If you're like pretty much every single mom I know, then the mere thought of leaving your baby with a sitter for the very first time makes you want to hide in a closet while clutching and rocking the baby and cry your eyes out for a good two hours or so.

That pretty much sums up how I felt when trying to decide whether or not it was time to surrender control of my precious baby over to another human being -- other than immediate family, of course.

And apparently fearing the babysitter isn't a phenomenon that only happens to first-time moms. A good friend of mine just welcomed another little one into her family, and at 8 weeks, she's definitely not ready to pass her off to someone else just yet.

If you're like every other mom on the planet, then you just can't resist taking photo after photo of your baby to document every single precious moment of their lives.

From their big entrance into the world to their first smiles, tastes of solid foods, family holiday gatherings, and birthdays -- it's so important to capture all of the special times we have during our babies' first year on film.

And while all baby photos are sweet and adorable any way you look at them, there are some really cool camera effects you can use to make your pictures even more spectacular.

According to Beyonce, Blue Ivy, 1, is already reading flashcards. And I bet if you probed Mama Bey a little more, you'd learn that Blue is also fluent in French; has read Anna Karenina (in Russian); and is really the person responsible for discovering the god particle.

Moms.

We all think our kids are geniuses, don't we? When our babies point at something and scream, it's really their way of solving a complex Calculus problem. When they hold a book, it's clearly a sign they're going to be the next Jonathan Franzen. And when they shove a fist-full of Puffs into their adorable mouth, it's a demonstration of motor skills like no other.

Our children are all the smartest babies who have ever lived. To us. To everyone else, they're just babies.

Crawling. It's one of those milestones we just can't wait for our babies to figure out, and we can drive ourselves nuts trying to make it happen. If I could get back all the time I spent fretting over when my baby would start crawling, I could probably get half the crafts on Pinterest completed!

Here's the truth, Moms and Dads: not all babies crawl! And when they do get a move on, they all seem to find their own special way to get around. Afraid your baby isn't normal? Just wait until you read these moms' confessions!

Almost the instant you become a parent, you start hearing talk about the elusive "sleeping through the night." Like war stories, veteran moms and dads tell tales of their raucous first few months of parenthood, typically concluding with the happy ending of when, in either months or weeks, their little one stopped waking up and started sleeping through the night.

At first, when you're really in it, it's impossible to believe that your crying, hungry, helpless newborn will ever, ever in a million years sleep like a normal human being, and you reluctantly come to terms with the fact that you'll never be well-rested again. But eventually your baby does start sleeping through the night. And it truly is a beautiful thing.

OMG. You know when you see something and say, "Wow. You just can't make this stuff up"? Yeah, this is one of those times.

Watching a baby take his or her first steps is one of the most exciting moments in a parent's life, and naturally, most of us do our best to capture the milestone on video if at all possible.

But one mom has a whole other reason besides capturing the moment on film to remind her of the very first time her daughter walked, because immediately after she took her first steps, the dog pooped on the floor, and the baby fell into the poop.

Moms, I'm going to take the risk of sounding like a broken record, and lay some hard-earned mom knowledge on you. Kids really do grow up faster than you expect (or want!). I swear it was yesterday when I brought my daughter home from the hospital. But today she's in second grade, and all those baby milestones that I awaited so anxiously when I was a new mom are just distant memories.

Don't let this happen to you! All those firsts are amazing, and you owe it to yourself to celebrate them fully. Don't want to end up with a second grader tomorrow? It's time to throw yourself into really enjoying all these baby firsts.

Watching your baby take his very first steps is one of the most thrilling moments any mom experiences. That's probably why we tend to obsess over when exactly our babies will start walking.

It's no big secret that walking happens at different times depending on the baby, and some parents are even fortunate enough to see their little ones take off before their first birthday. But for those of you who are still waiting for the big moment and are wondering why your baby isn't walking yet -- there might be a simple, yet very surprising thing that is slowing him down.