Six Days Old: A Midlothian Newborn Story

I popped over to CJ’s Midlothian house the week of Thanksgiving for her newborn photos. She wasn’t even a week old yet, but was already so awake and curious about the click-click sound the camera made. They snuggled on the couch as I got set up and everyone started to relax and connect.

I’ve written before on when to schedule your newborn photos. It can be a hard choice when you have lots of time off work (note I didn’t say ‘vacation’) and you’re still adjusting to life together. But sometimes necessity makes the choice easy: like when you have a short amount of time of parental leave and you’re up against a holiday. So, sometimes I photograph newborns at 30 days old, and other times I photograph them at 6 days old. There’s no right or wrong time. It’s just what’s best for your family.

One challenge of early photos is that you might run into a cluster feeding situation, like we did with CJ (new nickname created by me for anonymity purposes). She nursed so much and so often during our session, and had such a perfect latch. Her mom chose to keep photographing while they nursed, and I’m so glad she did. I wish I had nursing photos with both of my kids that were more than just awkwardly-positioned phone selfies. Breastfeeding is such a beautiful ritual when it goes right (so often it doesn’t), and can be a really peaceful way to spend a large chunk of time, thanks to those little bellies that never seem to stay full.

Older babies tend to stay awake for longer stretches than brand-new babies, but this little gal was wide awake for most of our session at less than a week old, only putting herself to sleep on Mom’s breast (every time) and then waking up whenever Mom moved. As per the norm. She allowed Mom a couple of breaks while Dad practiced his best soothing shush-and-rock, and was even happy enough for an outfit change halfway through our time. And we had time for it all, in our lazy, quiet, 90 minute session.

I loved how Mom and Dad worked together as a team throughout the morning, changing CJ together, soothing her together, and fully embracing the parenting role together. That makes it so much easier, when you know you’re in it with your partner, on the same team.

Grandma had been in town helping for a few days, and made herself scarce for part of our session so the new little family of three could have some time together. But when I suggested she join us for some generational photos, they jumped at the chance to include her. I love the chance to include grandparents, siblings, and pets in newborn sessions. They’re part of the family, after all. A lifestyle newborn session allows us the chance to include everyone in the baby’s life, to freeze time as it is right now so they can see it all later and know what they were born into. How they were born into a family of love, so glad to welcome them in.

While we mostly stayed in the sun-lit living room, we ventured to the baby’s room near the end of our session. Mom wanted some nursery photos and I was more than happy to oblige. CJ nursed one more time and fell asleep, giving us some sleepy baby shots after being wide awake for more than 30 minutes - a crazy long time for a less-than-week-old baby.

Thank you, Mom, Dad, CJ, and Grandma, for inviting me in and letting me meet CJ when she was only six days old! Now that she’s more than three months old, she’s so much bigger, brighter, smiling and getting ready to roll over. I’m so glad you have photos from when she was so little that you can look back at as she continues to grow.

Want to hear my own perspective of being in front of the camera? I wrote a post talking all about what I learned when I was a new mom getting my own photos done, and how it changed my business. You can read that one here.

Click here to learn more about how to book Allison Patel Photography for your in-home newborn photos: