Newborn clothes - I accept I am a bit thick...

[Deliaskis]

...so DH and I are starting to get things ready for baby, due Feb (don't want to be doing too much shopping after Christmas when it will be snowy etc.).

And I have seen of course lots of baby clothing items, and more or less have figured out that there are vests (with poppers), babygrow type things (are these also called sleepsuits or is that something different?), hats, little mitten things, etc. and then 'fun' clothes e.g. cuter stuff for when guests come etc.

So what I don't get is, what, and how much, will a newborn wear as a general guide?

Baby is due Feb, so it will be cold outside, but obviously not cold inside, apart from the middle of the night when the heating is off etc.

So if any wise ladies can help, I would appreciate guidance on:

1. What would a newborn wear in a normal day indoors?
   
   
2. What would a newborn wear on a walk out in the pram in cold weather (how many clothes and what arrangement of pram linen/bedding) - What if I want to lift him/her out of the pram for a cuddle or to soothe etc whilst outside?
   
   
3. What combination would be neither too hot nor too cold for an average shopping trip (e.g. into the car, out of car, into pram, outside for 5 minutes, in a shop for 15 minutes, etc.)?
   
   
4. What would a newborn wear in bed (clothes and amount of bedding)? - I have swaddling blankets and sleeping bags already, but don't know if I will also need any blankets etc. for colder nights. And it will probably be quite warm between e.g. 8pm and midnight, and then get colder in the house, and be pretty cold between 2am and 6am when heating comes on again.
   
   I guess I seem to be more nervous about baby being too hot than baby being too cold, but obviously have to be careful with either. There is just so much stuff out there, I can't gauge a 'normal' level of what will be needed.
   
   Thanks in advance, and sorry for being thick .
   D
   
   PS completely separate question, we have bought new mattresses for borrowed cot and moses baskets, but have also been given lots of blankets, sleeping bags etc. from my sister. Does using these carry the same risks (in terms of SIDS) as using an old mattress? They've all been washed (twice!) obviously! I was assuming the risk with mattresses was that you can't wash them so 'foreign' bacteria etc. can linger, but am now feeling a bit paranoid about bedding items!

[Awitch]

i think the mattress thing has been disproved, as it happens.
newbs tend to wear avest and babygro, possibly with a cardie over the top if it's chilly.
you will learn all this stuff anyway. put on too much and peel off, or take extra with yyou to put on.
btw i remember buying 0-3 rather than newborn... obv it's the same thing, i thought. nope. with a small baby you need newborn as well as 0-3. did not know this.

good thing is, you're in hospital and everyone's asking you what they can do for you, so you just send them to the shops for anything you need. shops don't close cos a baby arrives, much as it TOTALLY feels like you have to get everything in advance, you really don't.

[Poledra]

DDs 1 and 2 were born in January and February respectively. In our warm but a bit draughty old house, they wore a vest, a sleepsuit and a cardi (thanks to mum, MIL and my auntie, lots of lovely handknits).

Outside, they had a hat, coat or snowsuit, blanket and pram cover. Unfortunately, although it's a bind, you do have to keep undoing the layers in a shop then refastening them when you go outside. That's when the blankets are a better idea, as you can flip them down and up easily.

In bed, they also wore the vest, sleepsuit and cardi combo, with a shawl for swaddling. DH would then cover them with a blanket when he came up to bed later and the house was getting cold.

If you want to judge their temp, don't feel their hands and faces, as these can be cold even when the rest of them is not. Shove your fingers down the back of their vest or onto their tummies to get a proper idea of how warm they are.

I would reuse blankets - have not heard of an increased risk of SIDS with them.

DD3 was born in July - it was so much easier not to have to worry about layering

[tinierclanger]

Newborns you would mainly put in a vest and then put a sleepsuit (the one with sleeves and legs and feet) over the top. DS wore pretty much this all the time for about 3 months. Brand new babies also need a hat for a day or two inside as well as outside. Then when you go out, a hat and maybe a cardie but you will probably have them in the pram with a cosytoes or blankets so you don't need to add a huge amount of clothing. At night just get them in a grobag as soon as they are big enough. They'll have a sleepsuit on inside that unless it's hot.
On very cold nights we used to have a heater in ds's room to keep the temperature up a bit.

