“Nesting” is the stage of pregnancy where the mother-to-be instinctively starts readying things for the coming of the baby. This is the time when she starts looking over all the essentials, starts picking out and placing them in places where she wants them to be, this is a time to look for as a signal that the baby is to arrive, soon. As a friend who is on the lookout for such times, simply looking or watching out may be unproductive and can cause a lot of anxiety. Think of making a baby scrapbook by yourself as a gift to your friend, or make it with her, to keep her anxiety at bay.
A baby scrapbook does not necessarily mean just the pictures of the baby. To make it more memorable for those looking through it in the future, gather some pictures of the mommy and the daddy to be. Make a collage of the pictures that depict their growing years from the time they were born until they are about parents to be. If there are no pictures of the mother to be in all her pregnant glory, now is the time to take those pictures. Of course, you will have to add the daddy in the picture too.
By this time there should already be ultrasound pictures of the baby inside the womb, place that in as well. Now you have two periods in the life of the baby. With the parents before it was born as a bonus.
The materials that you should use for the scrapbook should make it last for a very long time. Use acid free materials or archival-grade materials. Make sure that the tacking materials you use are also of the same quality. Do not use the cheap ones as they can turn dry and make the pictures get loose; some have acids which can ruin the picture all together. The problem is with the ultrasound pictures. These can degenerate fast. You could actually go to a copier and have these scanned and copied on material that will not lose the image for years to come.
Decorate the cover with where your whim takes you. If you know the sex of the child, or if there is a baby shower being planned out, make sure to get the right theme and you could incorporate that into the design of the cover. So if there is a pink baby shower theme in the making, go for pink. Use bows and other stuff to make it look like a girlie, girlie scrapbook.
If there is a baby shower, make sure to add more of those pictures into the scrapbook. It would also be great to take pictures of the gifts as they are being opened by the mother to be. Include also the invitation for the baby shower.
Ask some of the friends to write something for the baby. Their well wishes and love from across time would be much appreciated by both the parents and the baby when they finally look over the scrapbook together. Make sure there are enough pages left blank for the mother to add on her own as the baby grows older.