Today’s Question is:
Should you plan to bring siblings to your newborn session?
Is it a good idea? Or will it add to your stress?
The short answer is – it’s a GREAT idea! Siblings are always encouraged to attend newborn my sessions at my Olympia photography studio! Sibling photos with their new baby brother or sister are one of my favorite parts of the session!
Hello, I’m Amber Webb! I have been an Olympia newborn photographer for 14+ years now. In today’s blog we are discussing why it’s a great idea to bring along siblings to your newborn session at my Olympia photography studio!
One of the many benefits of scheduling a newborn session at my Olympia studio is that everything is provided for you! This allows you to show up with nothing more than the clothing your family plans to wear, and baby’s normal diaper bag – that’s it! Also provided at the studio is a separate seating area where families can relax during the session, and it includes toys and snacks for siblings while they wait!
That said, because newborn sessions can last 2-3 hours (depending on baby’s needs), it can be tough for younger siblings (especially toddlers) to have to wait that long. Knowing this, I plan out the sessions so that we take the family and sibling photos first, at the very start of the session. Once all family and sibling photos are done I will then focus on photos of baby-only for the remainder of the session. This order of things allows someone (ie dad, grandparent, aunt, friend) to be able to leave with the younger siblings, so that they are not forced to stay for the entire session. They can either bring a separate vehicle to the session, or they can come back toward the end. I typically know when I am about 20 minutes from being done with the session, so we can call them to return to the studio when it reaches that point.
I’ve had many moms who are exhausted and overstimulated say how much it really helped them relax during the session, the fact that someone was able to leave with the siblings and then return toward the end.
Of course if that plan doesn’t work for your family, please know that siblings are welcome to wait at the studio for the duration of the session! As long as they are hanging out in the waiting area and not causing a lot of commotion around the newborn shooting area, then theier presence should not pose any issue with the session moving forward as we would hope.
Keep scrolling to see a few beautiful examples of sibling photos taken at the studio over the years…
To learn more about newborn sessions that take place at my Olympia studio, please visit the Studio Newborn page here on my website, which I will link below for your convenience: