Baby clothes - how much do we need?

[TruffleMama]

First time MTB and very confused about quantity of clothing and sizes that we'll need for her.

Of course, we've no idea what size/weight she'll be when she arrives, so do we buy any newborn clothing or do we air on the side of caution and buy "up to 1 month" and "0-3 month"?

I know newborns grow quickly and everyone is telling me they live in sleepsuits/baby grows, body suits and leggings for the first few months.

How many sleepsuits/babygrows, body suits and leggings do we need and which sizes?

I'm worried I'll end up buying too much and she'll grow out of most of it before she wears it. Or I'll focus too much on buying bigger sizes and won't be prepared if she is teeny.

Thanks all
~ TruffleMama xx

Ftm here too, my little one is 3 weeks tomorrow. She was 6 lb 13 at birth and the 0-3 month clothes swamped her. We also had first size from asda (up to 9-10lbs) we have 12 vests and 11 sleep suits which is enough for us. We had about half that when she was born and topped up when we knew what size she needed. We have lots of 0-3 month clothes but that is because a work colleague has given me loads from his daughter who is 9 months older than mine.

Hi @Superscientist

You've hit the nail on it's head. The clothing you bought in anticipation for your new born was too big. That's my worry.

I'm thinking to buy a couple of packs of cheap supermarket sleep suits and body suits in newborn size just in case my baby is small. If she's a bit bigger when she arrives and they are too small for her, at least I won't have spent a fortune on newborn clothes and I can give the new born clothes to my friend who is also expecting or donate them to a charity shop.

Good idea - buy the minimum now and you can always add, plus you may get a few gifts. Rarely do babies manage to get through a day without messing their clothes one way or another but they grow really fast too! If you cant resist shopping get some cute bibs.

Thing is, your baby will eventually grow into those 0-3 month clothes, so you may as well get them. Have a few newborn size items, but not too many.

From experience with my first 2 daughters. We had to go out and buy tiny baby as both of them one 6lb4 the 7lb4 were swapped by newborn and 0-3 month clothes. We only need a few as they grew out of them quickly. I will be doing the same for no3 x

Depends how often you want to run your washing machine! My DD was swamped in newborn sizes, but that looked kind of cute, and hospitals are nice and toasty warm so it didn’t really matter. DH grabbed some smaller ones the next day so she had some things that fitted. We only got 3 in the smaller size though, which was good as she grew out of them in 2 weeks anyway.

People will give you stuff in newborn and 0-3 month sizes, and if not, you can pick up multipacks in supermarkets (really not worth buying fancy stuff for those first few months).

My personal recommendation would be something along the lines of:
About 6 baby grows in newborn size. 12 vests (more likely to get leaked on and changed).
6-12 baby grows in 0-3 months, and 12-15 vests (get short sleeved unless you think they are likely to be freezing, you can always pile on blankets!) BUT wait until anyone that is likely to give you one has done so.
If you’re really worried about them being swamped, maybe 2 vests/grows in tiny sizes - if you need more, you can get more, but you may well never use them so I wouldn’t go bonkers.

We got six vest and six sleepsuits in 0-1m. We got three of each in 0-3m.

Two cardigans, two hats. A thin fleece onesie for outside. Handful of blankets and muslin squares. Couple of larger ones for swaddling.

I had a few bits in newborn size but mine never fitted into them at all; he went straight into 0-3m. But he's a very long baby; he celebrated turning 4 months by going into 6-9 month clothes!

I'd probably buy an eBay/facebook bundle of 0-3 and below. If you end up with a refluxy baby you can easily blow through 10 sets of clothes in a day being robust about little dribbles and only changing soggy or pooey clothes...

My washing machine worked pretty hard with DC1!

DC2 vomited less so needed fewer clothes, but did have some impressive nappy explosions!

We had one newborn sleep suit which was second hand. Otherwise I just bought 0-3m which was initially quite big on her but didn't seem a problem. I figured if she was particularly small that we could get her more clothes easily and at least we wouldn't have spent money on outfits too small for her if she was big!

I bought about 10 vests and 10 sleep suits initially and were lucky to get quite a lot of second hand vests and sleep suits which was helpful. She definitely spent most her time in those. And we were given a few outfits as gifts which she wore if we wanted her to be fancy! I didn't bother with leggings and actually when you're changing nappies so much, I found them quite annoying.

If you know anyone with a baby a few months older, definitely take up any offers of old clothes!

I had around 6 newborn gros & vests, nine were on the small side & would be in 0.3 from 3 months, 3-6 from 6 months etc

I think I had about 6x newborn sleepsuits and vests for DC who were 9lb+ so they didn't last long but it was easy to get DH to pick up some locally/order online once we knew what we were dealing with!

Remember that it’s not like when you go on holiday and have to have everything already. You can nip out to the supermarket or amazon prime some extra sleep suits if you find you haven’t got enough or are running low regularly. Also check the return policies and if you get packs close to your due date don’t open them and then you can always return or exchange for a different size if you need to.