9wks to go... what do I dress the baby in?

[PurpleCrazyHorse]

Hi, I'm 31wks pregnant with our PFB! But I'm hoping you lovely MNers will be able to help... I have no idea what we'll need to dress her in.

I'm guessing babygros but there's so many types to choose from. Are babygros all-day wear? Do we need little outfits too? Sorry, I'm just so confused

Babygros are all day wear. No need for outfits - bgs are so comfy and snuggly for little ones.

Bog standard from Mothercare is fine though - they grow so fast that they only seem to be in a particular size for 2 minutes

Just babygros, some vests in case it is too cold/too hot for just a babygro.

They don't need to be anything fancy but you can but some pretty ones if you want to of course.

I personally don't think they really need outfits for the first few months but some people enjoy dressing babies up. My DD had a couple of pretty dresses for when we were going to things but apart from that she stayed in babygros and vests.

At that age I don't think you need little outfits. Sleepsuits or rompers are perfect for that age at this time of year. The sleepsuits are the ones with full arms and legs, and many have built-in mits which can be very useful to prevent scratches. Rompers have short arms and legs and are perfect for hot days

I think the main thing is to have them in cool, soft, comfortable clothes. Plenty of time for outfits when they're past 6 months imo

Also they tend to dribble quite a bit and things can get quite stained, so you don't want anything to fancy anyway

Both mine were 8lb ish at birth, and were in 'newborn' size babygrows for about 10 days. They really do grow fast at that age!

Babygrows and vests for the early days, maybe a little cardie if cold. Oh, and the midwives always try and get a hat on the baby as soon as they're born. If you can get early sizes as hand-me-downs you can save your cash for later on...

yep i'm with CMOT too on this, they are so comfy and you want an easy life for the first few weeks anyway. PLUS people are so kind when a baby is born, you'll probably be inundated by lots of lovely outfits anyway! top tip on that front is to keep a list of who gives you what - baby brain will erase or confuddle details all too quickly!
Good luck though - such an exciting time!!

i found that i couldn't put a lot of babygros on dd as she was long and thin and feet were restricted. i found seperate cotton leggings and tops/ babygros without feet much more versatile, but definitely go with the babygro/ sleepsuit idea.

I'm also 31wks- I have (in newborn size) some cotton babygros, some romper suits (short arms and legs) in case the weather is hot in early September, some socks and a few velour all in one suits (left over from DD).
In 0-3 I have the same again, just in more quantities as we are recycling all DD's stuff. I have a few cardigans, some vests in both long sleeve and short sleeve and that is it. I never bothered with 'outfits' until she was about 6mths old. Trying to get jeans on a squirmy little baby is near impossible!

DS is nearly 7months and I only put 'clothes' on him for visitors or going out, still in babygrows/vests most of the time. Just a vest and nappy when its been hot. Nice to put a nice outfit on occasionally but when nappies leak/baby vomits on a cheap babygrow from Asda it won't upset you too much when the stains won't come out

My DS is 12-weeks old. He wears sleepsuits at night after his bath. I only have 4 that fit as he grows so fast and his little feet get caught when he grow out of the suit.

During the day he has some romper suits but I prefer dungarees with T-shirts. At the moment these are all worn with a vest underneath for warmth. I like dungarees because the dungarees go in the wash if he poos/ wees on them and I don't have to disturb his painful excema on his arm or the still raw BCG jab spot by removing the T-shirt. Likewise if he is sick on his T-Shirt I can switch that without removing the dungarees. He hates getting undressed!

Good luck

Thanks so much. Been busy tonight and didn't expect so many replies.

Babygros all the way then.... I just didn't want to get pulled in to buying loads of random and probably impractical stuff. There's so much stuff advertised I'd started to lose the plot. Might get a little secondhand outfit or two just in case we're feeling brave and no great loss if we don't use it.

Although I've got everything on eBay so far, I can feel a pull towards the Vertbaudet catalogue for a gorgeous coming home babygro!

Thanks once again, really fab to get some practical 'motherly' advice.

Useful gift tip MummyElk, will ensure DH makes a note so we can say a personal thanks. In fact DH will probably be doing that too, I'll be napping during any spare moment

Also, get the babygros that fasten up the front with poppers, as they are easier to put on than the ones that have to be pulled over baby's head and only have poppers by their legs.

Definitely babygros and/or rompers if the weather gets abit warmer. Aaah, feel all broody now for newborn snugliness, and DS is only 6 months .

Next babygros are lovely; good quality and they have turn over cuffs....little built in scratch mitts. they also do an "up to one month" size which you will get a lot more wear out of than newborn sizes. You could skip newborn alltogether and just accept that baby will look a bit swamped for a week or so; they soon fill out their clothes!!

the vertbaudet ones are lovely but a lot of theirs tend to have the poopers at the back, like a bum flap affair....seems a bit impractical to me, and baby is lying on the seams which must be a bit uncomfy.

little shortie rompers are great for summer babies and look sooooooo cute!

As others have said, I would save any proper day wear outfits until baby is a good few weeks old; there are so many other things going on so keeping the clothing as simple as possible until you get to grips with being a parent is the best way. It took me until baby 3 to learn this though, and he lived in babygros until he was about 8 weeks

I agree with most posters here that outfits are difficult and impractical for new babies - I didn't buy any of these and ended up returning quite a few that I got as gifts (although I did exchange for the same outfit in a much bigger size). My almost 6mo DS is currently spending most of his time in patterned bodysuits (£5 for 7 from ASDA) and jogging bottoms as he tends to vomit over himself at least 3 times a day! I'm looking forward to putting him in more outfits when he is a bit bigger but for the moment I like him to look like a baby.

I know everyone has already shouted 'Babygros!' at you multiple times and I agree with them. The other thing I found useful were some hand-knitted cardigans to pop on over the top (mind you, I had mostly winter babies ) which my oblinging DM and DMIL provided.

lolling at my typo "poopers" up the back

LackaDaisy, I reckon all the babygros in this house have had poopers up the back at one point or another!

Thanks LackaDAISYcal, I'll stick to drooling over the Vertbaudet catalogue but buy some practical babygros instead. There's some lovely stuff in Next so I'll get one or two 1-2 snazzy ones. I really am a baby novice especially regarding poo but also poppers. Thanks so much.

BirdyBedtime - thanks for the heads up on returning the outfits for a larger size. I would have assumed I should have been able to cope with a whole outfit and probably started a thread on feeling rubbish because I couldn't get baby tights on DD!

Big thanks to everyone else too, I'm feeling quietly confident .

You will be bought so many outfits anyway, so yeah just baby grows & vests although we prefered long nighties at night as couldnt cope with the poppers in a dimly lit room with sleep deptrevation. They are hard to find, ours were given to us but have seen them in John Lewis & Mothercare recenlty

With the outfits that we were bought, i took back most of the smaller sizes and changed them for the same thing in a bigger size if possible or something similar in a bigger size.

DS2 was 10 pound so was straight into 0-3 anyway so the outfits would have been wasted if I hadnt of changed them.(newborn size is usually smaller than 0-3)

Enjoy your early days with baby- they go so quick!

oh, tights on newborn baby grls.......why do people make their life more difficult than it needs to be

purplecrazyhorse, you have found MN so you're halfway to being a great parent already...

...the other half will slip once the baby is actually here