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How to Include Your Toddler in Your Maternity Session

Aug 24 2026 | By: IJ Photo

How to Include Your Toddler in Your Maternity Session

You want photos of this pregnancy that include the big sibling, but you also know your toddler. Good news: it doesn't need to be hard. After 25 years of photographing families, I can tell you that maternity photos with a toddler aren't about cooperation. They're about planning the session around how toddlers actually work. Here's how we do it.

Schedule around your toddler, not the other way around

The single biggest factor in a successful family maternity photoshoot is timing. Book the session for your toddler's best window for most kids, that's mid-morning, after breakfast and well before nap. A tired or hungry two-year-old cannot often be charmed, bribed, or reasoned with, and I say that with love. My studio is private and climate controlled, so there's no waiting around in a parking lot or a windy park for the light to be right; we start when your toddler is ready.

Structure: toddler first, then let them go

We photograph in a deliberate order. Family groupings and sibling-with-bump shots happen first, in the opening twenty minutes while your toddler is curious and cooperative. Next, a grandparent, friend, or your partner takes the toddler home or out for a treat, and the rest of the session belongs to you. You get relaxed solo portraits and couple shots without one eye tracking a small person, and your toddler's memory of the day is "we took pictures, laughed, and I got a snack" Everyone wins. If you can arrange that extra adult, do it; it's the best session upgrade that costs nothing.

Poses that work with toddlers (because they don't feel like poses)

  • Kissing or hugging your bump - give them a job ("give the baby a kiss") rather than an instruction ("stand here").
  • Ear to your belly, listening for the baby. The expressions this produces are the ones you'll print.
  • Walking hand-in-hand shots, where movement is the point and nobody has to hold still.
  • Whispered-secret and tickle moments. If a toddler is going to be silly anyway, we aim for the silliness.

Don't forget maternity photos with your husband or partner

With a toddler in the mix, couple portraits are easy to shortchange, I don't. Once the toddler is done, we make time for the two of you: hands together on your bump, a forehead-to-forehead moment, the quiet in-between looks. These are the images that mark this chapter of your marriage, not just the pregnancy. Wardrobe is simple: your partner wears a plain, well-fitting shirt in a tone pulled from your dress, nothing louder. (My full outfit advice, including the studio's 70+ gown wardrobe, is in my what-to-wear guide.)

What to pack

  • Non-messy snack, think fruit snacks and crackers, not chocolate near a cream gown.
  • A change of clothes for the toddler.
  • Optionally, a favorite lovey or toy. It can hide behind my camera and summon eye contact like magic. Or include it in the photos to show off your kid's personality.

Lower the bar, love the results

We are not trying to get your toddler to perform. We're capturing who your family is in this exact moment, including the wiggles, the giggles, and the twelve seconds of perfect stillness we absolutely will catch. Some of my clients' most-printed images are the "outtakes" where the toddler did something completely unscripted, we all laughed, and I still got the smiles on camera. Trust the process, and trust that I've seen every possible toddler mood and photographed through all of them.

Ready when you are

Browse my maternity sessions to see family maternity photoshoots in the gallery, and if you're picturing portraits of the whole crew after baby arrives, my family portrait sessions are the natural next chapter. Bring yourself, your family, I'll handle the rest.

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