Fresh 48 Newborn Session at Prentice Women's Hospital - Northwestern {Chicago, IL}

It’s been almost exactly one year since I set foot into a hospital for a Fresh 48 newborn session and it was so good to be back. My friend Lauren had her pandemic baby at Prentice Women’s Hospital here in Chicago on one of the coldest days of the year so far and I was honored to be her one and only guest, aside from her husband!

What’s a Fresh 48 session?

A photo session that takes place within 2 days of baby being born (3 if it’s a c-section baby), usually wherever baby was born. (I’ve only ever done them in hospitals but in a post-covid world I’m dying to photograph a home birth!) Oftentimes I’ll photograph a Fresh 48 and then do an in-home session a few weeks later & it’s fascinating to see how much baby changes in just a few short weeks! After graduating with my photography degree, back when I lived in Madison, I worked as a newborn photographer for a few years at Meriter Hospital, with Susan of Serendipity Photo Studio, and my dear friend Jamie. It’s where I fell in love with Fresh 48 sessions, even though I’m not sure they were actually called that back in the day!

World, meet Miss Emory! This little peach arrived at almost 10 pounds!! I’m so obsessed with her cheeeeeeeeeks! Congrats, H family! Thank you for having me :)

I love photographing at Prentice because of those city views! My only dilemma was that winter is wreaking havoc on the windows there and the spots & splotches drive me crazy when they’re on full display with the sunshine. But, I felt safe inside and all of the protocols were in place. I wore two masks while photographing this sweet baby & sanitized, sanitized, sanitized.

Chicago Newborn Lifestyle Session [Roscoe Village, Chicago]

If you’re like me & are reeling in anxiety from the election counting process and you can’t go on anymore miles-long walks or stress-eat anymore, maybe some cute baby toes and big brother secret-telling will distract you?

Photographing newborns these days looks quite different than it did in the beginning of the year but I’m still safely photographing. Check out this sweet session with Mr. M, the smiliest baby I’ve had in a long time, and his proud big brother Jim. Although Marty was brand new, he was too excited to sleep and didn’t want to miss anything going on in the world so he partied like it was 1999 the whole time I was with him! That’s ok, though, because I love when babies open their eyes and I get a glimpse of who they are. And I really love big brothers that are up for the job of showing their siblings the ways of the world! Plus, these two have the coolest brother-name-pairing ever. Jim and Marty?! Come on! I never hear those names anymore. I was talking to their Mom during this session and we both agreed it sounds like a pair of two old guys getting coffee together. How adorable is that?!

I’ll keep the post short today and let the images do the talking because my head’s already back into anxious-land and I need to go check the NPR website and pour a glass of wine because I can’t concentrate anymore and am just producing run-on sentences… ;)

Hang in there, friends!

Pandemic Baby - AND Be Sure to Vote!

I was supposed to photograph this sweet girl's newborn photos in April. Then covid tore the world apart. We took some of her mom’s maternity photos the Friday before Chicago shut down in March. She was the oldest "newborn" I've ever photographed at two months, but she slept like a one-week old for the last half of her session.

Earlier this year, for over two months, I couldn’t photograph anyone. And it was heart-wrenching. Knowing new mamas weren’t getting those snuggly photos of those first few days or weeks with their littles made me so sad.

I’ll admit I was a bit nervous going into this session because two month old babies can be very unpredictable! I typically photograph babies between one week and a month new. The older they get, the less predictable they are in terms of sleepiness. Not that a baby needs to be asleep to get great photos, but it does make it a bit less challenging when they’re sleepy :) I mean, often times when a two month old is awake it’s because they’re h-u-n-g-r-y! Having said that, I do LOVE when a newborn opens their eyes during our sessions - I feel like I get a glimpse into who they are as a tiny little human! So with little Miss A’s session, I got the best of both worlds! Awake AND smiley and then some sleepy snuggly photos too. This was a nice “welcome back” session after a dark March/April/May.

PSA: Please go vote if you haven’t already! Our democracy, and the future of little girls like Miss A, is depending on all of us. Figure out your voting plan and do your civic duty. I did mail-in voting here in Chicago and dropped off my ballot last week. I received my confirmation of receipt the next day. Easy and safe, which is what we need in this pandemic. I obviously won’t tell you who to vote for, but for full transparency I voted Biden/Harris. I believe we need real leadership with compassionate people. And I believe America, but especially women, Black people, LGBTQ people, immigrants and the Earth all deserve better. I’m voting for basic human rights.