Product Spotlight - clothes and how many!

SweetSweetTooth

How many NEWBORN clothes will you buy?

How many sleepers, how many onsies, etc.
How many of othersizes will you get or have? 

Also, how many different size outfits do you plan to take to the hospital as we have no clue how big or small they will be? Since the ultrasounds can be off as far as like 2.5 lbs in either direction from their guess with measurements etc. 

STM Any advice? 

norahkate

I have no idea on numbers right now, but as far as the hospital my suggestion is a couple outfits each in newborn and 0-3 mo (unless baby comes fairly early).

With our first we only brought newborn clothes and he was too long for them (but even at 9lbs 13 oz he did not come close to filling them out otherwise, so once we got home we were good with separates in newborn, just had to go up for one-piece sleepers). Even big babies are just so scrawny those first couple of weeks!

This time (and last) I am knitting a couple things that are meant for that initial newborn stage. I know they will grow out of them quickly, but I love bringing baby home in something i made and it is harder to find things to buy to fit their tiny little bodies during that time.

sammierose464

I feel like I'm at such a loss in this area.

KFrob

I felt like everyone said not to get newborn clothes so we barely had anything, then DD ended up being in newborn for probably the first month.  She was an average 7lbs 4oz.  We ended up having to run out and buy a bunch of newborn stuff the first few days.  We brought one newborn and one 0-3 outfit for the trip home from the hospital.  I'd rather have a bunch of newborn clothes so I'm prepared, but only wash and dry a few things to be ready and leave tags on the rest in case they need to be returned.  

I'm not sure on numbers but it's easiest to stick to sleep-n-plays/footy pjs and avoid outfits.  There will be so much spit up and poop costume changes will be frequent.  

SweetSweetTooth

I am planning on buying most used clothes for the newborn to 3 month stage (maybe even to the 6 month stage!). That way if poop explosions happen or they never get worn I am only out a little vs the expense of new clothes. I plan to register for older clothes that hopefully they will be in for a little longer! I do like the thought of leaving tags on and oy wash if you need them so you can return! Now hopefully those new clothes make it though the nesting phase and don't get washed! 

KFrob

ooooh @SweetSweetTooth good point about the nesting phase!  I've had to stop myself from washing all the hand me downs we kept.  I know logically its too soon but the drive to wash them is so strong!  

chyvie

DH's friend has a 2.5 year old son so I will be getting a lot of his hand-me-downs which I'm ecstatic for! I'm not sure I will really need to buy clothes, but you know there will be some cute outfits I will see and I will HAVE to buy   
IF I was going to buy new clothes I would most likely not buy a lot of newborn and 3-6 month old clothes as I feel like they grow so quickly and there is always the ability to wash. So what if they are wearing the same outfits week over week! 

Lisa3379

I would have at least a couple newborn outfits on hand. DS wore newborn stuff for at least a month. He also mostly wore pajamas that first month, so all the pants and onesies I had went largely unused, or I didn’t use them for awhile. 

For the hospital, I brought two outfits - one newborn sized, and one 0-3 months, just in case I had a big kid. 

pajamstagrams

SOUTHERN MAMAS: I'm so confused on whether to get long or short sleeve newborn clothes. Also do I need hats/gloves for a newborn? The temperature when I'm due (15th) could be anywhere from low 60s to high 80s/low 90s, depending on fronts/how early/late I am.  I'm assuming I'll probably be ok with a mix of long/short for 0-3m size.

nasalot188

Newborn clothes are so tricky, you just have no clue how long babe will be in them (if at all!). I would try not to go crazy with newborn stuff. Aim to have maybe 5-10 sleepers....don't worry about outfits as another poster mentioned, they are fine in sleepers for the first while. I didn't even buy newborn clothes, most were hand me downs or were bought second hand dirt cheap  

My guy was 7lb 11oz and wore newborn stuff for maybe 2 weeks. He was a long baby, and his feet just got so squished in there!

bntfroggie

Since we are team green we will have one of each kind of outfit or maybe a neutral outfit and one of each kind of hat.  I will buy newborn, our little was in newborn for the first month.

As far as outfits, are you having a shower?  We had SO MANY OUTFITS.  People who buy for a shower usually tend to buy smaller stuff because it's "cuter" we really didn't need anything until around 6 months or so.  Our little one was in a sleeper for most of maternity leave and it being Fall/Winter this time around we will probably do the same.  It all depends on how much laundry you want to do as well.  You can go through as many as 3-4 outfits in a day between spit ups and BMs.

SawyerRichardson

I would say to either keep tags on a lot of clothes or keep it very minimal until your LO is here and you know how quickly they will grow. It's true that most babies wont be in newborn or 3mo clothing very long, but some will.

