What to dress baby in?

[HoneyMum21]

I'm sure this has been discussed before but as a mum-to-be to DC1 in december i'm getting somewhat overwhelmed with what i should dress the baby in.
I know they are supposed to be in one more layer than we are, so obviously a bodysuit/vest to start with. I then thought, at least for the first 2 or 3 months, they'll be pretty much exclusively in sleepsuits day and night (obviously with extra layers for going out etc.) However, we were looking in mothercare today and DH thought we should be going for outfits - like trousers and tops during the day and sleepsuits just for bedtiime. I had just assumed that sleep suits/all-in-ones were the done thing because they are easier to change baby in but am i going to be judged as a bad mother if i don't go for the little outfits?

Ooh and a pile of soft flannels to mop up sick and put under baby's head in cot, car seat etc- you can reuse them later, unlike muslins, and you've time to buy them in the July sales.

Good luck!

H&M do zipped sleepers so no drafts/fiddling and great cross over vests. A few pretty cardis and a fleece suit and your sorted,sockons work great at keeping wriggly feet in long legs of sleepers and as one size work well for tights/socks later on.

For older winter babies adding trousers and top to bodysuit and sleeper is great.

funnily enough clothes was the thing I was most worried about! Sleepsuits for sure. DS wore short sleeve body or long sleeve body with sleep suit over top until about a year, then long sleeve or short sleeve body with put up jersey leggings for another year! even with T shirt over the top I hated that feeling of a cold baby tummy gap!
I changed sleepsuits for night time and then used sleepsuit and babygro/ snuggle sack for bed time - and liked the "routine" of bath and change of clothes even if just variation on a theme!

Also second M&S babyclothes, great, and good organic range and John Lewis had inexpensive basics too

I used to put soft leather soled shoes on DS to stop him pulling his socks off and to help protect his feet when cruising/crawling. These kind of shoes are designed for babies and don't affect the foot development.

I wouldn't have thought that a snowsuit would be a good idea in a sling at all if it's not one of the crotch-dangler ones, they get very warm just from your bodyheat.

Sleepsuits for new borns and start outfits from 3 months.

How do soft baby shoes, slippers or pumps impede foot development any more than socks?

lol @ Clarella

mine went barefoot everywhere unless it was really cold

DS was in vests (long-sleeved as it was winter and our flat was freezing) and babygros until 3 months. During the day I put him in velour (sp?) babygros plus a cardigan.

After 3 months I started dressing him in little dungaree outfits, usually with a long-sleeved t-shirt underneath.

From 6 months when he's outgrown all the outfits we'd been bought as presents and could finally start choosing for ourselves he was almost always dressed in a vest + joggers or jersey shorts (no pockets or stupid poppers as he's crawling). As he stands up really well, it's so easy to pull joggers up rather than do up all the poppers!

I've still got a couple of dungarees with poppers for when he's bigger but I'm definately not buying anymore. He's still in babygros at night but from 12 months he'll be in footless pyjamas which is good because he loves walking (holding our hands) and he slips in his babygros (wooden floors).

I'd recommend babygros for the first 3 months during the day, then a mixture of babygros and outfits until 6 months but then see how you get on. Cos at 9 months DS loves commando-crawling and so he almost never wears socks (except for going out) cos he can't get enough grip on the floorboards.

For my second I did babygro/sleep suits to 6 months and then poppered tops and dungarees to a year. It was perfect, you have years of outfits, cuddly babies in soft jersey is over in the blink of an eye!

Yet another thick question - if wearing dungarees or leggings and 'top', would a long-sleeved vest count as the top (for indoors) or would you put a t.shirt on top of that too?

Long sleeved vest is fine under dungers. You could add a short sleeved tshirt over it if you want to be a bit trendy

I often use a vest as a tshirt iyswim. So vest + shorts. But it really doesdepend on room temp. We moved from a freezing flat to a boiling flat when DS was 4 months and he is now often just in a vest (so cute!)

