Thinking of a Fresh 48 Hospital Session? Advice from a Saratoga Springs and Boston Newborn Photographer

Our Fresh 48 hospital newborn sessions are always the ones that steal my heart and make me melt into a puddle right there in the hallway of the hospital.  

These magical newborn sessions are such a treat because families invite me into their postpartum room just hours after their baby was born to celebrate their little one’s arrival with them.  I could photograph these first moments together as a family all day, every day, and never grow tired of these sessions!
 

Our Fresh 48 sessions are completely different from all of our other sessions, and if you’ve explored our website even a little bit you know that we offer three different types of newborn sessions (studio portraits, lifestyle portraits, and Fresh 48 hospital portraits).  Some families choose to do just one session, while others do two or all three!  Today’s blog post is all about our Fresh 48 sessions so that you can see if this relaxed style of storytelling is the right fit for your family.

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A Fresh 48 session is the perfect fit for your family if…

 

You are ready to embrace the unpredictability of having a baby.

Some babies arrive early, some babies arrive late, and very few babies actually arrive “on time”.  
We will pencil your due date in on the calendar a few months before the baby arrives, and I will check in with you beginning at 38 weeks.  We’ll remain in touch right up until the baby is born through quick texts or emails.  I leave enough wiggle room in my calendar during these on-call periods to drop everything and come to the hospital within 24-48 hours after the baby’s arrival for your Fresh 48 session.

But speaking of unpredictability… these sessions are RELAXED.  We truly go with the flow.  I do ask that you let the nurses know ahead of time that we’re planning to close the door to your room for an hour, but sometimes social workers come in for a moment, or your lunch gets delivered mid-session, or an alarm goes off and a nurse needs to come in to check on everything.  That’s okay!  Embrace the unpredictability and know that I will do everything possible to help you create a calm and enjoyable environment within those four walls as you get to know your little baby in front of the camera.

You want to capture siblings meeting for the first time.
 

There is nothing more magical than watching your first baby meet your second baby.  I love being there to document these moments for families as their toddler enters the room and is curious (or sometimes not so curious!) about the tiny little baby in the bassinet. 

You value natural, unposed, beautiful, real-life moments. 

These sessions are not about planning the perfect outfits, having a full face of makeup, or making sure every hair is in place.  These sessions are about EMOTION.  We freeze this instant in your lives and celebrate the beginning of this new chapter for your family.  

You’ll look back at these images and remember the weight of your baby in your hands, the feel of them cuddled up against your chest,  the moment your firstborn sang “Happy Birthday” to the baby, and that indescribable joy you felt when looking over at your husband holding your newborn.  These moments are real, raw, and ones that you will never get back.  That’s why I want to slow down time and help you relive them again and again.  

The grandparents will be traveling to town for the arrival.
 

Everyone loves coming together and celebrating a new baby’s arrival, and grandparents are often a part of these sessions!  We make sure to spend 15 minutes with the grandparents in the hospital room to capture candid grandparent portraits and three generation portraits as you all get to know the new love of your life.

You want to remember every little detail about your newborn baby.

Their wrinkly knees, the flaky fingers, that swirl of hair atop their head, and the way their tiny mouth opened into a silent yawn.  You know that these first few days will pass in a blur of appointments, feedings, and so much sleep deprivation, but you don't want to forget a thing.

Trust me to capture your perfect miracle just as they are in this moment, showcasing their tiny newborn freshness at just a few hours old.  These are some of the most important moments of your life, and they deserve to be beautifully documented for your family.

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Intrigued?  Check out this post where new moms & dads talk about why they chose to document their baby's arrival with a Fresh 48 session!

Best of 2017 Fresh 48 Hospital Newborn Sessions with Saratoga Springs & Boston Newborn Photographer

You know I love a good Fresh 48 session, and that there is nothing better than being invited into a family’s hospital room just hours after their precious new baby arrives to celebrate their growing family with them.  That’s why I am so excited to share a few of our favorite Fresh 48 images from 2017!

This year the most popular hospitals for these newborn sessions were Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston, Saratoga Hospital, St. Peter’s Hospital in Albany, and The Snuggery at Glens Falls Hospital. 

So many beautiful babies, magical moments, and the cutest sibling meetings unfolded in those hospital rooms, and they already have me looking forward to all of the hospital newborn sessions we have planned for 2018!