I took everyone's advice to not buy much in NB size, then had to send my H out to buy more because she ended up being little and a slow grower. DD was 7lb 1oz when she was born, but hovered around the 20th percentile up until her 15 mo appt last month where she shot up to 50th. She's now 16mo and wearing a mix of 9 mo and 12 mo clothing.

It was nice that she got to wear clothing for a lot longer, but any "planning ahead" I did ended up not planning out. For example, I bought her a Halloween outfit on offseason clearance in 12mo size that I was expecting her to wear last year, and she never got to wear it because she was still in 6mo at that point.

So sorry for the novel, but long story short, don't buy too much that you won't be able to return.

As for the hospital I brought two outfits. One in NB and one in 3mo.

mommy2ane

Our son ended up in newborn size for about a month. We had 2 or 3 sleepers and 7-10 onesies along with two or three outfits for when we went to see people. He was a March baby. He then basically stayed in the size range of his age after that until 2ish. My daughter on the other other hand, stayed in newborns for 3 months. Her outfit count went way up since she was so tiny (and a girl so it was sooo hard to resist buying her all the clothes). And she’s been a size “behind” the average ever since. She’s 18 months old now and has only been 12-18 month clothing for about a month now. By the time my son was 18 months, he was starting to wear 18-24 months. It’s thrown our clothing (I had gotten her a bunch of stuff on sale/consignment) because she was wearing her Christmas pajamas in January-March instead of at Christmas time!

cjx95

Were getting so many hand me downs for both babies thankfully! I'm trying so hard to not buy clothes and if I do they're onesies in bigger sizes because I'm sure I'll get a lot of smaller sizes at the shower. 
As for the hospital I'll bring each babe a newborn and maybe a 0-3 but I have a very strong feeling that they're going to come early.. I just hope they won't be premie..
My biggest decision is going to be their coming home outfits!!

mommy2ane

Ugh. TB ate the rest of my post... so as for showers, I didn’t register for any clothes and everyone and their mother got me at least an outfit for a gift. I didn’t need to buy A hardly anything for the first year unless I wanted it because of that, which really was nice. I think I filled in his wardrobe with some jeans and shorts for a variety. I was able to return a lot of the seasonally inappropriate clothing or exchange them for a bigger size. I got a lot of newborn as well so I exchanged many of those for 6-9 months help fill in there. 

norahkate

+5 (or whatever) to them all growing at different rates. Our first two were born the same week (2 years apart) and we could not use hand me downs for the first couple years at least because they were in the same size in completely opposite seasons!

krzyriver

Z was in newborn clothes for a good month. Then he switched to formula and shot from newborn to 9month before he was 3 months old. It's really impossible to predict what you need, but you don't need an over abundance of any size smaller than 12 month in my opinion. Also, sizes vary greatly between brands, so I wouldn't organize your clothes by the tag. Hold them up next to each other! He had an outfit that was supposedly 6-9 months but was some off-brand I'd never heard of. He wore that when he was wearing 3 months in Carters.

krzyriver

Also, outfits are adorable, but they can be a pain when you're recovering and baby is still getting used to everything. Zip up pjs are the best for when they're tiny!

Lisa3379

+1 to zip ups vs snaps. In the middle of the night, lining up those stupid snaps suuuuuucks. 

tlmill

@jemmerjams we’re in Texas and DS was born 10/29. I would suggest a mix of both, but mostly short sleeve. We didn’t do anything thick for the first 6 weeks or so because it just wasn’t cold enough. On the rare chance that it was chilly we just put a blanket on him in his car seat. He came home in a short sleeve onesie and thin pants (pic attached), and for the most part he just lived in that kind of thing or sleepers for a while. We did put thin socks on him quite a bit, but he almost never wore hats. 

Also so he was 6 lbs 8 oz and 19.25”, and wore NB for 6 weeks-2 months. DD was 6 lbs 6 oz and 18”, and wore NB for about 2 months. 

KFrob

And even better if you can find the ones that zip starting at the top and go down, so you only have to unzip the bottom for diaper changes.  I think Target might carry some.

tlmill

Also because they’re in each size for such a short amount of time, I highly suggest thrift & consignment stores for clothes. Our local thrift store does onesies and pants for .70 each and sleepers for about $1.50. I got everything that DD and DS needed and have already bought an abundance for this baby for next to nothing. And it’s all in been in amazing shape because it’s just not used for long at all. 

norahkate

KFrob said:

And even better if you can find the ones that zip starting at the top and go down, so you only have to unzip the bottom for diaper changes.  I think Target might carry some.

