If you've been thinking about booking a maternity session and a newborn session separately -- maybe from two different photographers, or at two different points in your pregnancy -- I want to make a case for doing it differently.

Book them together. With the same person. Before your baby arrives.

I know that might sound like a lot to decide all at once when you're still in the thick of your second trimester. But I promise there's a reason I recommend this, and it goes way beyond logistics.

First: This Season Deserves to Be Documented

I want to say this before anything else, because I think it gets skipped over.

Your pregnancy is not just a waiting room for the newborn session.

Whether this is your first baby or your fourth, whether your path to get here was easy or incredibly hard -- this season has its own beauty and its own weight. The belly. The way your family looks right now, on the edge of everything changing. Your dog, who has no idea what's coming but has been curled up next to you through all of it.

Both of my kids are here because of IVF. I know what it means to have a pregnancy that felt like it might never happen. And even if your journey looked nothing like mine, there is something about being visibly, beautifully, undeniably pregnant that deserves to be marked. Not just tolerated until the baby arrives.

I hear from a lot of moms who hesitated to book maternity photos because they felt self-conscious about their pregnant body. I hear you. And I want you to know: I am your biggest cheerleader in this. My whole job in a maternity session is to make you feel celebrated -- not just photographed. Every client who has come in nervous about how they'll look has left with a gallery full of images they love. That's not an accident. That's my job, and I take it seriously.

If you want to see what maternity sessions with me actually look like, check out the maternity page here. Real families, real Seattle light, real bump.

The "Engagement Session" Effect

Here's something I've noticed after nearly fifteen years of photographing families: the newborn sessions that feel the most relaxed and produce the most beautiful images are almost always with families I've already met.

I think of a maternity session like an engagement session before a wedding. It's not just about the photos -- it's about getting comfortable with each other. By the time I show up at your door with a brand new baby in the house, I'm not a stranger. I know how you move, what makes you laugh, how your partner tends to stand when he's nervous. You know that I'm not going to make you do anything that feels stiff or weird or uncomfortable.

And your kids. This is huge. If you have a toddler or an older sibling, they will almost certainly be part of your newborn session. A toddler who has already met me -- who remembers me, who knows I'm fun and I'm safe -- is a completely different creature than a toddler meeting a stranger for the first time while also processing the presence of a brand new baby in their house. I cannot overstate how much this matters.

Your Gallery Wall Will Thank You

This is something my photographer brain won't stop thinking about, and I want to share it because I genuinely don't think anyone else is saying it.

When you hang your maternity and newborn photos on your walls -- and I hope you do, because they deserve to be on your walls -- you want them to look like they belong together. Same editing style. Same warmth. Same light. The same feeling when you look at them.

When two sessions are shot by photographers with completely different styles, the photos don't live well together. One feels bright and airy, one feels moody. One feels documentary, one feels posed. They don't tell a single story -- they tell two disconnected ones.

When I shoot both your maternity and newborn sessions, your galleries are cohesive. They feel like chapters in the same book. That's not a small thing when you're planning a gallery wall or a lay-flat album that spans both seasons.

The Practical Stuff

I want to be honest about the practical reasons too, because they matter.

It's less expensive. Booking a maternity and newborn session bundle with me costs less than booking them separately. I offer a discount for clients who do both -- my "baby bundle" -- because I genuinely love getting to be part of the full journey, and I want to make it easy for you to say yes to both. You can reach out to me directly for current pricing, or check my booking page here.

It's less mental load. You research one photographer. You vet one portfolio. You make one decision. And then you're done. No hunting for a newborn photographer when you're 38 weeks pregnant and your brain is already full. No hoping that the person you booked for maternity is still available when the baby comes. It's handled. You can put your energy somewhere else.

Everything lives in one place. I deliver all of your sessions in one client gallery -- maternity, newborn, and any future sessions. No hunting through different platforms or logging into different accounts. It's all there, all together, easy to access whenever you want to order prints or share a photo.

What Booking Together Actually Looks Like

Your maternity session happens around 32 to 34 weeks -- far enough along to have a real bump, close enough to the due date to feel like the story is almost ready to begin. We'll spend an hour or so together, and you'll have your full gallery within two to three weeks.

Then we stay in touch. I'll have your due date on my calendar. I'll be rooting for you. And when the baby arrives, I'm already your person. We don't have to start from scratch. We just get to pick up where we left off -- except now there are three of you.

That continuity is something I feel every single time. When I arrive at a newborn session for a family I photographed during their maternity session, there's already warmth in the room. We've already built something. I know their story. I know the dog's name. I know that this baby was hard-won, or that there's an older sibling who is going to be in approximately one hundred moods that day, or that the morning light in their living room is going to be perfect.

That knowing shows up in the photos.

The Bigger Picture

I'll be honest: I am not just a photographer. I care about the families I work with in a way that goes beyond the gallery delivery. I care about your support network. I care about the village you're building around yourself for this season.

That's why I'm also involved with multiple parenting organizations and why community and connection are woven through everything I do. When I say I want to be your photographer for the long haul -- for the maternity session, the newborn session, the first birthday, the next baby -- I mean it. You're not just a booking. You're a family I get to know and document over time, and that relationship is one of the things I love most about this work.

If you want more on building that kind of village during pregnancy and early parenthood, I wrote about it here. It's one of my favorite things I've ever published.

Ready to check dates and book your maternity and newborn bundle? I'd love to be your person for both.

Check my availability here!