What If My Baby Won’t Sleep During Their Newborn Photo Session?
You fed the baby. Changed the diaper. Packed half your house into the diaper bag. You arrive for your newborn photos completely prepared. And your baby—the baby who has seemingly slept through the entire first two weeks of life—decides that today is the day to be wide awake.
Now what?
Nothing terrible. It is all good.
Your newborn does not have to sleep through their photography session for us to create beautiful images. Some babies snooze through everything. Some want to know exactly what we’re doing. Both are perfectly fine.
Does My Baby Need to Sleep for Newborn Photos?
No.
Sleepy babies do make certain traditional newborn poses easier, but sleep isn’t a requirement for beautiful newborn photography. Wide-awake babies give us something wonderful, too: open eyes, tiny expressions, stretches, yawns, and sometimes the most spectacular suspicious stare at the strange lady with the camera.
Newborns also don’t have regular sleep patterns yet. They typically sleep much of the day, but often in short stretches rather than according to a predictable schedule.
In other words, your newborn did not get the memo about our photography schedule. That’s okay. I don’t expect them to. Babies get to baby.
What Happens If My Baby Is Wide Awake?
We adjust.
Brown Bunny newborn sessions are baby-led, which means I don’t come into the session with a rigid list of poses that your baby has to accomplish.
If your baby is happily awake, we’ll photograph them awake.
If they want to be wrapped, we’ll wrap them.
If they’re hungry, we stop for a feeding.
If they need Mom, they get Mom.
If they’re getting tired, we’ll slow things down and give them an opportunity to settle.
Sometimes a baby who arrives wide awake eventually falls sound asleep. Sometimes they don’t.
Either way, we make pictures.
What If My Baby Gets Fussy?
Then we figure out what they’re telling us.
Newborns have a fairly limited complaint department. Usually we’re looking at things like hunger, a wet diaper, being too warm or cold, wanting to be held, or simply being done with whatever we’re currently trying.
Feeding is especially important. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends responsive feeding for most healthy, full-term newborns—watching baby’s hunger cues rather than relying strictly on the clock.
A newborn photography session is not the day I’m going to tell you, “They just ate an hour ago, so they can’t possibly be hungry.”
If your baby says they’re hungry, we take a snack break.
Full babies tend to be considerably more enthusiastic about my plans.
Will We Still Get Those Sweet Sleepy Newborn Pictures?
Usually, yes.
A full newborn session gives us time.
There is no prize for getting through the session quickly, and I don’t want parents watching the clock while silently begging their baby to fall asleep.
We can feed, cuddle, change diapers, take breaks and try something different. Often, once a baby is comfortable and full, sleep eventually wins. And if it doesn’t? We’ll create beautiful photographs of the baby you actually brought me that day.
Those bright eyes and tiny expressions are part of their newborn story, too.
What Should Parents Do to Help?
Very little.
Please don’t try to keep your newborn awake for hours before the session in hopes they’ll sleep through their photographs. An overtired baby isn’t necessarily a sleepy, cooperative baby.
Instead, follow your baby’s normal routine as much as possible.
Feed them when they’re hungry. Let them sleep when they’re tired. Bring whatever you normally use to comfort them.
Then let me worry about the photography.
You have enough to do. You just made an entire human.
What If We Don’t Get Every Pose We Planned?
Then we don’t.
Safety and your baby’s comfort come before a particular photograph.
Some newborns love being curled on their sides. Others immediately inform us that this idea is unacceptable.
I listen.
I have training and experience in newborn posing, including hands-on training with newborn photographer Ana Brandt, but one of the most important things experience has taught me is knowing when to move on.
Your baby isn’t there to perform.
They’re there to be a baby.
Your Newborn Session Doesn’t Have to Go Perfectly
This is probably the most important thing I can tell a nervous new parent:
You are not responsible for making your baby cooperate with me.
You don’t need to apologize if they cry. You don’t need to make them sleep. You don’t need to worry that they’re “being difficult.”
There are no difficult newborns. There are just tiny people communicating what they need in the only ways they know how.
At Brown Bunny Photography, newborn sessions are intentionally slow, flexible and designed around the baby in front of me.
So if your newborn decides that their photography session is much too interesting for sleeping?
That’s okay.
We’ll let them look around.
And we’ll photograph that, too.
Additional Resources for Parents:
What to Expect During Your Newborn Photography Session.
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