@KFrob i was just about to say the same thing! they are harder to find, but so much better...especially at night!

britvahok

DS1 was 7lbs 11 oz and DS2 was 6lbs 13 oz. They were both in newborn clothes for a month before moving to 0-3 month size. Baby clothes size will vary a lot by brand. We usually wear sleepers and onesie most of the time for the first 3 months. We only wear cute outfits for special occasions (Thanksgiving, Christmas, event at older brother's school, etc.)

tinattt23

So up in the air depending on baby size. We had very little newborn stuff and had to buy more because DS lost a lot of weight and was slow to put it back on.

He lived in sleepers. Anything else was a waste the first two months or so. My recommendation would be enough sleepers to get through a laundry cycle assuming 1-2 a day. Plus maybe a few cute outfits for pictures/events or whatever but knowing you won’t really use them.

Looking back, I’d say we did all sleepers until 2 months. Onesie plus pants until maybe 9-12 months. Then shirts and pants. Shirts are annoying when you’re still carrying them a lot because they ride up and you’re constantly adjusting them. Onesie snaps become a pain once they start fighting diaper changes. 

And I guess UP, I preferred snaps to zippers. Didn’t have to totally unzip them to get to a diaper. And I was always afraid of zipping his skin into the zipper.

Hospital, just one outfit in newborn, one in 0-3. You don’t need to dress them in the hospital, just going home. They have stuff for them while you’re there. 

pajamstagrams

@tlmill thanks!! Texas momma here too 

tropical1982

jemmerjams said:

SOUTHERN MAMAS: I'm so confused on whether to get long or short sleeve newborn clothes. Also do I need hats/gloves for a newborn? The temperature when I'm due (15th) could be anywhere from low 60s to high 80s/low 90s, depending on fronts/how early/late I am.  I'm assuming I'll probably be ok with a mix of long/short for 0-3m size.

Houston here!  DS1 was a Feb baby and I had the same issue - could be cold or could just be cool.  My kids also lived in almost exclusively PJ's for the first months.  We didn't take them out in public much until after about 6 weeks so the cute outfits were just for pics at home and its like they knew it was a new/nice outfit and a blowout was the thing to do!  For one kid I was in the hosptal 3 days and for the other I was only there 24 hours then discharged.  So I'm packing for 3 days, newborn and 0-3, and some onesies and pj's.  Our crazy weather does not help the packing situation.

DunkinDecaf

We have way too many nb and 3m clothes, because that’s all anyone ever gives you. Generally speaking, 10 onesies, 5 pairs of pants, 3-4 wearable blankets and 10 pairs of footie pajamas is plenty IMO. 1-3 sweaters or jackets too, and 5-10 pairs of socks that fit. As they get a little older those numbers go up a bit. Obviously though all that depends on how often you’re up for doing laundry.

I only buy Carter’s for babies, unless it’s for special occasions. It’s cheap and I don’t care if it gets ruined. Once they’re older and will fit in their clothes for 6 months+ I move into gap, Hanna andersson, Gymboree, and Boden.

melbo444

Haha, I wish I had read all of this before Saturday. We went to a Babies R Us and clothing was all 60% off, so we went a little nuts. Everything was just so cute, and it was our first time out shopping since we found out that baby is a girl. I think the fella was even worse than me, because I'd snuck in a bit of online shopping already. We tried to get a variety of newborn, 0-3, and 3-6 months, at least. 

We did register for some clothes, just because I know that people like to give them, and we wanted to register for the things we actually needed and don't have yet (pants, a couple of sweaters, more long sleeved things). I will definitely hold off on removing tags and washing clothes we receive as gifts, though, just in case she grows faster than she can wear everything. If people buy the things we registered for at Target and Buy Buy Baby, we'll be able to return them even without a receipt, I think.

tlmill

tinattt23 said:

Hospital, just one outfit in newborn, one in 0-3. You don’t need to dress them in the hospital, just going home. They have stuff for them while you’re there. 

I would advise each person to check with their hospital on this one. The hospital I delivered DD and DS at specifically told us to bring sleepers or onesies for our stay, because they only provide diapers and blankets. Same with the hospital we’re delivering this baby at, and the hospital that my sister delivered my niece at a few hours away. We took a few NB sleepers and a couple of 3 month (just in case they were big newborns) for both kids. 

ummibtihaj

We gave away everything when we moved last year so we're starting from scratch. It's likely this is our last (for real this time lol) I plan to get a lot of things used. I tend to have smaller babies so newborn clothes are a must. I live in the Midwest so I plan on bringing a long sleeved pj and short sleeved onsie. Dh can bring whatever coat/jacket we need when he comes to pick baby and me up. We're team green so it'll be gender neutral. We're not having a baby shower though several of my friends have asked what we want/need. I suppose I should get on that registry so they have something to choose from.

knottieamusements

melbo444 said:

Haha, I wish I had read all of this before Saturday. We went to a Babies R Us and clothing was all 60% off, so we went a little nuts.  

