Newborn Holiday Photos

I love the holidays for so many reasons! One in particular is capturing beautiful pictures of newborns celebrating their first Christmas with their family. Baby Conrad joined first-time parents Nicole and Tony on the first of December- what a perfect way to start the season of love and light.

Newborn sessions at home help baby and family feel comfortable. This session was extra special because Nicole’s parents were present too, which gave us great generational photos.

Talk to just about any newborn photographer and they’ll tell you that the ideal timeframe for newborn photos is 5-10 days after the baby is born. This is so they still sleep a lot and curl up nicely for photos. Conrad was photographed at 12 days old which is slightly out of that window but still gave us beautiful, sleepy photos.

In order to prepare for newborn sessions and to help with Conrad being slightly older and more alert, Nicole and Tony made sure to wake Conrad up three hours prior to my arrival. They gave him a warm bath to keep him calm and awake while I was setting up, and then fed him to help him feel nice and full (and sleepy). When you’re slightly outside of that brand new baby window, this is a great way to approach the session.

  

Even at almost two weeks old, newborns are still most comfortable being warm and snuggly, so Nicole and Tony made sure to keep the house nice and warm for our photography session. That way, when we removed the swaddle before photos, he stayed comfortable and asleep.

Newborn photos at the holidays make a great time to capture first moments as a family and also give you pictures for holiday cards. My favorite is Conrad in the Santa Hat and Teddy Bear which was handmade by KatTastic Krochet out of Walnut Creek, CA.

Being a photographer, I’m always so honored to be welcomed into someone’s home, and often learn a lot about a family during my time with them. This session I learned that I may need to rethink one of my go-to tricks as a newborn photographer; I usually say "shh, shh, shh" to help keep the baby calm, especially when positioning in different poses. 

However, Nicole's mom kept laughing because in her culture, when potty training, they make that noise to help little ones go to the bathroom. She said that if I keep making that noise he might potty on my props! Whoops! 

Thankfully we all made it through the session with no accidents and have beautiful pictures of baby Conrad and his family (including their pomeranian puppy) to celebrate his entry into the world.