Confused about baby clothes sizing!

[Nellynoo182]

Hey everyone,

FTM here!

We have just found out today we will be having a baby boy 🥰 I want to celebrate by buying some baby clothes as I have been waiting for what feels like forever to find out the gender!

I have seen a little outfit I would like to bring the baba home in. Should I be buying 0-3 months, first size, up to 1 month or looking for newborn only? My husband and I are both small, and the midwife has told me I won’t be having a big baby, but I’m confused by the 0 in the 0-3 months! Thank you ☺️

Also agree with the pp about coming home outfits. Totally understandable if you want to buy a special coming home outfit, but just have realistic expectations that they may not fit. Guessing baby sizes is not an exact science. Even with all the growth scans I had for my twins our daughter was significantly smaller than expected. My OH still had to do a last minute dash for prem baby clothes and she eventually wore her coming home outfit when she was about 3 months old 😂 they’ll look lovely in it whenever they get to wear it I’m sure though 😊

Also if people wanted to buy ours seasonal outfits, we just suggested going with the bigger size figuring they could wear an outfit slightly big, rather than finding it no longer fitted them by the time the day rolled around.

You don't know how big they will be. My daughter fitted into nothing we had on being born, but I had a selection of hand me downs of varying newborn sizes and something was suitable. I've actually never bought baby clothes, always used hand me downs from friends.

To add more confusion I think it depends on your babies shape - DD1 was 7lb 15oz, wore the up to 10lb/1month stuff for 2 weeks and then went into 0-3 as she was super long. I ended up then dressing her in leggings and vests as baby grows were too tight on her poor toes. I'm only 5'2" and hubby is 5'9" so we didn't expect a long baby.
2nd time around I packed the 10lb/up to 1 month stuff for the hospital but also some leggings to go over vests incase baby was too big for thoose sizes. Newborns are all squishy and curled up for a few days/week so fit into smaller clothes.
Personally I'd buy enough 10lb stuff to get you through the first week or so, then you can buy more if needs be, or start putting baby in the oversized 0-3 stuff x

Its not only weight it's length as well. My giant was 8lb 6oz at birth but was so long that newborn didn't fit and up to 1 month lasted a week! Luckily I had only got 3 sleepsuits of each. I would buy 0-3 and fold up sleeves and legs as required. But you say your family are all small so you may get longer wear out of them.

Newborn will be fine possibly too big if tiny baby. 0 to 3 will be big but will get used.

Don't buy an outfit. Sleep suits are best. Poppers up the front, nothing you have to take over their head. Think how uncomfortable you'd be sleeping in the outfit you buy. If you must buy something imoractical make it easy to change nappy in so poppers round the nappy if you insist on dungarees or similar. Layers are good for babies.

@ItsSnowJokes

I had newborn size and they gave me a preemie sized sleepsuit for dd1 because it was too big. She was term and I'm 5'6 both my DD's were in 0-3 still at 6 months

I've just sorted all my baby clothes out into their sizes (3rd baby), here's what I've found from baby clothes and the different shops etc

The order of sizes usually go:
Tiny Baby
Newborn/ First size
Up to 1 month
0-3month

Asda are generous on their sizing- they don't do an up to 1 month, they go Tiny baby, First size then 0-3 months- I think their first size is up to 10lb.

Tesco and Sainsburys are a little snug I found! But they do Tiny baby, Newborn, up to 1 month and then 0-3 month, their Newborn is up to 7.5lb and up to 1 month is up to 10lb.

Next do Tiny baby which is up to 5lb but then go onto First size which is up to 7.5lb. Then they have up to 1 month which is up to 10lb.

My previous two babies were 6lb 1oz (boy) and 6lb 11oz (girl)- my boy needed Asdas preemie stuff for a week then when into Tiny baby for a good few weeks! My girl needed Tiny baby clothes for about a month!

Your going home outfit likely needs to be newborn, or if it’s a big baby up to one month…..0-3 drowns most babies for at least the first month.

I bought 0-3 for DD1 but she ended up being 5lb 11oz (2nd centile) and nothing but early baby would fit (she was actually 2 weeks late@!). So my husband made a quick run to Mothercare after she was born and got some teeny tiny clothes. She didn't actually fit into 0-3 until she was about 5 months old.

FWIW she's now 14, athletic and the perfect weight 😊