Little Colin is the first child for his parents, Doug and Meghan. Meghan is the first in our little circle of girlfriends to have a baby – the first wedding I photographed earlier this year was also one of “the girls” – and now this session with Colin is the very first newborn session I’ve done.

Firsts can be many things: exciting, overwhelming, captivating, nerve-wracking. For better or worse, firsts are memorable.

And of course, Colin did all of the things that babies will do during a photo session – peed (on dad), pooped, squirmed, fought sleep, squirmed some more. He was fairly alert for being just 8 days earthside.

It took some quiet coaxing, a white noise machine, and a space heater cranked up to maximum before Colin finally drifted off into deep baby sleep.

Once Colin was asleep, my assistant/sister helped put a new blanket into place while I held a soft and completely relaxed baby. Honestly, the whole day was worth just those few moments of holding in my hands one perfectly formed little person.

Toward the end of the session, Colin was definitely ready to be done, but he let us capture one more first – their first family photo.

– Emily