Congratulations on your new blessing! I’m so honored to help you capture this exciting time in your life with a newborn lifestyle session. Here is some information to prepare you for our session.

• Preparing your home - When I arrive, I will look around your house and see where the best light is for our session. Often that is in a bedroom, which is my preferred location to shoot newborn sessions.

  • I will move anything that needs to be moved, so don’t worry about cleaning up beforehand - you have enough going on!

  • We will likely end up doing most if not all of the session on the master bed, and depending on the pattern and color, I may take your comforter off of the bed and just have everyone sitting on the sheets.

  • If possible, the temperature in the house should be warm, or if you have one, you can run a space heater in the bedroom so that your baby is comfortable.

  • I do have lighting set ups, so if it’s a rainy day with little natural light we will still be okay!

• Preparing baby - We have plenty of time in our session for feeding, changing and soothing your baby, but if is helpful if when we get started he/she has on a fresh diaper and has been recently fed.

• Preparing siblings - Siblings have so many changes going on in their lives at this moment, so I try to make this easy and fun for them. We will start with sibling photos so that if big brother or sister doesn’t want to participate for very long, he or she can leave and go play quickly. After a little while, we will try to get family photos as well, always paying attention to how the sibling is feeling about the situation! Some sibs want nothing to do with the session, while others want in on every photo, so I will just roll with whatever your children want to do and get beautiful images either way.

• Props - If there is a special toy or blanket you’d like to incorporate into the photos, let me know. My style is to photograph your baby in his/her natural environment with as few distractions as possible, but we can absolutely do a few images with the quilt grandma made or a favorite teddy bear.

• What to wear - Family members should dress in neutral colors if possible. No neon or graphics on shirts as neons reflect color onto your face and graphics are distracting in our images. Bare feet are preferred to reflect the intimate style.

  • Mom, be comfortable! Wear what feels good to you, and don’t worry about anything else. I do a lot of close up shots with your hands on your baby, so you may want to have your nails polished or neatened up.

  • Baby will spend most of the session swaddled in a swaddle blanket in just a diaper. We can use one of your swaddle blankets, and I have some as well that I will bring with me. We will also try to get some naked shots of your baby if he/she allows it.

  • If you have an outfit you would like your baby to be photographed in, we can incorporate it into the session along with the swaddled shots.