The front page newspaper headline read: Little Billy Makes His Worldly Debut Wearing Only His Birthday Suit!

Proud parents would certainly agree that the birth of their baby should make the cover story of the New York Times! And as much as they'd be okay using a billboard on the side of the freeway as their custom birth announcement, odds are, the newspaper story will be confined to two lines in small print, buried on page 16; and the billboard will actually be a small, but beautiful, hand held custom birth announcement.

One of the first decisions new parents make is what to name their baby. Then they decide how they will decorate the nursery. The decisions don't stop there: cloth or disposable, breast or bottle, which car seat, which baby monitor, do I need a diaper disposal, a baby monitor, wipe warmer, where do I register, which swing, which bouncy seat, which high chair, which preschool, which college, which major? Whoa, whoa, whoa One step at a time; how about just deciding on what you'll do for a custom birth announcement?

You could order them from a number of vendors. The hospital offers some pretty standard plain birth announcements. You could also Google "birth announcements" and you'll get more decisions many more decisions. Or you could assemble your own. Parents make scrapbooks of their trip to Disneyland; Grandmas artistically put together Baby Brag Books, so why not use those same talents to create a beautiful, one of a kind, custom birth announcement.

You should first decide which style you want to use. Will it be elegant with a watermark, frosted cover sheet and a bow? Or perhaps you'd prefer a more comical theme. Do you want fire trucks, baseballs, bunnies or angels? Or would you rather just have a solid color or pattern, so as not to distract from the pertinent data?

Will you make them the standard post card size? Or do you plan on using 8" x 11" paper and rolling it up like a scroll? Keep in mind ease of mailing when planning your birth announcement. You probably don't want to pay extra postage for oversized pieces. You also don't want them so intricate that they get damaged in the postal system.

Whether your birth announcement looks like a driver's license, a wedding invitation or a store grand opening flyer keep it simple. Simple can be beautiful and stylish and the free time you have to be elaborate isn't as plentiful as it once was pre-baby. Or you could stick with Plan A and send a press release to the editor of the New York Times see how that works for ya!