Your home is your haven. It’s a place that you’ve worked hard to fill with love, and is often considered one of our safest spaces. But no matter how much comfort we feel in our own homes, it can be hard to let others in – particularly after arriving home with a newborn. The dishes, the unfinished nursery, the breast pump, the laundry! What if people see the real me?
I’m here to tell you that the real you is beautiful, perfect, and exactly what we want to capture during a newborn photo session – and one of the most natural places for this to happen is in your own home. The arrival of your new baby is something to be celebrated. It’s a moment that deserves to be documented, and can’t simply be pushed down your to-do list for later. You may have heard the phrase, “babies don’t keep,” and I can tell you that it is so very true.
As a mom of three little ones, I have opted for a newborn photo session at home shortly after the birth of each baby. And despite the extra mess, the addition of screaming toddlers and the darker under eye circles, my at-home newborn photos are some of my greatest treasures. Not only do I love our physical photos, but I also love the memory of the session itself – relaxed, playful and real.
The Benefits of a Newborn Photo Session at Home
Let’s take a look at three reasons why I encourage families to book a lifestyle newborn photography session right in the comfort of their own homes!
- When your baby arrives, whether it’s your first child or your third, there is a huge shift to your daily routine. Just getting ready to leave the house takes significantly more time, effort and planning. This is one of the main reasons why I encourage in-home newborn sessions – you don’t have to leave your house! Everything you need for the baby, your other children, yourself and even a hangry partner is right at your fingertips. This allows you to focus less on logistics, and more on relaxing into the photoshoot.
You may have heard the phrase, “babies don’t keep,” and I can tell you that it is so very true.
- Your home is a relic to your family, and is a part of your unique story. When my husband and I moved in together, he brought along his brown microsuede couch. It was awful, and it just so happens to be in the background of our first newborn photos. I remember being worried about it at the time, but now I smile thinking about it. It’s a part of the beginning of our story as a growing family, as are many of the other pieces of furniture, photos and decor that show up in the backgrounds of our subsequent newborn photos. I love looking for little changes, like the different burp cloths I had for each baby or artwork from older siblings on the walls, and I love that I can experience these things forever because my home was a part of each session.
- Sure, you’ll keep around plenty of baby registry items for a few years, but how many of those things can you imagine will still be in your home long after your kids fly the nest? Your photos are likely to be one of the few surviving mementos of those early days, and the most likely to be passed down to your children. Being able to show your children where they grew up is such a gift. And as much as these photos are for you to remember your baby, these photos are also for your children to remember their parents. They won’t see the laundry on the bed – they’ll see the way you smiled at them, the way their tiny body fit into your arms and the way their presence transformed your family home.
Embrace the now, however it might look – the mess, the tiredness, even the extra pounds – and document your newborn. Because as you might have heard, babies don’t keep.
Schedule Your In-Home Newborn Photo Session
Expecting a new baby? Let’s book your in-home photography session! No matter how stressful those early days are, we’ll make sure you feel comfortable, supported and right at home – literally! Take a look through my newborn session page, or contact me to chat about scheduling your newborn photoshoot.
