Need NB clothing advice!

Rachel Goldstein · February 2013

We're going through our NB inventory and I'm not sure if I'm lacking or not really. We have 0 gowns and only 2 sleepNplay outfits. However I have 25 onesies both long and short sleeved with pants, etc. all NB.

1.) Do I want/need gowns?

2.) What about sleepNplays?

3.) Am I being naive to wait to buy anything preemie?

Just trying to make sure we have all our ducks in a row JIC sh!t hits the fan before we expect it to.

To also add, there is a MoM consignment sale in a few weeks that will be a "Multiples" sale in which I can get a bunch of stuff 2nd hand. Anything I should be on the lookout for?

Thanks Ladies!

amd1982 · February 2013

IMO buy a couple preemie things but not a lot. They grow out of then so quickly. Personally our babes hated the gowns. The zipper onesies are the best! In the middle of the night the less snaps the better. I wish I had purchased more of those than the gowns.
Also buy some short sleeve white onesies like the Gerber ones at Walmart. They're great to put under sleepers!

Ruthie04 · February 2013

1. I really liked gowns for sleep, but make sure you find a brand with plenty of room at the bottom. I found Cart.ers to be too tight to pull up over their bellies for diaper changes. I found some off brands on Amazon that ended up working well. Keep in mind that gowns don't really work for carseats, so you don't want many if you plan to be out and about.
2. My boys still live in sleep n plays. We have a baby with HORRIBLE reflux and SnPs make it so easy to unsnap or unzip the top to preserve the outfit during and after feedings. Plus, I am constantly changing their outfits due to the spit up and I hate putting things over their heads or pulling them up over their bodies. We have a million onesies that were given to us, but they have only worn a few of them. Plus, it is not easy to pull a dirty onesie off after a blow out. Yuck.
3. We didn't buy preemie clothes until after our boys were given an IUGR diagnosis. At hospital discharge, our boys were 4.5 lbs. They wore preemie clothes for about two or three weeks. We bought a couple of sets from Car.ters, which were very reasonably priced. If you could buy some and keep the tags on that would be best. Just to ahead and wash one set to bring them home from the hospital and take the tags off and wash the rest if you need them. If not, just exchange. We did laundry everyday, so we didn't need a lot.

s0ulchicken · February 2013

I love, love, LOVE, gowns for motn diaper changes. No snaps to fight squirmy little chicken legs over, no zippers or anything that could malfunction and come between me and any precious minutes of sleep the girls might throw my way. SleepNPlays are all the rage in our house too for dtd use... but with plenty of onesies and pant outfits, you should be just fine!

FWIW, I was very, very determined that I wasn't having preemies. I wouldn't buy any preemie paraphernalia because I was superstitious and thought it would jinx me. Hindsight is 20 20 though, and when the nurses in the NICU told me that I could dress my babies, and I had NOTHING to put them in, my PP hormones made me feel like the worst mother in the whole world. I sobbed the whole way to Babies R Us and the Laundromat nearest the hospital. Maybe a bit dramatic, but it can't hurt to have a pack of preemie onesies jic!

Brummy14 · February 2013

Even though we had preemies....we never used anything preemie sized. They were both over 7 lbs when they came home.

We LIVE in SleepNPlays -- the onesies are a battle and a half to get over their heads, they scream. It's not worth it.

We didn't use any gowns -- same "over the head" battle.

macchiatto · February 2013

We LOVED the gowns the first 6-8 weeks. I'd get at least a few. We didn't use any of the little T-shirts and rarely used onesies the first couple of months. It was mostly gowns and sleep n plays.

My boys were 20" and 19.75" at birth and 6.7 and 6.10 but they were still swimming in NB clothes at first. They fit better in preemie (even though they were a little short) the first month or so.

dgancz · February 2013

I did not buy anything preemie.I figured if they were going to come early I would get my mom or someone to run out and get them a few things.Mine were in NB for a short time.They could probably have stayed in them longer,but I had mostly 0-3 clothes.

I love sleepNplays and am sad that they really only sell them till 9 months.I did not like gowns at all.I had 2 and I never really used them.

We put our babies who were born in July in a short sleeve onsie and a sleep and play most of the time.

shaunah816 · February 2013

Some people like gowns, some people hate them. I hated them and never used them after the first time

My boys lived in onesies, primarily because we kept them swaddled so much, and I didn't want to put them in sleepers under the swaddles and overheat them. Whenever they left the house though (doctor's appts in particular, because you have to strip them to their diapers to be weighed, and the pulling off and on of socks, pants, onesies, etc. was just a hassle) I wanted them in sleepers. Easy and cute.

