When you think about newborn photography, what first comes to mind is a beautiful sleeping baby, right? There are so many sleeping newborn photos online and they are gorgeous! So once families have booked their photo session, sometimes they start to stress, thinking, what if my baby doesn’t sleep during their portrait session? It’s completely understandable that you might be worried about this, but really, it’s not necessary. The short answer is – They don’t have to! Read on to find out more details of how I approach a session with a baby that is not sleeping. I have experience working with hundreds of newborns and this means working with sleepy babies and completely awake babies. Here’s how I approach a lifestyle newborn session with an awake baby. (I’ll do the same post for a studio newborn session shortly as well!)
I take photos of babies when they are awake.
Almost every baby will have a bit of an awake period during their photo session. I consider this a blessing. I enjoy capturing their sweet little faces when their eyes are open. Their personality and adorable facial expressions come out the best when they are awake. In every gallery I aim to have both sleeping and awake photos.
When baby is awake I’ll do photos of them swaddled and if they are calm, I’ll unwrap them and capture their movements. When a newborn makes eye contact with the camera, it is the most darling thing ever and trust me, I’m swooning along with you when I see those photos.
Babies love to be held
During an in-home lifestyle session, most of the time baby is going to remain in your arms. This type of session is about capturing your connection with them and including the whole family (yes, even the family dog) as they adjust to life with a new baby. Newborns prefer to be held anyway so we do a combination of sitting, standing, rocking, walking and even giving them a little bounce if they are awake and fussy.
I’m not in a rush
Please know that I only schedule one newborn per day. I’m not rushing out when “you’re time is up”. If baby needs extra time to feed or be soothed, we’ll take it. My main goal is for you to have a lovely gallery full of beautiful photos of your baby. We will follow their lead and as long as their needs are met they will settle and 90% of the time, they will fall asleep while I’m there. If your baby is crying, it’s for a reason. We stop taking photos and work together to make sure your baby returns to their happy mood. I’ve seen a lot of babies and I’m very intuitive. One of my own had colic for months, which taught me lots of tips and tricks to settle fussy babies. Know that crying doesn’t stress me out or make me think your baby is “bad”. There’s no such thing as a bad baby. Their safety and happiness is my number one priority.
We wait them out
Some families love awake photos the best and are very pleased with having a whole gallery awake images so I’m perfectly happy to deliver that. But, if you have the time and are willing to hang out for a bit with me, we wait so we can capture both. Your newborn will sleep eventually if you just wait them out. I’m full of knowledge on “how to get baby to sleep” and I’m called the baby whisperer at least once a week. I truly love what I do and enjoy snuggling and quietly staring at your baby almost as much as you do. 😉
In the end, you will have a gallery full of adorable images to capture this special time in your lives with your sweet new baby. I hope this post eases any worries you may be having about your upcoming photo session. As always, if you have any further questions or concerns, please message me and I’ll be glad to address them.
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