How to Prepare for a Newborn/Postpartum Session

First of all, congratulations on the newest addition to your family! This is such a special (and intense and often overwhelming) time and I’m so honored to document it with you.

The goal of this session is to take beautiful pictures of your brand new baby, you as parent(s) and also capture some of the reality of these early days.

At this stage, you are likely most focused on feeding and sleeping and making it through the daily changes that newborn and postpartum throw at you. You may still be recovering from your birth experience or adjusting to the sudden addition of another human in your home. Your pets may or not be handling things well. Siblings may or may not be having a hard time with the transition.

In short, this time can feel like a LOT and getting photos of it shouldn’t feel like adding another capital-T Thing to your (very long) list of things you’re responsible for right now.

What to Wear

The most important thing is that you feel comfortable. Stretchy pants, clothing that give easy access for feeding, soft textures. I won’t tell you not to attempt to wear jeans, but I will encourage you to wear something that feels fitting (literally and figuratively) for this particular stage of life.

We tend to go through several outfits naturally with your baby, but typically we’ll try to get some pictures in just a diaper in addition to clothing. This is the time to get pictures of the little wrinkles and hair that disappear so quickly!

How to prepare the house

There is likely a lot of stuff everywhere right now and that’s okay! Don’t worry about spending time moving all the bottles and pump parts and discarded onesies. I like getting a few shots with these (very telling) items in them, but we will also easily be able to get pictures in calmer corners. I’ll often ask you to stand near a window for portraits and the bed and the floor are both fantastic places to get some cuddly pictures of you with your baby.

I do ask that we turn off any indoor lights. Our eyes see light differently than the camera does and even though it may seem really dark with the lights off, I promise that it will make a difference in your final pictures.

Do I have to plan anything particular?

Nope! We’ll be mostly hanging out and moving with your family’s rhythm. All of the feeding, snacking, putting to sleep, bouncing, changing, etc makes for great pictures and really captures the essence of these newborn days.