Haha!  I did the exact same thing.  For the most part though, I bought 3-18mo, and skipped the smaller sizes!  I figure that after 3mo, I will also have less time for laundry since I go back to work- so overbuying may not be as big a problem.  

tinattt23

Also, everyone always says that people will gift you way too many newborn clothes. This was not the case for us. We got a lot of bigger clothes. Everyone thought everyone else would buy tiny stuff and that they were clever buying bigger stuff. So you never know what you might get. My advice is save all receipts/leave tags on and you can always sort things out later on.

KFrob

@tinattt23 We had the same thing happen!  Luckily one of my friends gave us a big set of Carter's body suits and knit pants in newborn size about a week after DD was born.  And I complained to MIL and she got us a few sleepers.  Also, I was the type of person who needed to get out of the house right away so I just took DD shopping to get a few more things.  But I felt like we were unprepared.  

sammierose464

This question is a little different, it's more for the STM+ who have older children.

SS is 6. I have clothes of his starting at around size 4, which are from age 5. I'm debating if I store them until G is big enough to fit in them? We have SO many hand me downs from my brother and cousin that haven't even been touched by SS. We only cloth him 2-3x a month most months (summer will add 1 day a week other than our 1 week vacation). Most of the time I give the clothes to friends who have younger kids.

I'm debating if it's worth it or not to save stuff. We don't have a ton of storage, but we have some (especially when I get rid of crap). I'm planning to save dress clothes and some of the nicer items, obviously nothing with holes or stains since I'm limited on space. 

tlmill

sammierose464 said:

This question is a little different, it's more for the STM+ who have older children.

SS is 6. I have clothes of his starting at around size 4, which are from age 5. I'm debating if I store them until G is big enough to fit in them? We have SO many hand me downs from my brother and cousin that haven't even been touched by SS. We only cloth him 2-3x a month most months (summer will add 1 day a week other than our 1 week vacation). Most of the time I give the clothes to friends who have younger kids.

I'm debating if it's worth it or not to save stuff. We don't have a ton of storage, but we have some (especially when I get rid of crap). I'm planning to save dress clothes and some of the nicer items, obviously nothing with holes or stains since I'm limited on space. 

I don’t. DS is 2 and I’m still getting rid of stuff he outgrows even though this baby is a boy as well. We live in a 3 bedroom apartment and while we have room to store stuff in our garage, I’d rather not. I just sell their stuff at Kid to Kid/Once Upon a Child/on Poshmark and get stuff in their current size. 

bel194

sammierose464 said:

This question is a little different, it's more for the STM+ who have older children.

SS is 6. I have clothes of his starting at around size 4, which are from age 5. I'm debating if I store them until G is big enough to fit in them? We have SO many hand me downs from my brother and cousin that haven't even been touched by SS. We only cloth him 2-3x a month most months (summer will add 1 day a week other than our 1 week vacation). Most of the time I give the clothes to friends who have younger kids.

I'm debating if it's worth it or not to save stuff. We don't have a ton of storage, but we have some (especially when I get rid of crap). I'm planning to save dress clothes and some of the nicer items, obviously nothing with holes or stains since I'm limited on space. 

DD will be 5 in a few days and we kept all of her clothes.  I started going through them last weekend and I know that I didn't keep anything damaged, stained, or previously used before DD, and yet there were things that suddenly had stains seep out from sitting so long.  They kind of smelled when I went through them (I washed them all before storing, stored in one of our large closets off the livingroom, and haven't tried re-washing yet).  I also have a friend who kept clothes sealed in plastic, in a dry basement and they still ended up getting moldy.  And like @tlmill said, it takes up A LOT of room.  So basically I did, wish I didn't and will only keep a few of my favorites that are still in good condition.   

edited because I realized I said the word 'also' 80 times. 

KFrob

SD is 5 and a half (her and DD are almost exactly 3 years apart to the day) and I've kept anything that was in good condition that I thought we could use and I've started to dip into the clothes that we saved.  I also saved almost all of DD's stuff for the next one and glad I did.  We have very limited storage space but I try to keep everything organized in DD's closet in the big storage bins with labels.

ETA I also have a 4 year old niece who we get hand me downs from, but I only keep the stuff in really good condition, so between my niece and SD there is one big bin.

krzyriver

@sammierose464 If he's got clothes you really love, keep them. E has stuff that he's outgrown that he wants us to keep for Z and they have a 16 year age gap. Lol. I kept all of Z's clothes since they'll only be 2 years apart, but I'll still probably get rid of some of it because I know people will buy us more.

knottieamusements

@bel194 - I’ve had good luck with white vinegar getting musty smells out of fabric.  

KFrob

I second @knottieamusements with the wonders of white vinegar!  I've also tried the Lysol laundry sanitizer and that seems to take the smell out of anything.