I get this question asked a lot, “How do you keep newborn babies asleep for their photo session?” The short answer is – I am a magician! If that were true, we would all be newborn photographers. So until there is a magic wand to keep babies asleep, there are many things I have learned to help babies drift off to sleep and stay asleep during their newborn photo session.

Patience & Basic Needs

First, I go off what the baby needs and sometimes that can take a while so patience is key above anything. If a newborn is not settling, before I try anything I check to make sure their basic needs are met. Is the baby hungry, does the diaper need to be changed, or does the baby need to burp? Once those have been eliminated, I ask the parents what works for them to calm their baby down if their baby is still upset and go from there. After many years in this business, I have learned to ask the parents lots of questions about their baby so I can cater to what their baby needs.

Baby-Led

Above all, I am very baby-led during my newborn sessions so often I have to adjust the order I photograph the planned setups based on how the baby is doing. I do warn parents that I will do a mixture of wrapped and unwrapped setups. Sometimes I end up having to do mostly wrapped setups based on what the baby needs. Regardless if the baby is mostly wrapped during their session or not, I still capture adorable newborn photos for parents.

Embrace It

So what if you have met their basic needs and the baby is still awake? Well, I have learned to embrace it! If the baby is calm and just awake then I embrace it and get awake photos…parents love awake photos of their baby too. If the baby is upset and awake, then I do what I can to calm the baby before I take awake shots.

Tricks

As far as the “tricks of the trade,” I do have some things I do to help guide babies to sleep. My room is always warm – usually between 75-80 degrees unless the baby is fully wrapped. If the baby looks like they are getting too hot then I adjust the temperature or turn on the ceiling fan. I also have a “magic blanket” that I use during every session (it is just really soft). I use a pacifier if the baby takes one, but I find so many newborns do not take a pacifier so I do not rely on the pacifier much.

So do want to know one of the best tricks to calm the baby? Hands! Oh, those hands! I make sure I calmly grab their hands and keep them from hitting or scratching their face. The longer those hands or arms are moving around, the more you risk that the baby will startle themselves and not drift back to sleep easily.

Baby Products

To wrap things up, parents ask me all the time about the products I use to help soothe babies. Below are a few things I use to help me throughout the session:

1. White noise. I really like this portable, rechargeable white noise machine. I actually saw many parents coming in with this and really like that it stays on during the entire session and I don’t have to mess it. Link: white noise link
2. Baby Shusher. I will also use this shusher to avoid from me shushing so much during the session. Babies seem to really like this noise, but it does have a timer so I do have to mess with it during the session. There is an app, but I haven’t looked into it much yet. Link: baby shusher link
3. Vibration Pad. Game changer for me once I discovered this! This product works wonders for some babies – especially ones who do not take a pacifier. I lay it next to baby and not on them as the vibration can be too strong to lay it on the baby. Link: vibration pad