When Charlotte was only 5 days old I attempted to do my own simple little DIY photoshoot. I always wanted the super cute photos of Charlotte when she was a tiny little newborn, but I also didn't want to have to pay someone to come in and do this for us. (also, i'll admit, I didn't even know how to find one here in Germany!)

After researching and, now, personal experience - here are some helpful tips for a DIY newborn photoshoot:

Do the photo shoot ideally before they are 10 days old, this is when they are the most sleepy.
Find which area of your home has the best natural lighting.
Keep the room warm as she will be almost naked most of the time. If doing this in the winter, a space heater would be great!
Wait until your baby is in a deep sleep, as that makes it easy to 'pose' them. And typically babies are in the best mood in the morning.
Have a white noise machine (aka your iphone with white noise playing on spotify) to keep them super sleepy.
Be sure your baby is fed & changed. But there will be some mishaps! I will admit, she poo'd on one of the blankets!! (does this happen to professional photographers?!)
Know EXACTLY what types of pictures you want. I literally went on pinterest and found the exact ones that I wanted to copy so it could be done as quickly as possible. (be sure to capture their cute little features - fingers, toes, etc)
Have all of the supplies & props 100% set up & ready to go because you may have a small window of time to capture what you want.
Just keep snapping pictures! At this point you can't make them smile or do ANYTHING. So if you're lucky, you may capture a cute little grin while they're stretching.
Have realistic expectations... I know I'm not a professional photographer, so I didn't expect them to be perfect / everything to go smoothly. This is also why I didn't do any extravagant props, it would have been more of a hassle than anything!