Depends on temperature really. In summer, I commonly use vest + shorts or leggings. You can get some really nice looking vests from sainsbury. I bought a pack of black and yellow ones for DD. It has polka dots and flowers on them, so it doesn't look like she's wearing 'underwear' going out.

In winter, I still tend to stick with short sleeve vest. I found it very hard to put a long sleeve vest underneath another layer of long sleeve clothes. Babies really don't cooperate! However, I did have some long sleeve vests for autumn, worn underneath short sleeved dresses.

By the way, don't make the mistake of buying a newborn jacket! I got a really cute one with fur and ears. But .... I couldn't get DD's arms through the sleeves! They have these really floppy and soft arms when born.

Following on from Duchesse, it's worth getting a big pile of cheap flannels (different colour from wash flannels, but light coloured so you can wash at 60 + degrees). When you change baby's nappy, fold vest / top / babygro under baby's back, and put the flannel under the bum. If the baby does a nappy-off wee, it'll get absorbed by the flannel and you won't need a clothing change.

I didnt really get on with sleep suits - all thoses damn poppers in the middle of the night!

At night, I much prefered the old fashioned long nighties with elasticated bottoms. They can be quite hard to find but JL normally have them. Most of mine were passed down & originally sent from the US or bought in Gap (but I havent seen them sold in there for years)

DS1 was very curly and used to end up bunched up inside the sleep suit with the legs just dangling.

Ditto with one piece "day" outfits, so he tended to be dressed in leggings/trousers & then long sleeve tshirt or long sleeve vest worn over a short sleeve vest if cold.

DS2 was born in a heatwave so only wore nappy & vest for first 3 months of his life lol

I always looked for bottoms with feet whilst they were little as even the supposedly fab Gap socks do.not.stay.on little feet.

My DM had a thing about teaching baby "night from day" which I kinda went with, so I always put my two into outfits in the day & sleepsuits/nighties at night.

However I like babies to look like babies so no denim/shoes, they were always in soft leggings/trousers/tights (when I could find boy colour tights) and tops or DS2 wore all-in-ones, all with no or very little fastenings. (You see so many newborn clothes with fastenings on the back - why? surely it would be uncomfortable to lay on a row of buttons all day?)

Tights are great for boy babies - mine wore them as trousers when very little and then under their trousers in cold weather till potty trained. no lost socks! (it is just difficult to find boy friendly ones)

The time may yet come when you are happy to put whatever is clean and dry on the baby, and desperate to find anything that fits that description.

Buy what is cheapest and easiest to wash because they grow really fast and are very leaky in the beginning.

Someone probably said this already, but if you go babygro plus vest, check what sleeves you get on the vest. They go from long sleeved through sleeveless to the ones that look like old man vests, with a sort of wide shoulder strap basically. I found the sleeveless ones a lot easier to get over the head of a wriggling baby. But then the long sleeved ones are better if you're using a sleeping bag. We put the sleeping bag over the sleepsuit plus vest - for my little 8 weekers, that counts as getting changed for bed!

GetOutMyPub What about dungarees or rompers did he get bunched up in those like babygros or was he OK in those?

I saw a comment above re keeping socks on. These are great

www.sockons.co.uk/

You can get them from jojo maman bebe and elsewgere

Another vote for sockons if you want to keep those socks on! I have seen them in mothercare, sainsbury and also online at amazon.

Yep, sock-ons were fab for my wriggly DD!

nappyaddict

yes to rompers not sure about dungerees, i dont know if I had any in newborn size, but I love babies in dungerees and he was in them loads from 6 months plus, cannot remember if he wore them before that.

He was 57cm long and 8.9 pounds so was very squashed up inside me.

DS2 was heavier at 10pounds but 55cm long, he was more crooked than curly so I didnt have the same dressing issues, however it was too hot for clothes so he spent the first 8-12 weeks of his life in just a vest