One of the biggest concerns that clients have is how to get their babies to sleep for their newborn sessions, especially since many of my clients are driving from 1+ hours away. Willingness to nurse or bottle feed as needed is an important part of a smooth newborn session, and I have the studio set up to accommodate that so that new mothers are comfortable. I remember how many different pillows I had to use to prop myself and my firstborn up when navigating nursing for the first few weeks!
There are several "tricks" of the trade to get newborns to sleep for their sessions that I have in my bag, and one of them is my newborn preparation packet. This packet is sent to booked clients in the week before their newborn session. It's short and sweet, because you don't need to worry about reading a 50 page manual when you're already sleep deprived and in the newborn daze.
The other tricks are my job to take care of! I make sure the temperature in the studio is between 80-85 degrees in the newborn shooting room, I know how to handle newborns carefully to minimize jostling, and I use a sound machine to help soften my camera shutter and movements around the room. I also have a few other secrets in my bag that you'll see me implement during the session.
See this sweet little girl below? Her parents followed the simple instructions in my 6 page preparation packet, and she slept the entire time. I did not see her eyes open until I was putting her back in her sleeper for the ride home.
So, what if your newborn won't sleep when you first arrive? That's ok! There's no need to stress if this happens. Your baby leads the session. I am not going to try and force your newborn to sleep if they aren't ready to. I simply switch up the flow of the session to meet the needs of your baby. We'll take some beautiful images of them looking right at the camera, and we'll have you naturally interact with your baby for images with each parent and the whole family together.
Every baby always eventually falls asleep, and I only need a few minutes of them sleeping to capture the sweet sleeping images of them.
Are you ready to reserve your newborn session at the studio? I am booking all the way through September 2016, so please reserve your session early to guarantee availability. I can't wait to meet you and work with your sweet family to preserve this incredibly special time in your life.
Lily Sophia Photography specializes in newborn, baby, maternity, and birth photography in Atlanta, Georgia and surrounding areas.