George came to visit with his mum and was a beautifully settled little thing for his entire session.
His cousin had come in more than five years ago and was apparently somewhat less cooperative, or so I’m told. I genuinely don’t remember, which probably means it was fine. There was a little parental anxiety beforehand about whether history would repeat itself. It didn’t. George was relaxed and gave us plenty of opportunity to move and pose him pretty much as we wanted.
It’s very common to feel a bit worried before a newborn session about how your baby will be on the day. Waking up, needing feeds, wanting cuddles: all completely normal and all accounted for in the time we have together. If they sleep the whole time, great, although that’s actually quite rare. And in a long career of photographing newborns, I genuinely can’t think of a session where we didn’t get any images at all. It will be fine.
The one thing that does make a real difference is timing. Getting your baby into the studio within the first two weeks, and ideally between five and ten days old, gives us the best chance of those lovely curled, sleepy poses. After that the window starts to close a little. Early babies give us slightly more flexibility, late babies slightly less. Either way, booking while you’re still pregnant is the best way to guarantee availability during that early window.
