Q: iPhone 3g locked in recovery mode, Im desperate to retrieve photos of my babies..

You need to use thrid party hack to get the iPhone out of Recovery, if all that will help is a question in itself.

No further help. When you started to Restore in iTunes, it sync exiting paersonal data.

See iTunes >> Edit >> Preferences >> Devices

has any backup of interest.

Once the device is in recovery mode, all data is already lost.  Sorry, but your content is lost if you have not made the effort to copy it off the device or previously backed it up.

Tsk. So judgmental. You could have just as easily said "but your content is lost if you have not copied it off the device or previously backed it up." Why comment about effort? I back up my iPhone every damned day. Today I spent four hours at a company event taking photos for my employer, went straight home, and found my stupid phone decided to go into recovery mode. I hope I find help amongst these discussions that does not involve a holier than thou attitude.

The photos are still there. See if this thread helps

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5180100?start=0&tstart=0

Good Luck