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Newborn Posing Bean Bag Part 2

I like to hold the babies in this particular position. And if I was trying to settle them, this is how I would hold them and rock them back and forth because it's easy for me to put them down. And if I have a baby that's continually wanting to be fed that's not necessarily hungry, I would never hold it in my arms and rock them sort of that way because that's in a position that they're used to being fed in. She is out to it. So ideally with this particular, if we'd continued to work with Hunter, I would have brought her around to the front. But I'm gonna put Taylee down into that position that I would have continued to flow with. And because she's going onto her tummy with her arms up, I'm just gonna move my fingers onto her and just gently role her in my hands so it's easier to put her down. (shushing) Okay. So I want her legs to come out the back here. If it was a baby that really wanted to keep the legs up underneath them, I would continue into that particular pose. But she's kind of...

relaxed here so I'm gonna push her legs out the back. And just gently role her, oh she's doing it for me. Roll her onto her tummy. By folding their legs up underneath them, it sort of stops them from kicking out. So what I did was I just lifted and pulled that elbow through and her arms are already up into place. So it's perfect. So you can see with that safety reason and having them on the bag without needing a spotter, I'm here, I'm right here, she's in the middle of the bag, it's nice and welled in the middle so she can't topple out. But if their legs aren't tucked in up underneath them, they can launch themselves forward from this position. So it's a really good idea to always be in front of them if their legs aren't tucked up in. If you have a look in that brown basket next to you, and pick out a little cream hat that's got a little lacy, yes, that one. I would love to use that. So we're gonna put a bonnet on her. And this is by a company, this particular hat by a company called Monkey Moo Moo. And her props, her knit props are absolutely adorable. So I'm gonna get down nice and low with her, I wanna put the beanie on before lifting her into position but I just wanna pull her hands out first. So just using my fingers to gently lift her head there and pull that hand out. She's got one hand down lower than the other. There we go, she's gonna stretch. And while she's stretching I'm gonna position her hands. So when they move, move with them. (laughs) Okay. So we're gonna tie this little bonnet in underneath her chin. It's so cute. Now I often get a lot of comments on photos about how I should mention that oh hang on. I get a lot of comments on photos about the size of babies heads. And people don't realize that the babies head equates to 25 percent of their body weight at birth. So they are actually bigger than, you know, any other part of their body. Except for the spine obviously. So it is quite heavy and it's quite large so I'm just gonna, I'm not lifting her but I'm just putting a little prop in here underneath just to support her head, while I tie up the bonnet. So all of these little things that I'm doing are to keep her settled, keep her comfortable, keep her sleeping and keep her supported the whole time. How delicate is that. Okay so were gonna eventually bring her head back around here but I'm gonna pull this out now because my hands are free to support her head. It was just while I was tying that bonnet. And if you've got a baby in an environment that's sort of still unsettled, use one of your wraps or cloth nappies just to put over their back while you're positioning them. And it will keep them feeling just a little bit more secure. So I'm just taking the weight of her head in my hand and I'm gently just going to move it back towards the top of her fingers here, like this. And now I'm gonna start lifting her, woops. There we go. (shushing) She's a big stretcher. (shushing) So you can see my hands didn't actually leave her head or her arm the whole way through that. So she's not changing her position drastically, because I'm guiding her back down into position in my hands. So I've still got my hand on her head, I'm gonna slide my other hand in underneath the blanket to take the weight of that head. And keep her in position. (shushing) Now I'm gonna gently lift her with my props. It's important with this one when you're bringing them forward like that to give them enough height in there to lift them up and to also support their elbows. So we're gonna do slight little adjustments here to get her comfortable into this position. She keeps going back into the other position, so she's obviously more comfortable there. And we'll see where we can get her to. So we can bring her face to the front. So I'm just pulling her elbow forward. I've got my fingers at the back of her elbow. And I'm just gonna turn her head and rest it up on that back arm. And when I'm lifting the head it's important not to put your fingers or any pressure on the actual top of their skull, where it's open, the bones aren't together yet. Or on the temples. But the bones on the side of the