Idiots guide to dressing a baby

[Mushroo]

I’m a FTM (5 months pregnant) and I seem to have a mental block around dressing a baby. (I promise I’m not normally this dense!).

Baby will be due in Jan so it’ll be cold. So far I have a few babygrows and a pack of sleep suits. But:

• what’s the difference between a babygro and a sleep suit?
• Do I put a vest underneath these? Or is it just nappy, babygro, cardigan (if needed). Can I just stock up on the onesies / babygros / sleepsuits? These are ok for public right? I don’t need ‘outfits’?
• what are bodysuits?! These seem to come in short sleeved and long sleeved. Wtf do I put on the bottom half? Do I need these?
• When I’m out and baby is in the pram, would I put the baby in nappy + vest, plus babygro plus pramsuit?
• Everyone seems to love muslins. What do you actually use these for?
• At night I’ve seen the sleeping bag things and the tog is based on temperature. Surely the temp of the room fluctuates through the night so what do you do?

Thank you from an overwhelmed FTM!

Oh, and the other thing about a pramsuit is if they doze off in the pram when you’re out, and you want to leave them snoozing when you get home (not an issue with DD, who woke up as soon as my key went in the lock), you need to be careful about overheating. Much easier to do a cardi and hat and then blankets, then just remove blankets and hat when you get home.

Mine was born in November. We dressed her in a sleepsuit and vest for the first few months. We used a short sleeved one underneath and that was fine. The long sleeve vests are really difficult to get on a newborn, although when she was bigger I did used to buy them and use them as tops. If we went out we'd put a cardigan on and wrap them in a blanket and hat.

Save your money and don't buy outfits - you'll get given so many and honestly, you'll be so shattered just dressing them in a vest and sleepsuit is the easiest option.

My top tip is to buy sleepsuits that zip up. They are a game changer!

Op my other tip is don't buy too much stuff.
Babies are different shapes, and so are clothes.
Nothing worse than baby waking you up in the middle of the night because their legs are stuck in a baby grow.
My skinny oldest would pull his legs into the body of the babygrow then straighten out but get both legs down the same leg hole.

As a mum to a five month old I look back at the end of pregnancy and I spent sooo much time worrying about the layers I would need to put baby in! Turns out it’s kinda straightforward to tell once you have baby - touch their chest or back of their neck to see if they are too hot or cold, and you spend so much time changing them anyway for nappies/ leaks/ sick that it’s best probably to just have extra layers you can add or takeaway! I found all the graphics for what to wear at night just too warm for our baby, she doesn’t like sleeping bags or blankets at all and sleeps happily in her sleepsuit or vest when it’s hot.

muslins - don’t buy lots you will get so many as presents in baby hampers etc! I’m always using one to stuff down my bra with fast let down/ now not wearing breast pads and baby also very distracted feeder so sprays everywhere - the big size is nice for a bit of a cover if in public. note I did NCT / had peanut app etc. I feel like no one really shared how much bodily fluid there is as a new mum!!!

Such a useful post!

Adding to the 'don't bother with outfits' at first chorus - too much hassle, and they are often designed without consideration for a baby who will be lying flat (bulky buttons and frills etc at the back) or for the person who has to extricate a poo covered baby from them.

Also to add, many tiny babies don't really like things pulled over their heads at first, so stick with front fastening babygros and sleep suits.

Also, don't bother with a coat when they're really tiny -it's like dressing a bird to get their arms through the holes. Blankets on top of car seats are more useful, less so a few months in when they start wriggling them off. At that point I found a 'star suit' really useful when it was cold - a literal star shape made of fleece, which isn't bulky like a snow suit but is easy to get on and off and just the right amount of warmth.

• what’s the difference between a babygro and a sleep suit?

Nothing.

• Do I put a vest underneath these? Or is it just nappy, babygro, cardigan (if needed). Can I just stock up on the onesies / babygros / sleepsuits? These are ok for public right? I don’t need ‘outfits’?

You dont need outfits, it's fine at that age for baby to go out in a babygro and cardi. I had a few wee outfits for wearing when i wanted to pop him in something a bit nicer but there's no need if you don't want to. I think I had 4 outfits and one for Xmas day. And just rotated the 4. They grow so fast there is no point spending lots.

• what are bodysuits?! These seem to come in short sleeved and long sleeved. Wtf do I put on the bottom half? Do I need these?

At the start i used a vest under baby gro or outfits for ds, but now he's older in summer i use a long sleeved vest and a light sleeping bag for him at night and a long/short sleeved vest and shorts/ bottoms during the day. These are also handy under dungarees as they don't get pulled up round them the way a t-shirt would.

• When I’m out and baby is in the pram, would I put the baby in nappy + vest, plus babygro plus pramsuit?

