T&T: Going with the Flow if baby is fussy at their newborn portrait session

Keeping babies calm during photo sessions

We’ve all seen those adorable newborn photos with babies looking so peaceful and relaxed with not a care in the world. As new parents, you want similar photos of your newborn to send out to grandparents, make into screensavers, and blast out to your social media pages to show off your amazing baby. But then session day comes around and BAM! – your baby does not want to cooperate.

You begin worrying and thinking, “Why won’t they stop crying? I’ve literally done everything I can think of, but they are still not happy. You may even question about how so and so’s baby cooperated in her session, why can’t your newborn just go to sleep so you can get some nice photos?!” If this happens during your newborn’s session, I want you to stop, breathe and remember one thing: all newborns cry. This is a natural, real emotion that all newborns have for most of their first few months of life. It’s not abnormal. There is nothing wrong with your newborn for doing it. It is nothing to be ashamed of. They aren’t doing it to embarrass you. And when you stress out about the fact that your baby is crying, they can sense it and it will make things worse

Don’t let the crying upset you. Embrace this moment in time. These crying photos show real emotion, and these tender moments are just as important, if not more so, than the sleeping, posed photos.

The point of booking a newborn session is to help you preserve the first memories of your child’s life. While posed photos are cute, you’re not going to look back and think, “Remember how cute she was whenever she would lounge around the house in frog-form?” because that didn’t happen. You’ll look back at these photos and remember all the nights you walked your baby around the house or rocked him in a chair and hummed lullabies to try to calm him down. Those times are very stressful, but they also help you form a bond and that’s what makes these photos treasured.

Remember, babies can be fussy and aren’t at all predictable. They are little human beings with minds of their own.  However, I work really hard to help create a calm and serene atmosphere to keep baby calm and sleepy.  There are always some tips and tricks we can try to help soothe baby.  Check out my “Tips for a Newborn Session”, as well as “What Happens at a Newborn Session”.  These are great resources to guide you through this process.

Now with all that being said, if you have your heart set on those peaceful, posed photos, we can always take a break, work on soothing and comforting baby, and try again and, if all else fails, we can reschedule.  

If you are interested in booking a newborn session today, please reach out to me via my contact page.  I would love to send you my newborn portrait guide.