How to Prepare for a Newborn Session

First of all, congratulations on your bundle of joy! What an exciting time of life for you! Newborn sessions are some of the sweetest moments and I love to capture them for new parents. There are two types newborn sessions; an in-home lifestyle session or a posed in-studio portrait session. I am definitely more focused on the in-home lifestyle sessions so in this post, I am going to share some tips & tricks to ace your newborn session!

Let’s start with your sweet baby! A newborn session is best to be scheduled 1-2 weeks after you bring babe home! They are still very sleepy at that age and they are easier to move and pose in those cute squishy poses that you see when you’re browsing on Pinterest or Instagram!

Your baby also needs to be fed and bathed/changed before your newborn session. So scheduling around feedings is ideal; we can obviously take breaks and let you feed and or change diapers, etc! Best of all, the baby needs to be super happy and content. A bonus for this is, the baby feeds off your energy, so don’t stress if baby is being fussy! Just take a deep breath, a break, whatever it may be! Newborn sessions are typically anywhere from 2-3 hours long!

If you have a nursery, there is a few things to keep in mind with that – lighting is very helpful for newborns because accessing a flash can be frightening to new parents even though we know how to work with it. So, if the nursery has lots of natural light, that makes our job easier! Also, a nursery temperature is ideal when it is comfortable for the baby so it may be warm for you but it is perfect for the babe!

Lastly, include props! Whether its cute little shoes, or the sonograms, signs, or cute little stuffed animals, the better! I mean the sweet little babe is the cutest but having the baby hold a stuffed animal or something is super cute! And parents, be ready to be in the photos as well! Yes, the baby is the star of the show but people want to see you as parents too! So dress comfortable and cute!

I hope these tips were helpful! I would love work with you for your newborn session so if you’re interested in chatting about booking your newborn session, I’d love to walk you through the process, inquire here