My guys were good sized for twins (6lbs 3oz and 6lbs 7oz), but NB clothing still swam on them for a while. It was fine, since they mostly stayed in the house, but it would've been nice to have a few preemie clothes for those first couple of weeks. A friend with preemie twins gave me a couple outfits her twins wore, so I was able to get use out of those. I found that even though NB claims to fit 5-8lbs, when my boys came home from the hospital in the mid-to-high-5's NB was huge.

zombiemommy · February 2013

I say buy a couple preemie things on sale somewhere. Don't spend much. I don't use gowns, so I can't comment there, but I would get more sleep n plays. Unless you're delivering in a warm month, they'll probably wear sleep n plays literally every day for the first 2 months. Mine did, anyway.

GoMaltby18 · February 2013

Rachel Goldstein:
Not twin experience but from my first two:
1.) Do I want/need gowns? DS1 hated the gowns since every time he would wriggle they would bunch up around his waist. We used them maybe 3 times and got rid of them.
2.) What about sleepNplays? My babies tend to live in zip up sleepers. Carter's sells them in 2 packs and they are far and away my favorite newborn/0-3 month clothing item.
3.) Am I being naive to wait to buy anything preemie? Honestly, DS1 was 8lb4oz and he was swimming in NB stuff for the first week or so. I think I have 2-4 preemie sleepers for these two, but other than that we will wait and see how much they weigh. If I'm going to be stuck at the hospital for a few days (or esp if they come early and are in the NICU) I figure we'll have plenty of time to send my mom or DH out to buy what we need.

JodiAriel · February 2013

I hated gowns but love love love SNP and my girls wear them all the time when we aren't leaving the house. Walmart has ones that zip. Get the ones that zip. You will really appreciate it during MOTN diaper changes.

Toni828 · February 2013

amd1982:
IMO buy a couple preemie things but not a lot. They grow out of then so quickly. Personally our babes hated the gowns. The zipper onesies are the best! In the middle of the night the less snaps the better. I wish I had purchased more of those than the gowns. Also buy some short sleeve white onesies like the Gerber ones at Walmart. They're great to put under sleepers!

This! I thought the gowns would be great, but I don't care for the way they ride up. My favorite are the zipper onesies AKA sleep-n-plays.

LegallyBlonde217 · February 2013

We didn't like the gowns. My twins STILL pretty much live in sleep n plays. Get plenty of them!

Raggedy1 · February 2013

Everyone says get lots of SNPs, but how many is enough?

angelfire02 · February 2013

I was another gown hater. Our babies didn't wear too many sleep and plays because they were born in May and it was too hot when they were swaddled. We used short sleeved onesies with pants that had feet built in because we had to swaddle their tops and leave their legs out so we could snap them into their snuggle seats to sleep. (Total cluster at our house) but we only had one pair of those pants with the built in feet so we were washing them every freaking day. I would say you should have 6 sleepers per baby, and plan on doing wash every other(ish) day with that many.

And our babies were 5.7 and 5.9 and wore preemie clothes for almost 2 weeks, newborn for 2 1/2 months. It just depends on their size and shape.

Brummy14 · February 2013

Raggedy1:
Everyone says get lots of SNPs, but how many is enough?

Depending on how often you do the laundry and/or how spitty your babies are, 8-12 should do the trick. Also, I'd err on the side of a few more, so you don't get super sick of seeing the same outfits day in and day out. I'm ready for the girls to be in 3M sizes, so we can start to rotate in new gear!

honeybee72 · February 2013

1) We used the gowns a couple times. As PP said, they are great for MOTN. However, our girls moved around a lot in their sleep and after we found they had worked themselves completely out of them (they came off the shoulder), we stopped using them.

2) I think I'm in the minority here. We only use SnP for bedtime. But then, by the time I accounted for gifts and hand-me-downs, we had a seriously ridiculous amount of clothing. So, even if we were going nowhere, getting up and getting "dressed" became part of our daily routine.

3) My girls were born at 38w1d and were 6lb5oz and 6lb8oz. Both were 19" long. Preemie outfits ended up being too short for them. You may want to get a couple things, but I would certainly leave the tags on until you know if you need them or not.

I would look for gear at the MoM sale. Things like bouncy seats, swings, PnP's (great for grandparents' houses or if you want one on multiple levels in your own). If you want to have more than one, it can add up quickly.

Mrs. Alice · February 2013

1.) Do I want/need gowns? Not unless you like them, I hardly used the ones we had

2.) What about sleepNplays? My newborns lived in sleep n plays and onesies

3.) Am I being naive to wait to buy anything preemie? My boys stopped wearing preemie at 5-6 lbs, so you might want a couple outfits but keep the tags on so you can return if needed

You can always use extra socks and bibs.

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