You’ve booked your newborn shoot, you’re SO excited, and then about 48 hours before you arrive at the studio, a little voice in your head pipes up…
“But what if the baby doesn’t sleep? What if they scream the whole time? What if we waste the whole session and come away with nothing?”
First of all, I hear you. And secondly, I promise, this is one of the most common worries I get from parents before their shoot, and I want to give you the honest, reassuring answer it deserves.
So. What actually happens if your baby won’t settle?
The honest answer is that we genuinely just… go with it.
Here’s something the perfectly curated newborn shoot galleries on Instagram don’t tell you, behind almost every sleepy, curled-up, angelic baby photo, there was a feed. Probably two. Possibly a nappy change, a cuddle from mum, a top-up from dad, a brief freak-out from everyone, and then eventually, a very peaceful baby.
Newborns are unpredictable. That’s not a flaw in the plan, that’s just babies.
My sessions are 2–3 hours long, and not because I need that long to take photos – they only really take half an hour or so. It’s because babies need time, and I’ve built that time in on purpose. There is absolutely no rushing here.
What I actually do when a baby won’t settle
Every baby is different, which means every unsettled baby gets something a little different from me too. Over the years I’ve built up a toolkit that covers pretty much everything:
Feeding breaks – as many as you need. Honestly, a well-fed baby is the foundation of a settled baby. We stop whenever your little one needs it, you get a sit-down and a drink, and we pick back up when they’re ready.
Skin-to-skin with mum or dad – sometimes the only thing a newborn needs is to feel a heartbeat they recognise. Some of the most beautiful images I’ve ever taken have come out of a baby who “wouldn’t settle.” They just needed to be held.
My bag of tricks – shushing, swaying, positioning, warmth, white noise… I’ve been doing this a long time, and I’ve settled a lot of babies. I won’t always succeed immediately, but I will always keep trying, calmly, without any stress in the room.
Pivoting the plan – if a baby wants to be wide awake and frowny for their entire session, we lean into it. Awake baby photos, the eye contact and facial expressions, are honestly gorgeous. Some parents prefer them.
What I need you to do? Relax
I know that it’s easier said than done and it’s a bit of a trigger word for me.. But your baby picks up on your anxiety, it’s one of the many unfair things about being a new parent, so the more relaxed you are, the more settled they tend to be.
So when you arrive at the studio, your only job is to put your shoulders down, have a brew, and let me take it from there.
You don’t need to do anything right.
You don’t need to make them sleep.
You don’t need to apologise if they cry.
I’ve genuinely never photographed a session and thought ‘well, that was a disaster’ and I’ve had babies who screamed for the first forty minutes.
Will I still get beautiful photos?
Yes. Always yes.
In all my years of doing this, I have never had a session where a family left empty-handed. Whether we got the sleepy curled-up poses or the wide-eyed newborn stares, we always got something and usually a lot more than that.
Because here’s what I’ve learned.. the photos that make parents cry when they see them aren’t always the perfectly posed ones. They’re the one where dad is looking down at their baby like they hung the moon. The one where mum has her eyes closed and her baby curled on her chest. The one where the baby is frowning so hard it’s almost funny.
Those are the ones that end up on walls.
Book your session with confidence
If you’re in York or North Yorkshire and you’ve been putting off booking because you’re worried your baby won’t cooperate – this is me, gently telling you to stop worrying and get in touch.
We’ll figure it out. We always do.
