
First shoes
First time they climbed something they should not have
First joke they made deliberately
First friend
First time they comforted someone else

The ones parents say they forgot

The nickname that stuck for no reason
The song that always worked
The way they said a word wrong, before they said it right
First time they laughed so hard they got hiccups
First time they fell asleep on someone who was not a parent
The toy they would not sleep without
First time they did something purely to make you laugh
The face they pulled at a food they hated
First time they hid and expected to be found
The sound they made instead of a word, for months

When do most baby firsts happen?

The developmental firsts (smiling, rolling, sitting, crawling, first words, first steps) arrive across ranges that are much wider than most charts suggest. Walking, the one parents watch hardest, is commonly published as anywhere from about 8 to 18 months, all of it within normal. A baby at the late end of a range is not behind; they are inside it.

The everyday firsts have no developmental timetable at all, because they are about your life rather than your baby: the first outing, the first night away, the first swim. These are the ones nobody thinks to write down, precisely because no chart is asking about them.

Which firsts do parents most regret not writing down?

Ask parents of older children which moments they go back to, and the answer is almost never the milestone chart. It is the nickname nobody chose, the song that always worked at 2 am, the way a word was said wrong for six months before it was said right. The famous firsts get photographed by everyone; the small ones survive only if somebody wrote them down.

They also fade fastest. A first step is an event you remember happening. "The sound they made instead of a word" has no single date, so there is no moment at which it feels like the time to record it, and then one day they are saying the word properly and the old sound is simply gone. That is the reasoning behind the last group in the list above.

How do you record a first without it becoming a chore?

The realistic standard is one line, in the moment, with no formatting. Parents who set out to keep a beautifully written baby book overwhelmingly stop within a few months, and the usual reason is not laziness. It is that the book asks for a paragraph when they have thirty seconds and one hand free.

A first is worth capturing at the point you notice it, which is rarely a point at which you are sitting down. In BubSync a milestone is a short entry with a date and an optional photo, logged from the same screen as feeds and sleeps, so it takes about as long as recording a nappy change. Logging works offline and on every plan.

What should you write down besides the date?

The date on its own ages badly. "First laugh, 14 March" tells you almost nothing in five years; "first laugh, at the dog sneezing, in the kitchen" tells you the whole scene. Two extra details, what caused it and where you were, are what makes an entry worth re-reading later.

Who saw it is the third detail, and it is the one most often lost. Firsts have a habit of happening in front of a grandparent or at daycare rather than in front of you. With Premium live sharing, everyone caring for the baby has their own login and the entry carries who logged it, so the first step that happened at nanna’s is recorded by the person who actually saw it.

What caused it: the sneeze, the song, the specific food
Where you were, which dates a memory better than a calendar does
Who was there, and who saw it first
A photo if there is one, but never at the cost of recording it at all

Frequently asked questions

What are the main baby firsts?: The ones on most milestone charts are the first smile, first laugh, rolling over, sitting unsupported, first tooth, crawling, pulling up, first word and first steps. Alongside those sit the everyday firsts no chart tracks (first bath, first outing, first night away, first haircut, first birthday), which parents tend to value just as highly in hindsight.
What is a good list of baby firsts for a baby book?: The sixty above are grouped for exactly that: the first days, then roughly 0–3, 3–6, 6–9 and 9–12 months, then a group of the small firsts parents say they forgot. Working through a stage at a time is more realistic than a single long list, because you are only ever looking at the ten or so that are plausibly coming next.
Do I have to record a first on the exact day it happened?: No. An approximate date with a real detail attached is worth far more than an exact date with nothing attached, and most firsts are noticed rather than witnessed: you realise they have been doing it for a week. Record it when you notice it, and say so if the date is a guess.
What if we missed one?: Then it is missed, and that is genuinely fine. Nobody records all sixty, and a list like this is a prompt rather than a scorecard. The reason to read one at all is to catch a few you would not otherwise have thought of while they are still happening.
Can grandparents or a carer add a first they saw?: With Premium live sharing, yes. Everyone in the family has their own login, and each entry records who logged it, so a first that happened at daycare or at a grandparent’s house is recorded by the person who was there. On the free plan, entries stay on the phone that logged them.

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Written by the BubSync editorial team. Not yet reviewed by an independent clinician. The editorial policy says who writes these pages and how their figures are sourced. Read how we write and check these pages.

General information only, not medical advice. The stages above describe when firsts commonly happen across a wide population, not when your baby should reach them, and normal ranges are far wider than any list suggests. If you have concerns about your baby’s development, hearing or vision, speak to your child health nurse or GP, who would always rather look early.