Our Winding Road: Don't Take My Picture!

I love beautiful pictures of sleepy newborns. They look so peaceful and angelic, and who doesn't love a cute little newborn posed in a cuddly blanket, stuffed in a basket, or surrounded by cute little props? It's the one time you can kind of get away with posing your kid however you want...or so I thought.

My only experience with newborn photos was with Charlotte. She pretty well slept through the entire thing. We had a great photographer, who worked pretty fast, had some good ideas, and produced wonderful photos. Unfortunately, since she was quite good her prices nearly tripled since we used her with Charlotte. That meant it was back to the drawing board to find a photographer for Cooper's newborn pics.

I wasn't overly picky. Honestly, if she could capture just a few good ones, I was pretty content. Her prices were great, she offered to come to our home, and she came recommended by a friend...seemed like a no brainer. No big complaints against her except for the fact that she was extremely soft spoken. She didn't really have any ideas of her own. It was up to me. I had plenty of ideas, but Cooper, and the other kiddos thought mommy's ideas were ridiculous apparently.

Here's the thing about Cooper. He's a very sleepy baby. He loooooves to sleep; however, he only likes to sleep while being swaddled and cuddled up in your arms or perhaps lying in his rock and play or swing. This was during his first week of life though, and I hadn't yet realized this about Cooper. I mistakenly thought he'd sleep right through the whole thing. No joke though, this little guy woke up every.single.time. we laid him down, placed him in a pose, unwrapped him, etc. In fact, we finally called it quits on the first attempt at photos. I did every thing I could think of to get him nice and drowsy, but nothing worked. She came back to our house for a second attempt a few days later. I had a plan in place...keep him awake for awhile, bathe him, nurse him, and then lull him to sleep right before she arrived. It was all going as planned until it was time to start taking some pictures. No dice! Cooper wanted nothing to do with lying naked on a blanket. He wanted nothing to do with lying in a crate. He wanted to be swaddled and in my arms. So, after lots of tries and attempts, we decided to just go with it. And guess what? In the end, I didn't really care! I was getting so stressed out, he was getting worked up, and the two big siblings were running crazy trying to be patient. I was just ready to be done with it. Already looking back, it's kind of funny, and I know I'll always remember our attempted photo shoot when I look at these pics. The little scowl on his face will remind me that he was getting annoyed with mommy, and just wanted to cuddle. How can I ever be mad at that?!

Snuggled up in mama's arms...I wouldn't want him any other place!

There's that little scowl. Swaddle blanket intact :)

The last little piece of mommy...

Of all my "Pinterest perfect" ideas of sibling photos, not one of them worked...this one still manages to melt my heart in every possible single way!

Brotherly love!

Mat and I weren't planning to be in the pictures, but the only way we could really get one of all three of the kiddos was with me holding Cooper, so at the very last minute we all piled on our bed together. Love it!