Welcome back to the blog following my journey as a pregnant newborn photographer! If you're just joining us, you can go back to the beginning (the pregnancy announcement), or jump to the maternity session, birth or NICU posts! This blog series is alllllllmost over, but I hope that you all have been enjoying it!

As a newborn photographer myself, my intention the entire time that I was pregnant was to do my own newborn sessions with her. I wanted to play with her everyday! But when she was born so early, she had to spend her first few days in the NICU and by the time we got home, I began to realize the reality of it all: I was TIRED and truthfully, snuggling my little girl was the only thing that I wanted to do. However, having a preemie does have an advantage when it comes to posed newborn sessions! We had a longer period of time to get them done because she was still small and squishy!

I did four official posed newborn sessions with her. Two with Jamie (of Jamie Romaezi Photography), one alone and one with Lindsay Kleopping (of Kleopping Photography).  Each one was beautiful and meaningful, so I'll share a little about each session before sharing the images. This is probably the most portrait heavy blog of the series, but I just couldn't narrow it down anymore, so I hope that you enjoy them all!

First up was one that I did myself when she was about 4 weeks old, so she shouldn't have even been born yet. This was the trickiest for a variety of reasons, but mainly because I was exhausted and my other children were running around asking me to do a million things other than taking portraits of their newest sibling. I took these in my kitchen using all natural light. When you get to the last image, you'll see why the session ended. (If you are easily offended, I apologize, but I felt like it was too funny not to share.)

Next was a posed session with Jamie outside and in her home studio. This session was done when she was 5 weeks old. I looooove these images because Jamie's work is always beautiful and I also loved being a part of the session. I've never done a newborn session outdoors, but I'm so glad that Jamie wanted to. Ashley was a trooper and slept the whole time, plus we got to use my garden wagon prop that I've had forever and just never used. The first session was just with Ashley, but our second session was the family session when Ashley was 6 weeks old, and I am totally in love with this session. My kids did such a great job with Jamie and we ended up with some gorgeous shots.

Next was a session with Lindsay of Kleopping Photography. We were using a light in her dining room (though she does have a studio, it was just easier to set up there). The purpose of this session was to get images of a new romper that she had gotten from Peeka's Boo-tique and I wanted to use new props that I had gotten from Hey Good Lookin' Props. Ashley was already 8 weeks old during this session (around 2 weeks adjusted), but she made us WORK to get her to sleep. Once we got her asleep, she was a trooper! Here are some of my shots from the session:

Here are some of Lindsay's shots from the session:

Overall, I think Ashley is one of the most photographed babies ever. My littlest peanut is growing so quickly and I am SO happy that I got newborn portraits of her because I know that she will never be that small again. Looking back on her pictures from the hospital, I am amazed at how much she has grown and yet she is still so small. 

Next week on the blog: Blaire from Second Ave Photography did some amazing lifestyle newborn images!