Pre-Newborn Session Preparation Guide

Congratulations! You're having a baby!

scheduling

& location

We recommend that you schedule your newborn session prior to your baby’s birth to ensure a spot on our calendar. We recommend contacting us us during your second trimester and we will set you all up!

We photograph newborns within their first 10 days of birth, so to keep you on our radar we schedule an inital date for you that is directly in line with your current due date!

Don't let that worry you, because we will touch base closer to, to discuss any adjustments that need to be made to the actual session date. We recognize that babies run their debut and if they decide to make their appearance on the earlier side, we just want to be prepared scheduling wise just in case that happens! This can always be adjusted later if the opposite happens - because sometimes babies are just cozy and wanna stay put too! They are the cutest little bosses of life! Ha! <3

Our newborn sessions take place in our Newborn Studio located at 3 Barbara Drive, Rusagonis NB.

wardrobe & props

We have a large and unique collection of newborn wardrobe and carefully sourced props used for all of our sessions right in our Studio.

It's so nice to not have to worry about bringing anything to coordinate the session. We have everything required on-hand, so please sit back and let us do all the work!

Closer to your session date, your Portrait Artist will reach out with a Creative Insight Questionnaire for you to complete. This will allow parents to provide their preferences on a variety of aspects regarding their session. With that completed Questionnaire, we will then fully plan and style your newborn session so that when you arrive, everything is taken care of, ready for you to just sit, relax and take in the Experience!

If you have an item that is sentimental in nature that you would like incorporated into your session, please share that in your Questionnaire so that we can be sure we incorporate that into our styling. If you have multiple items, your Portrait Artist may reach out to you directly to discuss and determine what will work best from a safety perspective (first and foremost) but also from a styling perspective.

the session

We keep our Studio a bit warmer than normal during the session. (Like a toasty 28 degrees Celsius or so.) We do this to keep baby nice and warm and content.

With that in mind, we recommend parents dress on the lighter side so that you will be more comfortable throughout the session.

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For posing, I will be moving baby around and posing them into those sweet sleepy newborn images, so we want to make sure they’re sleepy enough to allow us to handle them.

What can you do prior to the session to help things flow as smoothly as possible?

See below the TOP FOUR things parents can do to help optimize their session before they arrive!!

tips for success

Try and keep baby awake or as alert as possible at least two hours prior to their scheduled session! That said, don't stress about this, newborns make the rules, but just try and keep them as stimulated as possible in the hours leading up to your session.

Please dress babe in only a zipper sleeper for easy and efficient removal. Try to avoid clothing that requires it to be removed over baby's head.

Pack a PACIFIER, if you have one and are comfortable with one being used. Even if babe hasn't really taken to one yet, a pacifier is an incredible soothing tool that can help tremendously in calming and soothing your baby during and in between posing.

Please give babe a full/feeding just before you leave to attend your session. Due to the length in the session, another feeding or top-up may be necessary in between posing and photographs so please bring extra with you, in the event it is needed.

important

When you arrive to our Studio, we ask you to leave babe in his/her car seat until such time as your Portrait Artist is ready to begin handling and posing. When we are ready to begin, we will slowly and with little movements begin removing babe from their car seat. We do this to ensure babe is removed as delicately and with as little movements as possible to ensure your babe remains as sleepy as possible. After all, we need babe really sleepy to begin with posing.

try and relax

Your baby's safety is always my top priority! We let baby lead the session and we utilize all our safety precautions when handling and posing your little one. If babe becomes uneasy with a particular position, we will never impose a certain pose on them, instead we will move along to the next in our workflow. Every babe is different and tolerate certain positions differently than the next. This is why we cannot guarantee any particular pose in our sessions. We will always attempt a requested pose so long as it can carried out safely, but ultimately babe will decide if we are successful in capturing it.

Please keep in mind that getting your bundle to sleep before posing sometimes takes time and they may need to be fed or cuddled a few times first. You can probably bet that 50% of your session will involve feeding, diaper changes, and cuddling to get baby comfortable. Aside from sleepy newborn images being so incredibly cute, the most important reason we require your babe to be sleepy is that it is the safest and most efficient way to pose your newborn and capture them.

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Babies beyond 10+ days

For sessions carried out for babies between 10-19+ days, posing may look slightly different then a traditional posed newborn session. As babies get older, they become more alert, less flexible and have learned that they don't need to be squished up in a ball anymore! This means that they are less tolerant of traditional newborn posing and therefore, these sessions could look slightly different. With this in mind, your Portrait Artist must review and plan for this type of session from a more narrowed safety perspective.

With that said, I approach all newborn sessions the same when it comes to our traditional workflow, but ultimately, babe does determine the posing that we are able to safety and successfully complete and often times, this means that galleries in this circumstance may include more wrapped and prop images then an otherwise traditional session.

Our Newborn Collections are not available to babies beyond 19 days.

The Dreaded P's!

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It will happen & we expect it!

Your baby is going to be in the buff for much of our session.

Please don’t panic if your baby decides to use our blankets (or us) as his/her own personal potty.

This is natural and we expect it!

Please don’t feel embarrassed or worry when this happens, because they all do it!

Volume Control

Please do whatever you can to keep the noise level to a minimum during our session.

Only parents and those being photographed should be present in Studio to help maintain a calm environment.

Patience is Key

Newborn sessions can last anywhere from 1-2.5 hours. It all depends on baby’s mood and willingness to sleep. Unfortunately, this isn’t something we can predict!

Babies can often sense uneasiness, tensions and/or anxieties in those around them, so it is important for everyone to do their best to remain calm and relaxed should he/she not want to sleep.

If sleep doesn’t happen, that’s okay! We will simply adjust the posing workflow to safely accommodate a more alert babe!

Wide-eyed newborn photos are beautiful too!

kiddos

Upon the purchase of your Newborn Collection, you may opt to upgrade your Collection to one that includes an option of Family Posing! We strongly encourage it and most definitely welcome siblings for your session!

That said, please let us know if you plan on bringing any siblings to your session! With siblings in mind, we do alter our typical workflow to accommodate kiddos and their often short attention spans. Kids get tired and bored and we get it!

To help their images run as smoothly as possible, I ensure that their images are captured at the beginning of the session so that if they get too restless or overly tense, parents can arrange for them to be taken home by another loved one.

Child Wardrobe: Simple. Neutral.

I tend to say, the more simplistic and neutral the better for kiddos. Perhaps a solid neutral colour shirt and jean or a dress in a solid, neutral colour, preferable white or cream.

Kid footwear? Nope, no need to worry, everyone will be barefoot in Studio!

THAT'S IT! WE CAN'T WAIT TO CAPTURE YOUR EXQUISTE CREATION!

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