By Rick Broida
(April 13, 2005)

Crib? Check. Diapers? Check. Digital camcorder with tripod, spare battery, extra tapes, and video-editing software? Better double-check. Whether you're a first-time parent or rounding out your family softball team, it's almost unthinkable these days to let the experience go undocumented.

To build the perfect baby video, you'll need to do a bit of advance planning. That's because your memory is about to take a backseat to All Things Baby, a development that could lead to trouble down the road. In other words, when you sit down to edit your video, you don't want to discover you forgot to get a shot of Grandma with the baby. Trust us--there aren't enough Hallmark cards on the planet to undo that mistake.