First time mom question: Baby clothes

Do you mean 0-3 months? Because there is a huge difference between newborn and three years. 

I would purchase long sleeve - babies tend to run cooler than adults. 

I would purchase more than you think you will need so you aren't washing clothes all the time. There will be lots of days in the beginning where they throw up as soon as you get them ready. And then as their digestive system is getting use to things, times that poop will be everywhere. 

How big is she measuring now. If she’s on the higher end of percentiles, I wouldn’t get much newborn. If she’s little, you might be in them a while.

I would get long sleeves. Babies like to be toasty, especially in the beginning, because that’s what they’re used to.

Congrats! I could buy some newborn, some 0-3. Depends on the baby really. It really depends on the baby. I think my 9 lb DS went straight into 0-3, but DD was 7 lbs and definitely needed newborn. I used to buy the 3-packs of plain onesies (Gerber or Carter's) because you change them so much sometimes.

In Chicago, I would definitely buy long sleeve. That's where I am too.

Congratulations! I have little advice to offer because times have changed since I’ve had a baby but I will say if you plan to have more children don’t buy everything gender specific. Things like snowsuits and blankets and bibs and burp cloths come gender specific but you may want to keep them for more babies.

I don’t know f they still make the gowns with long sleeves and little sleeve caps to pull over their hands, but we used those a lot in the first weeks. They were very forgiving size wise. Easy diaper access and the mitts kept them from scratching themselves. Imagine undoing snaps, etc 10-15 times a day. Later we used a lot of onesies with socks on their hands.

That!

All three of mine slept in gowns because it was so much easier to change diapers, but they are now 26, 22, and 22 yermars old, so I have looked at baby clothes for a while Lol.

Not only are the gowns easy for diapering, you don’t have to worry much about sizes. A long skinny baby fits just about as well as a short chubby one, and IIRC, they wore the same gowns pretty much from birth to about 5 or 6 months.

During winter months, I added a sleep sack (a blanket sleeper without legs) with the gown underneath. Again, this was much easier to manage for diapering, and it kept them plenty warm.

Whatever you buy you are likely to have too many, your baby will not wear half of what you have, the most adorable stuff is unlikely to be worn at all, and you can expect to be packing up a box of outgrown clothes by June. Still, the clothes are so freaking cute and soft that they are irresistible.

I love folding baby clothes and recently folded and boxed up DGD's outgrown items - she just turned one. There were 2 very large boxes of outgrown clothes from newborn to 12 months. She is in 12 months winter clothes now. Let other people buy clothes. They love to. But if you go into a childrens consignment shop like Once Upon a Child you will see all the fabulous clothes with tags that never get worn and that will give you an idea of what will likely not be used.

People want to buy newborn clothing, but the reality is that they outgrow those clothes quickly. 6-9 month and 9-12 month clothing will be very useful. You'll be doing a lot of baby laundry over the next year. This is such an exciting time. What a wonderful spring.

All babies are different. My daughter wore premmie for well over a month, then the newborn. Oh hell she was wearing 2t ( only because 24month was to baby-ish ) kindergarten.
I was lucky to find a family who had triplets and they were 6 months older than than my girl. Their rummage sales clothed my girl for 3 years. Tons of fancy clothes.

Sleepers are wonderful. Especially the ones with spans at the shoulder.
I liked the long sleeve onesies and little pants that go with them.

But you will find what you like.

Everybody told me not to bother with newborn sized clothes so I didn’t. When my kid was born she was just under seven pounds and was SWIMMING in those 0-3 month things, even the gowns. I had to roll the sleeves up three times, no lie. I ended up having to go out and buy a bunch of newborn sized things so the kid would have something that remotely fit. Even once she was big enough for 0-3, she was wearing that stuff until she was probably 5-6 months old so the sizing is deceptive. Carter’s stuff is sized way more generously than Gerber which runs small. You really need to go by the kid’s weight. Get way more onesies than you ever think you will need, you’ll go through a lot of laundry that first year.

Definitely long sleeves. If you are indoors the A/C that’s running everywhere will be too cold for baby, and if you are outside you still want her covered so you don’t have to put sunscreen on her. My kid has a late spring birthday and I don’t think she wore anything with short sleeves until she was almost a year old.