[tinierclanger]

And you cannot have too many vests - buy loads!

[familyfun]

daytime wear, vest and sleepsuit over the top. when out in pram put a snowsuit/jacket over the top and a blanket and a hat.
nighttime again, vest and sleepsuit in feb, think sleepbags cant be used till 10lb in weight so we used moses basket sheet and blanket and saved sleepbags for cot when baby is older/heavier.
cute clothes are more hassle to change.
for shopping trip just take the blanket off the pram in the shop and maybe undo snowsuit/jacket if warm inside.
at night we set the heating at 18 so it cant drop below that as you dont want baby freezing cold and waking up.

[tablefor3]

For inside, I think that the basic rule is that the baby should be wearing the one more layer of clothing than you.

Also, please don;t forget their feet. Lots of babygros do not have feet at the moment (no idea why), so you must remember socks and/or bootees.

However, I promise that this will all fall into place.

[Deliaskis]

Thanks ladies, that's really helped. I accept I may be overthinking things (guilty as charged *smallwhitecat !), but as a complete newbie the over-saturation of options has left me confused. So many books etc. list what's needed, but not what is worn at any one time!

So basically:

• Vest and sleepsuit for indoors plus cardy if cold, plus hat very early on.
  
• The same at night, plus swaddle or sheet + blanket until big enough for grobag, ideally heating on thermostat so it's never super freezing, optional extra blanket if needed.
  
• Same as indoors for outdoors, plushat, but also with outdoor cold weather suit plus blanket in pram (doing up and undoing as going in and out of shops etc.).
  

Thanks all, I really appreciate it! We're really lucky as lots of this is borrowed and hand me down stuff, so I'm not going nuts with the credit card or anything!

Dx

[Bramshott]

I have a really useful tog guide thing they gave me when DD1 was born. It says:

Babies generally need coverings of 10-12 togs. Here are some examples of tog rating:
Vest 0.2 tog
Babygro 1 tog
Jumper 2 togs
Cardigan 2 togs
Trousers 2 togs
Sleep suit 4 togs (I think they mean those old-fashioned fleecy ones)
Sheet 0.2 tog
Old blanket 1.5 togs
New blanket 2 togs
Nappy 2 togs
Hat 2 togs

Basically you add the whole lot together. Hope that helps

[familyfun]

if baby is sicky, put a muslin cloth in moses and in pram and you can just change the musling instead of all the sheets each time then.

[CrazyPlateLady]

My DS was born at the end of January and my next one is due in feb (what date are you due?).

We were changing his clothes up to 5 times a day as he had reflux so make sure you have plenty of spares. Also, he hated being swaddled and I have never been able to cover his arms in a blanket. Even in the hosital photos, all his arms are free from the blankets so bare in mind not all babies like it. We had some hand knitted cardigans which were fab for putting over sleepsuits. As our flat at the time had no heating and DS wouldn't keep his arms in, he had to wear a cardigan to bed. I always made sure his hat wasn't on indoors, despite my nan insisting that he should be wearing one.

I recommend decent socks and scratch mits, not cheap ones. We got cheap supermarket ones of both and they never stayed on. My sister got some mits from Next and they were fab, as were their socks.

[CrazyPlateLady]

Oh yeah, the muslin thing saved us lots of sheet washing too. DS also had bibs on all the time when he wasn't in bed to catch as much of his dribbly milk as possible. Otherwise we would have been changing his clothes more than 5 times a day.

[Deliaskis]

Ah more useful tips, thanks again, am making mental note of it all!

CPL it's difficult with the bedding/swaddling/grobag thing as I know some of it will just depend on what s/he likes, but as I said, we have been given lots of stuff so at least I get to find out what suits before having to buy anything else!

Due 19th BTW.

D

[CrazyPlateLady]

You are not thick btw! I never knew any of this stuff before I had DS and I have been around babies my whole life.

