Preparing for your newborn session

Sleepy and hungry

Posing newborn babies in the studio requires them to be in a deep sleep. To ensure your baby is ready for a couple hours of session time, it is useful to keep your little stimulated for the two hours prior to the session. While I know babies tend to fall asleep in the car, it will be important to try to keep her awake on the drive to the studio. Also time his feedings so that he is not due to feed until you get to the studio. The ultimate goal is for your little to be sleepy and hungry when you get there so that once you feed him, he'll fall into a deeper sleep.

You may say "my baby sleeps through everything" but that rule is usually broken when you want it to be the case!

When you get to the studio, you will have a rocking chair to feed your baby right away. Once he is full and burped, we will get her ready for the session by removing all clothes except for his diaper.

You've likely already realized that your little doesn't like be naked. Being naked will wake him up faster than anything. They want to be warm and snuggled. I will have a small heater running so that the studio is warm.

Some babies fall back into a sleep once picked up and wrapped and cuddled for about 15 minutes. Other babies that may have been asleep for a couple hours before arriving refuse to go to sleep. It is typically the babies that have been asleep before arriving at the studio that are unfortunately the babies that are more difficult to pose because as soon as the blanket comes off, they get startled and are awake again and will need to be rocked back to sleep again. That can take up to an hour, if not more and unfortunately does count against your session time.

So, remembering these two instructions--arrive sleepy, but awake, and hungry, will reward us with more session time with a cute, sleeping baby.

So do not underestimate how well your baby sleeps after a feeding. We need your bundle of joy to be very exhausted, tired and a bit hungry. I know it will be hard, atop of your own sleep deprivation but I promise you, it will be well worth the effort!! ♥

Feeding

If you are solely breastfeeding, I suggest you pump and bottle feed your milk at your babies session.

Sometimes it takes a mom up to an hour to breastfeed. Mom is in a different place and probably a little stressed keeping baby awake and the milk may be slow to come.

Unfortunately that will the session quite a bit and does count against your allotted time coverage as well.

If you don’t pump, my only alternative is to formula feed just for this session only.

As a mother, I realized early that breastmilk doesn’t keep our babies fuller longer so choosing to formula feed for the session, will be easier for you and will keep your little asleep longer during the handling and posing for a scene.

This is just a recommendation so if you are free to choose to do neither, its completely okay.

As a newborn photographer, I strive to offer advice and tips that you as a parent can use to ensure time we have in the studio is best utilized and you’ll be able to showcase and display more than the average number of baby photos! ♥

Oops!

It warrants mentioning that it is completely natural for babies being posed naked to use blankets as there own personal potty. Please don’t feel embarrassed. Believe me, it happens more times than not.

Don’t worry I wash all used props and blankets after each newborn session with non-scented detergent.

Quiet

It is important to do whatever you can to keep the noise to a minimum during our session. Maintaining a calm environment is also a big key to a successful newborn shoot.

I do have a white noise machine that I will keep close to baby during the session to help soothe him or her. I will also have soft music playing in the background.