August 2020 Moms
rivercitynik
member
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Product Spotlight: Newborn Apparel
rivercitynik
member
We are almost caught up! We'll be back to the normal schedule on Friday 
This is a place for FTMs to ask questions about, S+TMs to share their prior experience with, and everyone to share what they're eyeing in the world of maternity, baby and postpartum products. Each week we'll spotlight a new category of product to help streamline and make it easier to refer back. This week we are discussing Newborn Apparel.
This is a place for FTMs to ask questions about, S+TMs to share their prior experience with, and everyone to share what they're eyeing in the world of maternity, baby and postpartum products. Each week we'll spotlight a new category of product to help streamline and make it easier to refer back. This week we are discussing Newborn Apparel.
To view past Product Spotlights or the upcoming schedule, see here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1DzmfbSu7toufv3p1VWNu1XOXDaU-tbI5FEfV8av46pc/edit?usp=sharing
Re: Product Spotlight: Newborn Apparel
- I feel so stumped on how to dress an infant in August. Mostly short sleeve body suits? What about at night?
- How many clothes do I actually need? I'd love to keep it to a minimum but also don't want to do laundry every other day. Also, how many newborn clothes should I be prepared to have on hand? Or can I mostly use clothes for 0-3?
- I have a lot of friends offering to loan me clothes, but their babies were born in the winter months. Would this be helpful? Should I be specific about what I want so that I don't end up with clothes that are too heavy for the season?
- I'm hoping to mostly use hand-me-downs, but I do want to buy a nice take-home outfit. What are people's favorite places for nicer clothes? And I'll probably buy a few basic bodysuits, so what's your favorite spot for affordable basics?
- I know we will do a summer gear thread, but do I need any summer clothing gear? Sunglasses, baby sun hat, bathing suit?
Love having so many wise STM+ in this group!I don't do shoes until they're walking, for the most part. (I do have a couple pairs of baby Mary Janes I was given but wouldn't have bought otherwise) I do like some warm booties though since it gets cold in the winter where we live.
@rivercitynik,
My daughter who was born in June wore plenty of short sleeved stuff and pants. It kind of varied based on how the house felt. I always put them in footed sleepers at night because I don't want them to get cold, and you're not really supposed to use blankets those first few months. Someone shared this with me once. I don't exactly follow it though, but it's probably a good place to start. We've never used those sleeping bags.
How many clothes? There are infographics and blogs that will give you guidelines. Personally, we were given so much that we have a lot. And I find I use most of it! People say kids are so much laundry, but when they're little, they're really not! Even with a 2.75 yo and a 1 yo now, I find myself running out of clothes before I have enough dirty to make a full load in the washer. It takes a LOT of clothes that small to fill a washing machine. A weeks worth of onesies and pants and socks and a couple sleepers barely covers the bottom of my washer. So that's something to keep in mind. I also don't change frequently for spit up or drool unless they spit up a whole feeding and are completely soaked. Even my more than 8.5 pound babies wore newborn for at least a couple weeks. However, I tend to mix all my newborn and 0-3 together and they wear either/or. Even a smaller baby could still wear 0-3 at birth, a little baggy, but not bad. So I wouldn't go overboard with newborn sizes.
Winter stuff from friends - I guess it depends on your/their philosophy. I don't really buy "winter" or "summer" clothes. If it's winter, they wear a onesie and leggings or tights under that tank dress. If it's summer, they just wear shorts or the diaper cover that comes with some dresses. My girls wear short-sleeve shirts year round (I do have long-sleeve as well), and of course have coats or jackets when we go out.
For basic onesies, I generally buy the sets of 4 or 5 from Carters. I buy a lot of secondhand as well. They have some cute nice outfits as well, but I don't do cute going home outfits. Just a basic sleeper.
Summer gear. For this small? Probably not but it will depend on your lifestyle and where you live. If you go to the beach often, you may want that. You will probably mostly keep the baby out of direct sunlight anyway.
I'm so curious about sleeping. We plan to keep it a bit warmer in the house for baby, but do you still swaddle them to sleep? Or just a sleep sack type over a onesie?
To provide some extra warmth with easy access to diaper changes, I found these baby leggings
www.babyleggings.com currently promo for 40% off. I had a gift card from motherhood with a recent order. I received them and they are so adorable.
Dating 4/2008
Married 6/2016
TTC #1 9/2019
BFP 12/13/2019!
EDD 8/27/2020 Baby Girl
- Zippers are better than snaps. Buttons are the worst.
I bought like ten nb / 3m kimono tees to later underneath the longsleeves. If it's warm enough, you can just do the tee and the diaper and you don't have to mess around with snaps. And when it starts getting cooler, you have an automatic base layer. They say if it's at all chilly, you want baby to always have one more layer on than yourself, so that always seemed like a simple common-sense guideline to me.