If you are using a moses basket, putting pillow cases as sheets are a total life saver too if you have a sicky baby. You can also rotate the sheet around to the other side if they get it wet really quickly. We used many many pillow cases.

[ILovePonyo]

I don't have any advice but thank you for starting this thread deliaskis, my baby is due in Feb too and dp and I are starting to realise just how clueless we are about this sort of thing!

[loubaby1]

Thank heaven for threads like this, my baby is due start of Jan and i was wondering exactly the same thing, but not wanting to seem stupid! I didn't realise that they wore vests and sleep suits together!

[Deliaskis]

Glad it's not just me !

[Paribus]

well, my never wore a vest and a sleepsuit together- you might want to, if it's extremely cold inside, but normally it's just the sleepsuit or bodysuit(had to check the photos as don't remember that now!), either with short sleeves or with long sleeves. mine also didn't wear socks or hat inside- i read that little babies are normally hotter than adults, so if it's warm for us, it's boiling hot for them, and if it's cold for us, it's ok for them. and the only way to check if the child is hot/warm is to tuch his/her neck at the back- no nose, no ears, no hands or feet.

buy lots of these www.petit-bateau.us/Baby_girl_bodysuit_2_pack/pd/c/199/np/199/p/2226.html- not necessarily this brand, but tbh i found that they wash and wear so much better than the cheaper alternatives. buy several bodysuits with long sleeves+ some leggings to wear underneath the snowsuit+some bodysuits with long sleeves and long legs as laternative to leggings. buy muslins. buy one snowsuit for going out. buy several cute outfits for photos and guests. hat+mittens (unless mittens are part of the snowsuit). that's it ;-).

[Awitch]

see, i would advise not buying expensive stuff as when they shite all over it with that saffron yellow poo you can chuck it in relatively good conscience.

all you ladies who are going to hosp to have babies... take flip flops for the shower. if not, you will go in there, bleed like crazy, wash yourself down and it will only be as you walk out that the thought hits you that Every Single Person who was in the shower before you just bled like crazy over the same spot.

i'm not easily icked, but i do remember thinking 'wish i'd brought flip-flops...'

oh and good luck. labour is nippy but nothing you can't handle. and you get the BEST reward at the end.

[EdgarAirbombPoe]

babygros. with feet.

buy about ten of them - you may get more as presents. if you have alarge baby they may be out of newborn isze in a couple of weeks anyway. Tescos do sets of thr that very reasonable. You need no other clothing for winter.

other things

snowsuit (for pushchair/pram)
blankets (for, e,g in the car).

my sling is warm enough most days for baby to only wear babygro in but for a very cold day i'd use a snowsuit & sling combo.

everything else is unnecessary. you may want one hat but i think mine wear that once on the night they are born and then never again....

[GruffalosGirl]

I agree with EdgarAirbombPoe but would also get vests. My DS was born early december and never wore a hat indoors, he was 8lb14 though. Definitely get the thermometer thing from a grobag to tell you how to dress your baby - you will not believe how cold a room should be for a baby, It's 16 - 20, which is actually quite cold. I was always told that it's better for your baby to be too cold than too hot. If it's too cold they'll wake up but they won't if they're too hot. There's apparently a higher risk of SIDS in winter babies because people overwrap them and they overheat.

We got our little one in a sleeping bag asap as then they can't kick the covers off and sleep better. I think they can go in Grobag ones from 8lb as they have special side prestuds, I'm not sure about other brands though.

I was really worried about what to do right and ended up buying the "your baby week by week" book which I found brilliant for stuff like this and what's normal in babies - I would recommend it to anyone. It's also got a blanket chart in it telling you how many blankets you need for each room temp

[jkklpu]

Don't buy anything expensive for this stage at all - it will get covered in poo/sick/milk so no point. I remember being shocked at the amount of washing we did for the first couple of months. Just babygros and vests and a few cotton cardis/tops. Other people will give you loads. Remember the January sales could save you a lot of money, as could ebay for the basics.

[Awitch]

plus... NO CLOTHES. babies look like little weirdos in clothes. sleepsuits all the way.