Some questions regarding newborns

[Nobhobs]

Pregnant with my first, a little boy. He will be born in July.

What clothes do I need to for the first few summer months, style quantities and sizes.. all advice welcome

Also not sure what to sleep baby in clothes wise or bedding wise. He has a next2me crib.. not sure whether to get swaddles, cellular blankets, sleeping bags etc?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated
Thank you

Rule of thumb with a baby is for them to wear an extra layer than you are wearing so most likely a vest and a sleepsuit probably not bother with a hat , if it's very hot maybe get some rompers ( the ones that cut off at the knee and elbow )

Very difficult to tell with an English summer !

Quantity of sizes is hard to advise on , my baby missed out newborn went into up to 1 month and then at 2 weeks old was in 0-3 , by 2 months old he was in 3-6 .
So I would just get a small amount to begin with you don't know if your going to have a 5lb baby or a 9lb baby , the best advice I have seen is to leave the labels on the clothes so you can take them back if you don't use them ( only work if you buy them close to due date ! )

If you can afford it, you could buy a Finnish Baby Box. My mum got me one for my baby and it has been absolutely brilliant. All the clothes are adjustable for sizing and it gives you everything you need for the first year in one box. You enter your due date so they can give you seasonally appropriate things. I don’t have a link but if you google it it should come up. You can even use the box as a Moses basket as it comes with a mattress!

Not sure about clothing as had winter baby, but we used cellular blankets in next to me crib to start with as baby was too small for sleeping bags.

I’d buy 10 of each sleeveless vest and sleepsuit.

I’d buy them in up to one month size if you can. My little boy is 3 weeks old tomorrow and already growing out of the newborn size and he wasn’t massive when he was born (7lb 15).

I’d also have a couple of light cardigans and one thicker one.

Swaddling isn’t recommended these days and neither are hats indoors. Maybe get one or 2 light hats for outside.

Definitely get a cellular blanket or 2.

The sleeping bags can be used from 4kg/8.8lbs

I was under prepared in the end and had not much newborn stuff in and baby ended up being a small baby so had to go get a good bit of clothing etc and tbh baby is over 11 weeks an wish I had bought a mass of sleepsuits and grows as I wasted silly money on little outfits! Even though it's nice to have a few. Comfy and easy to put on as they don't like a lot of fuss

Sleeping bags have a minimum weight but lots of babies can use them straight away. If you look on the gro bag website they tell you what they need for to wear for bed depending on the weather in room.

Size of clothes all depends on the size of your baby! My midwife said to ask her at 34 weeks and she told me to buy up to one month and they only lasted two weeks. How big a baby were you and the babies Dad?

As people have said, so hard to say. DS was born in July 2018 and he wore nothing but a vest or even just a nappy for the first six weeks of his life and slept under a muslin, but then this year's heatwave was freakish. We were a bit disappointed when packing away a load of completely unworn lovely little outfits/cardigans/etc.!

My son was born in July.... he wore a vest and socks a lot as it was so hot. X

DS was born in mid June.

I got him a lovely newborn set from MC. It had 7 parts.

They need a hat and mittens.

Then it came with a cardi, trousers and long sleeve top. Short sleeve vest. Sleepsuit.

The hospital had dressed him in case plus sleepsuit, hat and mittens. He was born on the hottest day of the year and it stayed like that for a while. When we got home the most he wore was a vest. We have quite a few photos of him in just a nappy. It was ridiculous.

I'd say go with those sets. They're really helpful and you know you have all bases covered then. He had other clothes that were passed onto us. I used sleepsuit for nighttime and vests and trousers for day. Always kept a cardi and blanket with us whenever we travelled 😊

Feel their belly for their temperature to see if they're too hot or cold.

I got given loads of stuff from friends/family so barely brought anything but I'd say a pack of vests and a pack of sleepsuit to start. If it's hot like last year, baby will mostly be in a nappy, I found rompers brilliant for when we did go out. I didn't buy anything clothing until about 6 weeks before I was due and we'd played guess the weight with the midwife!

I really like sleeping bags and you can buy them in all weights but again there is a minimum weight so might be worth waiting a while as they can be expensive.

Re sleeping bags I've bought grosnugs (mainly the light ones, June baby) as these can be used from birth and also keep the arms in like swaddling, rather than the sleeping bags for older babies which seem to all have arms out.
I've never read anywhere else that swaddling is 'out' though? I thought it was considered preferable to use the bags rather than traditional bedding?

In July probably a vest and a sleep suit to start with. Cellular blankets are fine. Remember the bigger worry is that they get overheated. Some kids like swaddles and some don’t. I swaddled just using cellular blankets. Buy a decent quantity of vests, sleepsuits and muslins. In the heat you can even use those as blankets. That’s pretty much all you need.

I had an August baby and actually it was autumn by the time we were really going out. I feel like he had all of his little baby time in the cold months.

Get short sleeved vests in newborn, 0-3m and up to one month. 7-10 of each. (Up to one month doesn't exist everywhere/is sometimes the same size as newborn, so it doesn't matter if these overlap). Get 7-10 sleepsuits in 0-3m, and maybe one pack in newborn. Don't get other clothes unless you get them second hand for pennies - it's not worth it. Suss out where the cheap multipacks are that you're happy enough with the quality, and/or the cutest designs that you're happy to pay more for, and order some online once you get home and work out what you're actually using faster than you can wash.

Rompers can be good for summer but not for newborns, it's pointless. You just end up sticking them in a short sleeved vest.

Bedding wise - if you have a next2me that means you might be part time co-sleeping in which case don't swaddle, it's not recommended to combine the two. It doesn't matter if you're using a swaddle product or a light blanket. I would buy a couple of cellular blankets, because these are useful if she is close to you and you want to cover her while keeping your own duvet away. It's easy to adjust layers and she won't overheat. Get cot size because you'll be sharing it most likely.

Then once she's consistently staying in the next2me/going back after feeds you can use sleeping bags, I'd get a 0-6 month size one in winter weight, as it's more likely you'll be using it over the winter, but just one - again, the day you use it successfully, order a second.

Heyha Sleeping bags aren't the same as swaddling, it's the arms in which is the issue. It's not bad though if your baby can't roll yet and they are in their own cot.

I would just buy a few vests and sleep suits and a cardi to start off with. Everything else can be bought once baby is here, but they grow so fast that I had some items which only made it through 2 wash cycles before it was too small!

One of my summer babies was born in a heatwave and wore mostly vests for his first 3 months, whearas my other ds was born during a wet and miserable summer so he wore vest, top and leggings (I personally hated and struggled with popppers) cardi And hat (so 3 layers)

Most people tend to buy clothing in the smaller sizes so you may end up with more newborn outfits than you need - I took lots of gifted outfits back and exchanged for the same outfit in bigger sizes. All of the bigger brands eg M&S, mothercare, gap let me exchange without a receipt.

Large Muslins are great for summer babies, they can be used as a blanket or for swaddling, cover when breastfeeding, trapped in car window for extra shade, burping/winding.

I'd go with lots of vests and onesies no outfits as such for the first while to keep it easy and you can buy quite a large number from primark, Matalan, Asda, Sainsburys etc the first few weeks can be quite an adjustment and baby's spit up and nappies leak so more quantity than quality for the first little while. Also get some muslin cloths to throw over your shoulder when feeding, I rarely got spit up on me which was great and the cloths wash and dry quickly.

One thing you might already know or might be news - don't drape things over the baby's pram to act as a shade in sunny weather. It traps the hot air inside and it gets too warm for them.