Also shoes to me are basically unnecessary until they start being ready for you to hold their hands and help them "walk." Sure we had a couple pairs of those itty bitty newborn because who can resist putting them in shoes?! (Unless you count that my daughter now plays with hers and puts them on stuffed animals, then they have a great use!)
(My favorite advice for new moms is always tell them it's okay to ignore other people's advice and validate them that they are capable to trusting their instincts and being a good parent. One of my closest friends and I had babies 9 months a part and she spent her whole pregnancy reading baby raising books and I spent my whole pregnancy just trying to survive pregnancy and honestly we both agree books are nice but you're capable of learning just about everything you need on the job. Neither one of us had experience with small children or babies when we gave birth.)
I agree with @RedBaramid, you will know your baby best. Politely smile and do you.
Keep the tags on your clothes and wash as you go, because there will always be clothes you dont use or you will get multiples of the same outfit.
Also, you dont have to have a special washing detergent just to wash baby clothes in. Start out with what you use for your clothes and only switch if baby reacts. I've never used a special detergent and my kiddos have never had a reaction.
my recommendations as a STM-
-your baby will realistically live in PJs and onesies so don't overdo it on the cute expensive outfits
- don't buy a lot of shoes and socks. either get footed onesies or Check out Zutanos baby booties. They come in fleece and lighter fabric and stayed on SO WELL. Example: cozie-fleece-baby-bootie-heather-gray
-these babes will outgrow NB sizes quickly so don't stock up a ton on that size
- Keep in mind babies can't wear sunscreen until 6 months of age so if you get a swim suit, get the long sleeve because it just makes it easier. That or a swim diaper and long sleeve rash guard shirt. And definitely get baby sun hats- I really loved the iplay brand (amazon or buybuybaby) for both long sleeve rash guard shirts and hats.
- there are cool charts that tell you on pinterest, etc. what a baby should wear for each temperature. Example:
-you don't HAVE to have a special washing detergent, but I ended up switching us all when DD was born because I wanted to cut down on house hold products that did not have the safest chemicals. We ended up switching a lot of our stuff to the "free and clear" versions. I used (and still use) the app "think dirty" for all of our house held products. It provided safety rankings based on product ingredients. Its super helpful!
So in theory, she should have been in 3-6 months for late fall and early winter and 6-9 months for the end of winter early spring. In reality, she was entering 3-6 month clothes at the end of winter early spring and it was 90 degrees plus from that point on. So a lot of it I couldn’t use.
I did buy a lot in advance (and thankfully I mostly guessed right, but I absolutely could have sized up even a little more :# ), but luckily I didn't really get much past 12m before she was born and most of the basics aren't terribly seasonal anyway.
Or I guess my advice would be if you MUST buy ahead so you don't feel like you have NOTHING, stick with basic cotton onesies, pants, and jammies, and wait on things like heavier fabrics or bitty little summer rompers till you see how they are growing.
And then I only washed a size at a time, so say if you just have your nb and 0-3 washed at first -- that's plenty! -- you can still exchange your 6m stuff when the you time comes should you need to swap sizes.
ETA also, pro tip - when you box things up in your clear bins "by size" actually hold up the garments and compare, don't just stick to the tag sizing. So if something says 6m but it looks smaller, keep it with the 3m stuff. Because I'd hate to get to the next bin and pull things out they've already outgrown, but totally could have been wearing if they'd only been in rotation. 🤦. I agree that generally Gerber runs a whole size smaller than everything else.
I was thinking I’d would maybe use those more with a onesie rather than with actual pants on baby while we’re in the middle of summer. Just trying to decide if I should order from BabyLeggings.com or if there’s a better place to purchase baby leg warmers.
Dating 4/2008
Married 6/2016
TTC #1 9/2019
BFP 12/13/2019!
EDD 8/27/2020 Baby Girl
It is older. Again, I got it second hand and that was three years ago now, so things could have changed with their manufacturing.
The only thing I wasn't crazy about were these socks, I got two sets because I liked the colours, but the ankles were very loose and flopsy and NEVER stayed on. I loved the nb socks I found on Amazon tho, and have bought those as gifts for other new moms, bc they feel super plush and actually say on! 😲
Dating 4/2008
Married 6/2016
TTC #1 9/2019
BFP 12/13/2019!
EDD 8/27/2020 Baby Girl
I had a pack of white, and then pink/white combo, and 12 pairs was plenty! @ziggymama06
Dating 4/2008
Married 6/2016
TTC #1 9/2019
BFP 12/13/2019!
EDD 8/27/2020 Baby Girl