Clueless FTM - Newborn clothes

[MrsB2019x]

Hi everyone,

We are due our first baby in August - we found out she is a girl last week so I have been starting to buy bits and pieces.

She currently has 7 sleepsuits in 0-1 month - will those be okay from the start or will we have to get some newborn size clothes as well?

I’m 5ft7, DH is 6ft4 and rugby player build so can’t see us having a small baby!

Thank you ☺️

My last baby was 9lb 1 and 0-3 looked just a bit too big

It also depends on the build of your baby, they could be long and slim or short and chunky

@aug2ftm I had a very almost 10lb baby, and 98th centile length too, and 0-3 was too big for her. We used up to 1 month for about 2-3 weeks (she was and still is a fast grower). That's the up to 10lb weight. They fit perfectly for her.

We had had maybe 12 sleepsuits and could have done with at least one more packet- we did one sleepsuit for day and one for night, and because we tried to dry on the airer and not tumble dryer, that meant washing every 2 days at least. If she had a day where she went through more than that we would have to put her in a 0-3, which buried her at first.

We had more 0-3 than that, but mainly because EVERYONE bought 0-3 sleepsuits as a present. She was out of those by 7-8 weeks and in to 3-6 months.

She's still a fast grower now and I'm buying 2-3 and 3-4 for her at 17 months 😂

The 0-1 month stuff we have got her is up to 10lbs - most of the newborn things we have found are up to 7.5lbs so was just wondering whether to just chance it with 0-1! There is a 24 hour supermarket 5 mins up the road from the hospital so can always send DH there if it swamps her

@MrsB2019x Congratulations on your pregnancy.

I would double the amount of sleep suits you get, 7 wont be enough initially, think sick, nappy leakage etc plus trying to keep up with your washing and drying. You will need the same number of vests and a little cardigan as a cover up.

I started with up to 1 month clothes initially but I knew from scans both babies were due to be large, yes they might be slightly big but you can turn the cuffs back if you want to.

I had winter babies (boys)so wanted them out of sleep suits in the day so they would be warmer so dressed mine in soft dungarees style outfits with bodysuits underneath.

You will need scratch mits if they are not on the bodysuit.

With it being summer you may be happy to keep baby in sleep suits for longer during the days.

They go through clothes so quickly, you will soon get into the swing of it and you will probably receive lovely outfits as gifts too.

Good luck.

If you really need a different size then you can buy baby grows from most supermarkets etc on next day delivery.

I'm currently expecting dc3, both 1&2 needed tiny baby size for the first 6 weeks. I have only bought newborn size as taking stuff back is more of a pain than ordering online.

It's difficult with your first but really you only need something to wrap them up in and to feed them with for the first few weeks plus a car seat if birth is away from home. Everything else is surplus and a lot of stuff you'll be told you need you really don't.

@Chocolatetrifle Thank you - I’m so conscious of going overboard and buying too much that she won’t end up wearing! We don’t have a tumble dryer though so will be air dried, so I think you’re right I’ll probably need at least 10

@aug2ftm a little bit but not totally swamped. Fitted fine within a week or two. But it depends really how long they are rather than weight specifically. A long skinny baby will grow out of babygrows quickly!

On a totally different topic, if you don’t have a tumble drier I’d consider getting a heated airer - means you can still dry things when it’s raining, without having to turn the radiators on. They aren’t expensive, and cost pennies to run.

My dh is 6ft 2 whereas o am only 5ft 3. I expected average babies but o had extremes at both ends. Dd was 5lb 10oz and was in tiny baby clothes for a long time. Ds was 8lb 10oz and was in newborn wlfor a day, he couldn't stretch fully so I put him into 0-3. Baby clothes are quite cheap, depending on where you buy so I would get a couple of each.

Just check the weight guides on the labels as different shops call different things “newborn”. My children were 9lbs at birth and they still wore newborn from John Lewis (up to 9lb) for the first 2 weeks and then 0-1 month (up to 10lb) for the next 2 so weren’t into 0-3 until they were a month old. Of course nothing wrong with slightly baggy clothes but I liked them to have some stuff that fitted.

@MrsB2019x ah you are welcome, another thought, you need a good few sleep suits to start off with as you don't know how long you may be in hospital for, plus washing always gets backlogged with a newborn, as a previous poster advised, you need a good drying system as you go through clothes so quickly. Some nights I would have to change newborn in the night if there was a leak or nappy explosion which unfortunately can go everywhere in the early days and nights. I recommend 14 up to 1 month sleep suits and short sleeve vests. I didn't bother with newborn size as I was expecting bigger than 7lbs babies.

