baby M ~ joining the best big brother pup

Many families ask me to incorporate their family dogs into their newborn sessions and of course I say yes. This is a benefit to an at-home session as opposed to a studio newborn session (although I am not knocking those!). Full disclosure, I think most of the dogs I have tried to work into newborn sessions cooperated better than many older 2 year old siblings haha. This sweet little baby girl was coming home to a big (doggy) brother too. This was a first for me, because he actually let me lay the baby on top of him! If that doesn’t show his demeanor, I don’t know what does. And when I asked the parents if I could do that (after a full session of observing him around the baby), they trusted that he would be totally fine. He was. I mean, how cute is that?! (Mom and dad were spotting very close by)

Back to the baby. She joined the party almost a week early and weighed a little over 6 lbs. I feel like I have had a lot of big baby “clients” lately so she felt so light in my arms. Mom said she has been cluster feeding lately and she was definitely hungrier in the beginning of the session (even though she ate right before I arrived) until I wrapped her up and she fell into a deep sleep. Then she was out for the count. I know I always say this, but one of my favorite parts of newborn sessions is seeing, through my lens, the way that parents look at their brand new baby. It’s that mix of hormones, sleep deprivation, and pure, pure love— that you didn’t even know you had that much of to give— that make new parents almost teary eyed as they look at this new little person. It’s just so stinking beautiful!

This mom and dad said that whenever the baby is awake, they get so excited because they hope that she is starting to learn and recognize what they look like. Parents of more than one kid, do you remember what it was like when you had your first baby and you just hung around all day holding and loving them? I remember those days. It’s funny because that IS the part I remember… not the sleepless nights, the crying, the nerves of, “Am I doing this right?” Just the peace… and the joy 🙂 I’m so happy for this new family of 4 that they are experiencing those days right now.