Sorry I’ve been AWOL, I’ve not been well and I wrote this and didn’t post. I’ll post the summer list that worked for us and then some explanation.
Summer clothing list
- Short sleeve vests x10-15
- Sleep suits x7-10
- Hats x1-2 the soft baby hat type
- Summer hat x1 we found this helpful for covering his neck in the sun
- Outfits x2-3 I’m a fan of rompers and would would include them here.
- Socks to go with the aforementioned outfits
- Cardigan x1-2 we didn’t buy any small size, just 0-3 so they’d last longer but we didn’t really use these, see below on blankets.
- Blankets/sleeping bag/pram suit: we didn’t use a sleeping bag or pram suit with DS when he was little, only blankets.
So it obvious depends on how often you’re doing laundry, but I’ll assume a couple of times a week. You can manage with fairly few items but it’s mostly about ensuring there’s enough for when they’ve sicked up for the 3rd time that morning. DS was not a sicky baby, and I probably would need more if he had been. Also everyone does things differently so it’s about what works for you: eg DS was in sleep suits / onesies most of the time even during the day, we’d get him “dressed up” when we went out but at home he wore what was convenient.
I suggest extra vests because in the heat DS didn’t always wear much but would pretty much always wear a vest. Also if there are any nappy explosions you don’t always need to change the entire outfit.
I wouldn’t buy too many outfits as these are what people most like to gift; some items never got worn, partly because my taste differs to the gift giver and partly because he was out of “up to one month” by 3 weeks. “Newborn” even quicker. My sister was gifted 30 sleep suits for her first born in 3-6 months, needless to say they didn’t get used.
For going out in the sun I was told to cover everything, so DS often wore sleep suits (without vests if it was very hot) and kept him in the shade too. He still got hot. DS was born in a heatwave and those first 2 weeks really stressed me out in terms of what to dress him in, I was constantly checking his chest. When we left the hospital, despite everything we read, he didn’t wear a hat nor was he covered in a blanket: just vest and sleep suit.
Blankets should be used “feet to foot” so feet of the baby at the foot of the cot/pram then tuck a blanket around them. You can Google it but it’s to do with safe sleep guidelines. We had light receiving blankets (aka large muslins) and thicker cotton blankets (including the cellular kind). The thing I preferred was that we could easily add or remove a layer, we could used them as a swaddle, they were versatile so if they got dirty I wasn’t panicking about laundering it quickly and I could use them as a breastfeeding cover. I even used them as a “playmat” (aka clean space) at peoples houses / the park.
A word on muslins, standard size is 60x60. But I preferred 70x70 (Muslinz brand) and I would recommend. I also had some 100x100 given to me and I bought large 120x120, having a range of sizes sounds silly but I found it really helpful.