head are quite strong so that's where I tend to let the weight of their head go on my fingers. Position my fingers so yeah, the weight of the head is on there. Aw look at those lips. So we're gradually getting there. I'm gonna pull these little fingers out here I don't know whether you can see. I'm just gonna use my finger, just to pull them out. (baby gurgling) (shushing) Okay. (baby grunting) (shushing) Alright, I stopped talking, sorry I was concentrating. So she just did another stretch and pulled herself back into that comfortable position that she likes. And what I'm aiming to do here is get all those fingers visible. And to bring her little head around a little bit more. (shushing) I have my finger under her chin to stop her from pulling it down. If I was hurting her or putting her into and uncomfortable position, she's let me know. (shushing) All this white noise and heart beats gonna make all you guys go to sleep. So there's those fingers. We can't see the other ones but that's alright, cause I would rather move on to the next set up. Still get a beautiful set up here but not push it too much. Do you have any questions while I'm going? Yeah, I was just wondering do you ever give up on a pose? No, oh I do. If the baby is crying, if the baby is determined not to go into it, I'll move on, I'm not gonna waste time. Cause like I said, not every baby will go into every pose. So I'm just giving her a little bit more height in here. (shushing) She's pushing those lips together that's the cutest thing. Kelly? Yeah? I have another question. Yeah? How long would you stay on one pose? Probably only five minutes but I'm talking here and I'm explaining everything I'm doing. If I was doing this at home, I'd probably be moving a lot faster than what I am. So it seems like a long time, but it's not. Okay. I'm ready to take my shot now. Just wanted to get that other hand in there. And I'm gonna give this back elbow a little bit more support. So Kelly, would you take the shot even if it's not perfect? Sorry? Like if the fingers are not out. Yeah no I would, I'd take my safe shot. So this here would be my safe shot. I would come in and get my angle and ideally I would like to lift her head just a little bit more and maybe get those fingers out. But because she's sort of a little bit forcing herself back into that other position. So you can see on that shot how I would bring those fingers out and just lift this side of her head just up just a little bit more. But I'm not gonna force it. And I can still get a beautiful photo of her in this position. So when you're finding where you like to shoot from, your particular angle, most photographers have a set way that they will photograph. I would come in for a bit of variety with this particular pose, take the hat off and shoot it from a different angle so that I'm getting two different angles from that particular set up. Then you could throw a wrap around them. So minimum movements and more images. So she adjusted herself there which is absolutely fine with me. So I'm focusing on the eye that's closest to me, I've changed my angle slightly and we can get two different shots. I'll put it down that side. And you could add a bit of variety by throwing a wrap over the top. A beautiful delicate wrap. This is also by Monkey Moo Moo. I'll just pull that hand out from there. And I'm gonna tuck it in under her chin. And you could come in again and get another beautiful angle. So it doesn't have to be complicated or anything like that to fill the gallery but you've got different shots coming from a very simple set up. And going with her, I'm not gonna continue to force her to bring her hands up or anything like that, where she's not comfortable. From here I would probably move her onto a side bring her legs out to the thing. So I'm gonna bring this little elbow back for variety on this one. And leave her head up where it is with this hand. And then I'm just gonna turn her legs out this way. So just take the pressure off that head and bring it down where it's nice and comfortable. She has naturally brought her feet up underneath her and crossed them underneath her. I had them tucked, like in that bum up pose and she's just drawn her legs up into her. So she would be like at the perfect baby to pose into the taco pose. (baby grunting) She's just kicking her legs out there, she's getting herself comfortable. (baby grunting) So with this, I need to bring a prop in behind her back to stop her rolling around. To support her, not to lift her. And then I'm going to throw a wrap around her to keep her arms and legs in place. So I'm just gonna come around the other side. I already have a prop in underneath here. No I don't. So I'm just gonna push that in the back there. Just to support her. So we want her to look as curly and as comfortable as possible. So I'm just gonna use the same wrap, cause it goes with our cream background. My white noise has gone off. I'm gonna tuck it in gently around her. (baby grunting) (shushing) (laughs) And it doesn't go according to plan cause they do their own thing. Look at her stretching, she's got a whole crawling action going on here. Yeah, I'm gonna finish. Can you bring me the blanket?