Would recommend a tumble dryer if you have the space.
Wishing you lots of luck, exciting times ahead.

Thank you @Chocolatetrifle that’s really helpful ☺️

My son was 7lb 10 and we had to send a friend out the morning he was born to buy new born stuff because the 1-3m stuff totally swamped him.

One other thing, if you might go for reusable nappies you tend to need bigger sleep suits and vests (and definitely somewhere to dry things).

I always bought two or so "newborn" sizes, then a few more 0-1, and mostly 0-3.

My august baby lived in vests and leggings for his first month because it was so hot, so keep the heat in mind as well! He wasn't really in babygrows much until it cooled down a bit and then he was straight into 0-3.

I had a baby 3 weeks ago, bought loads of newborn clothes for him and he didn’t fit in any except a few vests. M&S and Next were particularly small. He was 8lb10oz when born but was really long hence why the newborn clothes were too small, and was measuring bang on the 50th percentile the whole way so wasn’t expecting him to be as big as he was! In any case, if you have plenty 0-3 month clothes you should be fine, they might be slightly big to begin with but better that than too small, and you’ll likely be going through clothes like there’s no tomorrow!

I would also wait until closer the time as you won’t know how big she will be yet

My ds was on track to be a nice decent weight so I bought lots of newborn stuff. We had problems at 35 weeks where he had stopped growing. He was born 2 weeks later and everything new born/ first size drowned him including new born nappies.

I had to ask people to bring in preemie nappies and preemie clothing

If you have an average or below they'll fit in the newborn and possibly smaller sizes initially but not for very long. You're best going for up to 1mth and 0-3 if you expect an above average size baby.

Our eldest fit in the 1st size/newborn for about a month, she was a dainty 7lb 7oz.
Our 2nd only just fit in the up to 1 month clothes for the 1st couple of weeks, he was 10lb 12oz but lost over 1lb in his 1st 5 days (bf didn't work out). Our 3rd was also big then our twins who were born at 38wk also went straight in to up to 1mth as they were 8lb 5oz & 8lb 11oz. With the younger 3 we went straight to formula feeding so they didn't lose much weight before gaining again.

Also, as a side note to people saying wait a bit and see what the scans say re size. Both my boys scans suggested they would be 10+ pounds and they ended up 8lbs and 7lbs 15. So take the scan sizes with a pinch of salt!

There are def two different sizes. In European measurements you get size 50 and size 56. Then 0-3 months is size 62. I had half my clothes from the UK and half from Germany so I could compare! With DS1 I only had UK clothes and it seemed to be newborn/first size and then 0-3 months. Up to 1 month didn't seem to exist then but this was 13 years ago now. With DS2's clothes that came from the UK some were labelled newborn, first size or up to 1 month and they usually had the centimetre measurement on as well (56 = 50-56 if you have a range).

But 0-3 was too big for both of my babies. Here are a couple of pics so you can see what I mean - the vests hung off them making them look starved and the sleepsuits caused their arms and legs to get lost and it was hard to do things like the car seat straps around them properly. Looking back at photos, DS2 fit into these clothes properly by about 6 weeks old, so a good chunk of time in the smaller sizes.

Size 50/the smallest one (excepting tiny baby/prem sizes) was miniscule and outgrown within about a day but did look absolutely gorgeous - there is something about little snug perfectly fitting clothes in the tiny sizes, so I do recommend having at least one thing in that size! But don't go nuts in case they do come out bigger.

YY the scan sizes are total rubbish - they can be massively out, so don't set too much store by those.

Im 5ft10 with a history of huge babies in my family and my partner is 6ft 3 and our son still came out (4 days early) weighing 7lb 12, I was expecting a 9lber so we had to get more newborn stuff.
He dropped weight in the first week like most babies do so was probably in newborn stuff for a couple of weeks, then first size until about week 4 now he’s just into 0-3 and weighing 10lbs from week 4/5.
Knowing what I know now I would have waited until I was on maternity leave then done some shopping, we got so many nice clothes gifts before baby arrived but they were all pretty much 0-3m or bigger. Plus if you leave it this late you can always send your partner back to your local shop to return them if baby comes out big ☺️
I also found different shops fit differently, for example my son grew out of Tesco’s 0-1m before he grew out of Asda’s 0-1 as the legs were shorter.
Not that it’ll be a big factor for your summer baby but I found that outer clothes (coats, snow suits, jackets etc) all seem to fit bigger than babygrows and sleep suits!