Definitely get the sleep sacks with sleeves but no legs. She won’t keep a blanket on but will need to stay warm. My kid had probably a dozen of them and wore them to sleep in for a really long time. The Halo ones with the swaddle thing are best for when they’re really little. Any of the other brands are fine once they don’t wake themselves up flailing their arms, LOL.

Get the little leather bootie shoes with the elastic at the back of the heel, those are the only ones that will stay on their feet.

One of my BFFs made us a big pile of 45” square flannel receiving blankets and they were so much nicer, bigger and softer than the store bought ones. We used them for the longest time and we still use them sometimes for different things.

When she gets a little bigger, we loved the Fisher Price Healthy Care portable booster seat. It folds up to fit in a small space for storage and goes on a regular kitchen or dining chair. It was great for keeping in the car for the times when we went to a restaurant or someone’s house who didn’t have a high chair.

Definitely get something for drying bottles, nipples and other small parts. Even if you breastfeed there will still be times when you’ll have to use bottles and all those little parts are a PITA for keeping track of.

We loved our Rock N’ Play Sleeper but they’ve since been recalled. Our kid loved hanging out in it and we loved that it was portable so we could take it where ever we were in the house or yard. There is a similar infant to toddler rocker that would also work, or a portable bassinet that would also be similar. 

Things that never got used: Boppy pillow and cover. My kid hated the baby sling (however, I should have kept it because my current 5 lb dog would have loved it, LOL). Diaper Genie type trash can was never once used for diapers, but we have used it ever since as a dog proof wastebasket, LOL. We never had a wipe warmer or a bottle warmer and didn’t miss either one. Didn’t have a changing table and never missed that either. We had a big jogging stroller that almost never got used, we mostly used a lightweight umbrella stroller or the medium sized folding stroller instead because they were so much easier to cart around.

Congrats, and try to get as much sleep as you can now! Once the little one arrives, sleep will be your most valued commodity! I couldn’t believe and never would have even imagined how completely bone tired I was in those early months.

Congrats on the new baby on the way!

Unless things have changed in the past 10 years, all those baby sleeper things they sell at the department stores are flame-retardant polyester. I hate that stuff and always tried to put my kids and DGS in cotton. If that’s what you want, you can find it at a million boutique-type suppliers online.

The onesies that I’m familiar with are all cotton, so no worries there. But you need to keep them bundled up when they’re still newborn. We had lots of long-john style pajamas (two pieces, long sleeves and legs). They weren’t footed because that would make them technically pajamas and then they had to be flame-retardant, but you can add socks.

Or just long pants that can go right over the onesies.

We didn’t use those gowns much. We did add blanket sleepers over the jammies when they were toddlers because it got cold in the winter and they would kick off the quilt, but couldn’t quite get it together to pull it back on.

Bet you guys didn’t know I was such a hippie mama, huh.

Are you saying onesies and meaning sleepers/sleep and plays (with the footies), or do you mean little tee shirt onesies?

Either way, I would get long sleeve in newborn, 0-3, and/or 3 months depending on the brand. for the first few weeks. Babies suck at regulating their temperature, and their arms get cold and splotchy fast.

I found that Carters brand ran true to size. Gerber clothing runs small. Children’s place runs true to size for sleepers.

Eta: for how many, it depends on how often you like to do laundry. 😂. I liked to have 7 sleepers and shirts, and 3-4 pants in whatever size they were in at the time. Only 1-2 special outfits to wear to events. This way baby could barf or whatever on them and I had extras to dress them in and I had a few more in case I didn’t get to laundry that day. And newborns are fantastic at making disgusting messes. 😁

I got clothes almost exclusively for baby gifts. I’d buy a few favorites and something to bring the baby home in, but hold off buying too much. My first was a fertility baby years in the making and we must have had 60+ (0-3) month sized outfits for a baby that was over 9 lbs at birth. Needless to say, a lot of those outfits were never worn.

Definitely long sleeves. I was told to dress baby in one more layer than I was wearing, as newborns can have a hard time regulating their temperature. But we did also turn up the heat that first month or two. When you are up at 2 am (and 4 am and 6 am) it’s nice to have a warm house.

Congratulations! We can’t wait to see your beautiful new baby!