What to buy a newborn

[FirstTimeMumApril19]

So, I appreciate I should probably know this now there is only 9 weeks to go so please be friendly!! What does a baby wear during the day?

I have brought some sleepsuits (I'm assuming these are the equivalent of pj's) and I have some short sleeve vests. Am I meant to be buying sleep suits for daywear too?

Thank you for help.

You'll probably want to primarily buy clothes in the 3-6 mo size. Babies outgrow clothes (especially newborn clothes) VERY quickly and some larger babies never fit newborn things.

When Baron Trapp and his family came to America, Maria, his wife, was pregnant with their tenth child. She had brought a whole suitcase full of dainty, frilly, pleated clothing from Austria. She showed it to her American friend, Sophie. Sophie said to her, "And who is going to wash and iron all this every day? [Pleats and shirring have to be ironed.] A baby doesn't need all that. Three shirts, a couple of dozen diapers, and a pair of rubber pants." Maria said at the time she didn't know how a baby could be brought into the world with only three shirts, a couple of dozen diapers, and a pair of rubber pants! But that's what she bought, and they managed.

Sleep suits and Babygros will probably be pretty standard for baby at first. When you start buying proper clothes, you'll want to make sure you have easy access for diapering (many trousers and shorts have snaps on the crotch and legs for this purpose) and you may find that shirts with snaps on the shoulder are easier for dressing baby. Babies often don't like having tight things pulled over their heads. You also want to avoid a lot of frilly, lacy things if baby is a girl. Yes, they're adorable, but babies often don't like a lot of lace or trim on their clothes - it can get itchy and uncomfortable.

This is all so helpful, thank you so much.

One important thing to remember is you can still buy things after the baby is born. Sounds daft but I know there's a compulsion for absolutely everything to be ready when the baby arrives (I was the same!) If you find you need something, it'll be easy enough to get hold of - if you can't go out to buy it, you can send someone or order online.

My DS was born humungous- found we didn't have nearly enough sleepsuits in his size. The ones I'd taken to hospital were too small, so they dressed him in one they had spare. DH and DD popped down to Sainsburys and bought more. Don't worry too much about it.

Don't forget plenty of bibs and muslin sheets!

We started with the grosnugs as they give the option of arms in or out and can be used from newborn DS moved on to proper grobags after about five weeks. We got good deals on ours on Amazon. Someone bought us an m and s grobag and whilst it's lovely it didn't have the extra poppers under the arms to stop him sliding down into it so it's still too big at twelve weeks even though it says 0-6 months

We had the opposite problem where DD was too small for the clothes we had bought (born at term, just little) so we had to go to asda and buy "tiny baby" size.

Realistically if you live within 30 mins of a decent sized supermarket you can get ANYTHING you are likely to need at short notice anyway, so there's no need to buy loads in advance.
Amazon prime free trial for the first month of babys life (if you dont already have it) could also be useful

I have nothing to add that's useful, but I just wanted to say that I didn't have a clue when I was having my son. I found it so overwhelming! I also had absolutely no clue what I was supposed to do with him in the evening. Does he go to bed? Does he stay downstairs with me until I go to bed? Do I move the crib downstairs every day?

I just wanted you to know you're not alone.

Oh I didn't buy any tiny baby and only s couple of new born bits as DH and I are both tall as cash was born at eleven pounds and I had gestational diabetes so all signals for a big baby. DS is a midget! We also found people tend to buy 0-3 months and onwards saying 'we know you'll get lots of newborn things as parts so we bought bigger' , but it was fine. I was able to send DH to Primark for extra small vests and do an online mother care order after he was born. Oh and sizing is a lottery! Primark run small, as do la redoute such was great for us, mamas and papas are slim which is good if you've got a birdlike baby. Next are huge. John Lewis had some really nice stuff that wasn't typical pink or blue and sizing seemed fairly accurate
M&s fairly generous, Tesco quite long. We were bought some lovely quality things from Morrisons (nutmeg) there's not one near us which is a shame. DS is over twelve weeks and only just going into most 0-3 stuff. DN is three weeks older and has been in 3-6 month stuff for a while.
On the whole don't stock up too much on anything until you know what shape baby you have, including nappies.

Ha, sorry. Thought that said WANT to buy a newborn 😂

But I'd recommend lots of onesies both of the long arm with short leg, short arm and leg and long arm and leg varieties and tights or trousers.
I wouldn't really bother with lots of 'actual' clothes until they're older & more mobile.

No idea, but have to say I'm really relieved that it was only a mis-read and you don't really want to buy a new-born...the world really tilted on its axis for a minute there, when I thought that it had become acceptable to pop that on a public forum for advice.