I Did vest baby gro and pramsuit when it was cold.

• Everyone seems to love muslins. What do you actually use these for?

you will also grow to love them. Use them for everything. But mainly for holding under their chin when they're being winded incase they spew, and just generally you'll want plenty so they're to hand for the unexpected spews.

• At night I’ve seen the sleeping bag things and the tog is based on temperature. Surely the temp of the room fluctuates through the night so what do you do?

Depends on the room, I set up our room thermometer before ds arrived to get an idea of what the temp in the room was doing. It never dropped by lots. In the early days they wake a lot so if you think they're cold you can add a layer or vice versa. It's better they be too cold and you add than too warm and they overheat during the night which is a sids risk factor. Now ds is older and sleeping through more I wouldn't wake him to change, but I might do things like open the bedroom door to increase air flow or a window if its too warm and see if that brings things down. You do get a gut sense for it though.

Congrats on your wee bundle arriving soon!

We have used the big (giant) muslins for many things: to secure a wobbly 6 month old in a chair when a high chair wasn’t available, as a cover up/blanket on a warm night, to lay baby on when needed (eg at someone else’s house and want to avoid baby being sick on the new carpet). Most recently they have been used as a makeshift skirt when a toddler wet herself and had no change of clothes or by my 3 yr old as blankets for her dollies.
We also still use normal size muslins to wipe snotty noses or clean faces.

Over the seat belts not under

I got gorgeous ani and anais muslins- the giant ones. They were brilliant. Playmat at someone else's house, blanket in Moses basket or buggy, breastfeeding cover, photo backdrop, mops up puke. The works. I got them in TK maxx and splurged on Harry Potter ones too.

Muslin squares catch all the milk that comes out of them. It saves your knees, shoulders and everything else.

Sleep suits are the same as baby gros. Vests and body suits are the same thing. The difference between sleep suits/baby gros and vests/body suits is that the former have legs. You can get them with or without feet. Are that time of year you'd want with feet.

You would always put a vest on and a baby gro over that. If you want your baby to have their arms bare, you would put trousers of some kind over the vest.

In January you're likely to want vest, baby gro and cardigan. You don't need to ever dress baby in a day outfit if you can't be bothered. I don't know why people bother. Just be aware that rooms can get stuffy so even if it's freezing outside, you might need to get them down to their vest if they're inside with the heating on. Whatever you're wearing plus one extra layer.

Try to keep the temperature relatively cool and stable through the night. Sleep sacks are great but swaddling is really effective when they're small as it keeps them snug.

You might need little mitts if their nails are sharp.

Top tip - vests are designed with a kind of fold in the neck. This is so you can, if you ever find the vest is too dirty to draw over baby's head, ease it downwards and get it off over their bottom/feet. This is very useful to know, as anyone who has had to cut their baby out of a vest after a poonami will tell you.

The information about not putting them into a car seat in a puffy suit is important too. Just a baby gro with a cardigan and then put a blanket over them.

If it’s any help, I didn’t realise vests and bodysuits were used interchangeably until DD was 2. And we’ve probably got more use from muslins after the baby stage (DD was very, very rarely sick) including as DH’s sweat cloth when he comes in from a summer bike ride 🤢

I can also recommend a set of cheeky wipes - didn’t really use as they were designed, as a substitute for wipes but ours are going strong 3 years in as a bath flannel, for hands and faces, dolls towel, to sit the water pot for cleaning paint brushes on, etc etc

Second the fleece star as an alternative to a pram suit, DD liked the carrier and she’d have been roasting in a padded pramsuit. Sleepsuits with zips are also much easier than a multitude of poppers.

I had a Christmas baby. Never bothered with a snowsuit as he was either warm in his pram under blankets, or warm in his sling. Instead I got a giant sized cheap fleece gilet and wore it over both of us while he was in the sling! When he got big enough to go on my back, I cut a head hole in the back for him and carried on using it. He had a selection of cute little hats, and some woolly booties when his legs got long enough for his feet to stick out of the sling. Vest, babygro on top, little cardigan if it was freezing, hat and booties. Later on I got him a little puffer jacket for in his pushchair so his arms stayed warm as he wouldn’t keep them in the cosy toes thingy. By that stage he was wearing more separates anyway. Snowsuits are the arse because they can’t wear them in the car, so you’d have to try and get them on in car parks and all sorts, and who has the energy for that shit with a newborn?! I myself do not.

I personally liked him to wear white babygros at night and colourful ones during the day so it felt like he was getting dressed, but that was just me.

God he looked adorable, if I do say so myself 😍

My husband questioned my over purchase of muslins, never understood why I bought a load. We were then gifted a bunch. And we would still run out at times.

He now listens to me when I buy things. And he loves them as much as me. So easy and simple.