Enjoy a peek at a few of our most memorable hospital newborn sessions from 2017, and be sure to check out our other “BEST OF 2017” blog posts!

Best of 2017 Cake Smash Sessions
Best of 2017 Lifestyle Sessions
Best of 2017 Studio Newborn Sessions
Best of 2017 Beach Sessions on Cape Cod
Best of 2017 Maternity Sessions
Best of 2017 Family Sessions
Best of 2017 Brothers & Sisters: Candid and Fun Sibling Portraits

Welcome Evelyn Madison - A Fresh 48 Session at St. Peter's Hospital in Albany

Fresh 48 sessions always steal my heart, and I love being invited into a hospital room to celebrate a new baby's arrival with their family.  There is always so much excitement, awe, and love filling the room that makes for such a beautiful story.  

On a Sunday morning in September, I rushed to St. Peter's Hospital in Albany to welcome Evelyn Madison with her parents and grandparents.  They had such an amazing hospital room filled with so much light, and everyone cozied up together on the couch with their beautiful new addition.

Isn't she the most perfect baby girl?  I'm officially obsessed with her cute little hospital hat.

Evelyn was born breech, and she loved keeping her legs up high on her body.  I had never seen a baby touch her toes to both sides of the bassinet before, and I love how this photograph shows just how new & fresh she is and how accustomed she is to keeping those legs held up high.

Grandma brought her a little newborn bracelet, and she kept it on for her entire session.  How adorable!

Evelyn enjoyed lots of cuddles with her mom and dad, who couldn't take their eyes off of her.  Their smiles never left their faces the entire time we were together.  And of course her grandparents got lots of time in with their new granddaughter and they were thrilled to be included in the Fresh 48 portraits, too. 

Congratulations on your sweet baby girl's arrival!

We are now booking maternity, newborn, milestone, and birthday sessions through March 2018!  We only take on two Fresh 48 clients per month, and the calendar is already filling up quickly for the winter months.  Be sure to reach out early to plan your hospital newborn session!

A Timeless Fresh 48 Hospital Newborn Session: Addison Olivia

This is the Fresh 48 hospital newborn session that spanned four states.  

No, really!  FOUR STATES.  Let me explain...  It started in Massachusetts, when I left my then-home, driving all the way up to Lebanon, New Hampshire to meet this sweet little family at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.  They drove to the hospital all the way from Rutland, Vermont to deliver their baby girl.  After their session, I drove down to Saratoga Springs, New York to sign papers with my husband and celebrate the purchase our first home!  It was a busy, busy day and so full of celebration.  

I am excited to finally share this baby girl's session on the blog today!  With everything that has been going on with moving our lives and my business to a new state, I can't even believe that it has taken this long to blog this sweet girl's session.  Many apologies for the delay, but here she is.

Beautiful, perfect, tiny little Addison Olivia.

I simply adored this family.  They were the absolute sweetest, welcoming me into their lives and inviting me into their hospital room for a newborn session to celebrate their baby girl's arrival.  We chatted, laughed, snuggled up with the baby, and created so many beautiful memories together.  

This session was so important to them, and they truly wanted to capture Addison's arrival into their lives by documenting these moments and preserving them with keepsakes for their family to pass down to her one day.  

It really stuck with me when they told me that they opted not to receive a 3D ultrasound because they wanted to save some element of surprise for her arrival.  They knew her gender, they knew her exact due date, and they knew her name.  But they wanted to get to know her and see what she looked like face-to-face, rather than with a 3D ultrasound.  So they asked me to join them for a Fresh 48 session at the hospital to capture those moments when they got to know their little girl for the first time.  I just love watching them get to know their daughter & sister, memorizing every detail and soaking up her newness.   Welcome to your family, Addison.

Welcoming new life is such a magical experience, and watching big sister Hailey with her baby sister was just that.  Pure magic.  Hailey's mom asked her to sing a lullaby to her sister, and she stood over her bassinet and let the soft melody wash over everyone in the room.  We were all completely mesmerized by the moment that unfolded between these two sisters. 

One of the things that I love doing while editing my Fresh 48 sessions is editing a handful of photos in black & white.  These sessions are filled with so many emotions, and sometimes color can compete with the emotions in your photographs.  When you convert the image to a clean B&W, all of the focus is on the powerful emotion, the story, the love.