diff --git a/src/backend/tensorflow/recurrent.jl b/src/backend/tensorflow/recurrent.jl
index 23afa265..0f6d9b81 100644
--- a/src/backend/tensorflow/recurrent.jl
+++ b/src/backend/tensorflow/recurrent.jl
@@ -7,14 +7,19 @@ end
 
 cgroup(xs...) = Flow.group(map(constant, xs)...)
 
-function tf(model::Flux.Unrolled)
+function makesession(model::Flux.Unrolled)
   sess = Session(Graph())
   input = placeholder(Float32)
-  instates = [placeholder(Float32) for _ in model.state]
   inputs = TensorFlow.unpack(input, num = model.steps, axis = 1)
+  instates = [placeholder(Float32) for _ in model.state]
   params, (outstates, outputs) = tograph(model.graph, cgroup(instates...), cgroup(inputs...))
   output = TensorFlow.pack(outputs, axis = 1)
   run(sess, initialize_all_variables())
+  sess, params, (instates, input), (outstates, output)
+end
+
+function tf(model::Flux.Unrolled)
+  sess, params, (instates, input), (outstates, output) = makesession(model)
   SeqModel(
     Model(model, sess, params,
           [instates..., input], [outstates..., output],