Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep's mission is to introduce remembrance photography to parents suffering the loss of a baby with a free gift of professional portraiture. They train, educate, and mobilize professional quality photographers to provide beautiful heirloom portraits to families facing the untimely death of an infant.

It was founded in 2005 by Cheryl Haggard when her son, Maddux Achilles Haggard, was born with a condition called myotubular myopathy. As they state on their website, the condition prevented him from breathing, swallowing or moving on his own. On the sixth day of his young life, Cheryl and her husband Mike had to make the excruciating decision to take him off life support. Before they did, they called photographer Sandy Puc' to take photos of them with their son before and after he was off life support. "That night was the worst night of my life. But when I look at the images, I am not reminded of my worst night. I'm reminded of the beauty and blessings he brought," said Cheryl.

Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep now exists to support and comfort people during this incredibly difficult time, and they kindly shared some of their gorgeous, touching photographs with us.

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Baby Ava; photographer Chris Paulis

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Baby Barrett; photographer Cliff Lawson

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Baby Beckett; photographer Heather Lombardo

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Baby Braylen; photographer Olivia Grey Pritchard

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Baby Christopher; photographed by Vicki Zoller

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Baby Davin; photographed by Amy Hales

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Baby Eliana; photographed by Steve Babin

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Baby Isabella; photographed by Mary Louise Delano

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Baby Jailah; photographed by Tim Cobb

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Baby Kupono; photographed by Karl Hedburg

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Baby Jase; photographed by Burt Rich

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Baby Maddux; photographed by Sandy Puc'

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Baby Rowan; photographed by Jennifer Brown

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Baby Logan; photographed by Julie Williams

The picture at the top of the post is Baby Alexander, photographed by Shelly Kroeger.

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Laura Beck
Laura Beck is a Los Angeles-based TV writer and frequent contributor to Cosmopolitan.com — her work has appeared in the New York Times, New Yorker, Jezebel, and the Village Voice.