My eyes were as wide as saucers as I watched my mother’s hands adeptly wrap my tiny baby boy, taking him from a purple faced screaming child to a calm, content little chap. What….how….?
“It takes practice’, she said’ her eyes dropping to my open mouth.
She was right, it did take practice. I often felt that Ethan had special Kung Fu powers when it came to my swaddling skills. Somehow he would manage to get a hand free, or expertly bring the cloth loose and I would have to start all over again. But when I began to get the hang of it, I found that it did indeed calm him down and this in turn calmed me down.
By the time Lily came along, 3 years later, I felt like and expert (like my mum) and it took me no time to wrap her up when she was tiny to help me get on with looking after my eldest. (NB to new mums, sleep as much as you can in the day with your first born as this does not happen when number 2 comes along!).
Thus re-kindling this skill in my newborn photography was a real joy. Wrapping a newborn baby is one of the key ways in getting baby to calm and to position him or her for the right photographs. It is also an art form. I honestly can say that I am not sure I could wrap a baby in the same way if I hadn’t of done it with my two children, mainly because it take time, practise, sensitivity and care.
I had the pleasure just last week to wrap this gorgeous newborn baby girl ready for her photoshoot. At just 1 week old she responded so well to the ever so gentle touch in making her feel safe, content and secure. Sometimes parents say their baby doesn’t like swaddling, but this little one took it really well and went straight to sleep. I use breathable materials so the baby doesn’t get too hot and I make sure the heating in the room is monitored once the baby is swaddled. Primarily I treat the newborn baby in the photoshoot just as I treated my own, with tenderness and care.
As this gorgeous little girl fell asleep in her wrap, I couldn’t help but think how far I had come from the very early days of swaddling my first born and realising that practice does make perfect.
