I remember going to the March For Life in Washington, D.C. back in high school. As thousands of us walked together, I remember all of us calling out a particular cheer. Someone would spell "B-A-B-I-E-S!" and then everyone else would yell "babies, babies, yes, yes, yes!" And it would go on and on. Even though it's only in my head, that's how I feel walking up to someone's house for a newborn session. My whole heart just screams "BABY, BABY, YES YES YES!!" Needless to say, I love lifestyle newborn sessions. Meet Baby Weber.
James was nine days old when I met him for his session, but I've been planning these photos with his Momma for the past few weeks. We decided on a lifestyle session over the typical posed newborn photos, and I couldn't be happier with these results. Just look at how precious he is.
When Anne was pregnant, she and Andrew decided to wait to find out the gender of Baby Weber until birth. To fit well with either gender, they decided to decorate the nursery with an animal theme, and oh my goodness. Look at how adorable it is!
Anne's mom even made this little blanket for James!
I actually prefer lifestyle newborn sessions over posed sessions because of the way I'm able to capture the nurturing love and admiration that mom and dad have for their new blessing. Just look at the emotion in these photos.
But you just can't forget those precious (& oh so small!) details that disappear with age. Ears, toes, and all that HAIR!
Even though James slept for about half of his session, once he woke up, he was definitely awake. However, I was lucky enough to capture some of his very many facial expressions he made after waking. :)
We had a few tears, but mom and dad somehow knew how to make everything okay again. :)
One of things that I always try to remember and ask new parents is whether or not they are planning on documenting their baby's first year with monthly growth pictures. Usually stuffed animals or monthly stickers are used, but when I asked Anne and Andrew if they had anything specific they wanted to use, they had both completely forgotten about it. As I continued to take photos of James, they each searched for what they thought would be the best thing to use.
They were both successful with finding objects they wanted to compare James' growth to. Different choices, but both equally worth a photo. Anne chose this block with a J on it, imagine when he can hold it in the palm of his hand instead of it being bigger than his fist!
Andrew chose a baseball, football, and basketball, all just slightly smaller than James' head. As soon as we placed the balls beside him, he started to cry. Okay, maybe it was just because someone put him down, but it was fun to joke that maybe this is an early indicator that he'll want to be in the band instead of on the field, haha!
Before we wrapped up, we decided to invite the last member of the family back inside. He didn't like me very much, but he certainly was cute :)
This session was so much FUN and I'm so glad that Anne and Andrew trusted me to be able to capture these first few days in their new life. Like I said before, newborn sessions are one of my favorite types of sessions, babies, babies, yes, yes, yes!