How old should a baby be for a newborn session? There’s a lot of confusion around this. But younger than 2 weeks is the best age for a baby to be for a newborn session.

What age and Why?

I try to see babies between 7-14 days old. First time parents are usually surprised by this. Birth is such an ordeal and so is adjusting to a newborn, they think a newborn session probably takes place about a month or so after birth.

However as you will soon learn, babies change so fast. Yes. That fast. Let me walk you through a little bit of a babies development. A baby is born at a certain weight and then looses that weight soon after birth. They spend the first 2 weeks of life establishing feeding and getting back up to their birth weight. During these first 2 weeks, they are VERY sleepy. They almost sleep constantly. And can actually be quite difficult to wake up at times. This is the ideal time frame to take their photos because

Newborn Sleepiness

The ability to get a newborn to go to sleep and stay asleep helps make the newborn session go smoothly. When a newborn is sleeping soundly, we’re able to move through various poses and looks without having to spend a lot of time in between re-settling the baby.

Newborn Size

As I said, a newborn reaches their birth weight at the end of 2 weeks. Then they typically go through a growth spurt. You will likely notice a huge difference in the way your infant looks between 2-4 weeks that isn’t present at 0-2 weeks. You’ll likely be switching out of newborn clothing into 0-3 month clothing. By having a newborn session within the first 2 weeks, we’re able to capture the way your baby looked at birth. Additionally with that growth spurt, the baby’s sleep habits begin to mature a bit which means they’ll often be awake more throughout the day, easier to wake, and potentially fussier while awake. Finally sometimes with this growth spurt, babies will develop baby acne and cradle cap. All normal things but of course, its nice to get the photos in before that happens.

How do I schedule my newborn session?

I recommend reaching out for a newborn session during your second trimester. Preferably earlier if you’re interested in a maternity session as well. This is because I prioritize making sure every baby can be scheduled in that 2 week window, so I have to limit my newborn sessions to ensure there will be enough time to get everyone in since we don’t know which babies will come early and which will arrive late!

When you inquire, we’ll hop on a call and discuss my process and choose a date for the calendar. After the baby is born, you’ll reach out and we’ll either keep our date (if its in that window) or alter it.