Don't register for blankets. Seriously, I can see you there reading this and thinking "but it will be March and baby will be cold." just as people love to give clothes, they love blankets! They are soft and fuzzy and a great filler gift. I was just cleaning out DD's closet to get it a little organized. There are 21 blankets in there. I am not exaggerating, that is the exact count. That is not including the one she sleeps with, or the one we keep in the car, or the stack of receiving blankets I gave a girlfriend who said she liked them and I didn't. I am grateful for the gifts and that so many people thought to give us something but I pinky promise you will never go through over 20 blankets. The end.
Re: Just a little unsolicited advice from a 2nd timer
So true!! DS has so many we never used.
So true! People love to give homemade blankets too, no matter what time of year your baby is due. I have blankets that were given to me that still have the tags on them.
My Baby's Size
I wouldn't register for them just because they are worthless. Some of the best advice I got when I was pg with DS was to use plain cloth diapers as burp cloths: https://www.target.com/p/Gerber-Weave-Flatfold-Cloth-Diapers-12-pk/-/A-93433
After trying these, I never used the cute ones that had been given to me ever again.
Yep, I got 2 packs of gerber cloth diapers and it was plenty. I used the receiving blankets for burp clothes too, or for cleaning up little messes too. Might as well find some use for them, although they can be handy for diaper changes too.
do it, seriously!
Your shirt works pretty good as a burp cloth. Seriously though, it seems to me that burp cloth or no, your clothes will probably be in the line of fire more often than not.
So true! Not that it mattered for us, since the in-laws disagreed with where we registered and so didn't tell anyone (at least that's my husband's going theory), but our shower wasn't even that big and I think we ended up with about 8 blankets, with one more I'm fairly certain is on the way from a knitting friend of mine.
They are soft, though. I'm tempted to steal one and use it as a lap blanket! She'll never know...
I've actually heard this advice from many moms! LOL! I have my shower in 2 weeks and I am interested to see how many I get because I am a quilter myself. I am wondering if that will keep people from making me blankets or if it will make them think that I will appreciate their craftiness.....we'll see!
Off B.C. Jan '06, started charting Feb '08, 2% morphology and PCOS, no O with meds,
IVF w/ICSI only option to conceive.
Licensed Foster Parents 07.11
Miracle BFP 7.20.11 1st beta 6,274! EDD 3.17.12
Miracle Baby born March 5, 2012 . 6lbs 1oz, 19 3/4"
Miracle BFP #2 10.8.12 - edd 6.20.13
Oh, we definitely used them a lot more when DD was little - for the carseat, to lay on the rug to set her down on, to clean up whatever she spit up. But I registered for ONE blanket and rec'd more than 20.
LOL!! I missed that part.
Off B.C. Jan '06, started charting Feb '08, 2% morphology and PCOS, no O with meds,
IVF w/ICSI only option to conceive.
Licensed Foster Parents 07.11
Miracle BFP 7.20.11 1st beta 6,274! EDD 3.17.12
Miracle Baby born March 5, 2012 . 6lbs 1oz, 19 3/4"
Miracle BFP #2 10.8.12 - edd 6.20.13
I think this one is a personal preference. I personally did not like or use them, but my best friend had a very spitty baby and used them as burp cloths all the time - in fact I gave her a bunch of them.
I did buy one as I really, really liked it. Big, fluffy, soft one. I am crocheting one as I want LO to have something special I made for her.
But was given 2 big bags of clothes by a friend of DH's. Most of it was 12mo or 3T but there were at least 10 blankets in there too. I have no problem holding on to all the blankets until after my showers then giving away the ones I don't like.
Married: 1/2008 ~ DD#1: 3/2012
TTC #2: Started 4/2014 BFP 7/30/15 MC 8/3/15 BFP 9/4/2015 EDD 5/16/2016
I have cloth diapers for that, but didn't know if people used them for swaddling? Maybe they're too small for that? (Can you tell I am a FTM haha)
SORRY! Just saw this.
I used the cloth diapers as burp cloths myself, but my friend's son had reflux and some pretty amazing projectile explosions so she liked the larger ones. Also, I received both larger and smaller receiving blankets - I gave her the larger size ones, and the smaller ones are still unused. We used one of those Summer Infant sleep sacks to swaddle, as I could never get the hang of it with the receiving blankets, but I have heard other mothers say they are too small to swaddle.
Yes, I'd say that's too many. I personally hated receiving blankets- they always felt so stiff to me. I think one pack of 4 is sufficient, as they are sometimes handy for keeping baby in one place. We used 2 of them rolled up and used them instead of a positioner in her crib. We were also sent home from the hospital with 3 of them, which I actually liked better than the ones from the store. They seemed softer to me.
Gerber cloth diapers work best for burp cloths, definitely!
And I totally agree about not registering for blankets. I believe we have about 15-20 of them, not counting receiving blankets. TOO many.
Don't register for stuffed animals either! By the time your child is 2, you will have about 30 of them, I promise!
I received about 5 or 6 blankets total for DS1. We only really used the waffle ones. He still sleeps with the 1 fleece one we got.
As for burp cloths, I still use them for snotty noses. I don't think you can have enough. I used them all.the.time--for both spit up and wiping noses, etc.
It's all a matter of opinion.
Thanks for this advice! I've been trying to cut down my registry, and I already got 5 blankets for Christmas!!!
heading to edit registries right now...
My favorite ones were the ones I took from the hospital. I left with about 4 or 5 of the receiving blankets. I will do the same this time around.
I was just thinking about this - we have an insane number of baby blankets! I am actually afraid to count them, as they have taken over the linen closet. And one of my friends just gave me a bunch of boy ones! Right now the girls use the receiving blankets as either dresses or capes LOL
I would like to ditto the use of cloth diapers - DD1 was a happy spitter and we went through a lot of those since the receiving blankets were too thin to really work well.