What size to buy newborn

[NightSkyWanderer]

This just really confuses me.
There's newborn, 0-3 upto 7lbs upto 10lbs I just find it baffling which size I'm supposed to choose for a newborn baby Advice would be appreciated.

It will depend on your baby and how big they are... length and weight.

Mine were 7.5lb and 8lb... they both wore the up to 10lb stuff for a couple of months.

A friends baby needed the up to 14lb stuff straight away... 9lb at birth.

Other friends needed the 7lb clothes... born at 6lb.

Do you have an idea of rough size ie had a sizing scan etc?
If not first baby, what size were the others.
If absolutely no clue and it's a gift go for 0-3 months.
If it's you and your expecting your first - congratulations - get a couple of three packs up to 7lb and then 0-3 months etc so you've covered all bases.
Xx

Go for newborn at first. Unless you are expecting a very large or small baby.
My biggest was 8lb9 and 60cm long and still needed newborn for the first few weeks and that was with a bulky cloth nappy too. Have some 0-3 sleepsuit and vests as back up as you will use them at some point anyway.

I bought a small number of newborn clothes and everything else 0-3. Yes, lots of the stuff was too big for a bit but who cares?
If it's a gift, go for 0-3 months.

Is this for your own baby or as a gift?
My DD was born early so I had to get her tiny baby ones last minute but originally I bought 0-3m ones that probably would have been ok if she was born on time.
As a gift for my niece I just bought 0-3m ones as much rather they are too big now as she can grow into them.

Yes , first baby so have no idea. I'm almost 21 weeks so not that far along but I'd hoped to have everything got by week 30 to be prepared as we're moving home in May and I don't think I could handle the stress of having to move plus trying to source clothes. Do they estimate weight closer to due date?

Hi - have you had your 20w scan? Usually they can measure limbs etc and plot where they are on the growth chart. My first one was pretty average at just over 3kg (6.8lbs or so) and 0-3m was too big until she was about 8w old. This time around I’m getting some newborn sleepsuits, vests and leggings, with the idea of switching to 0-3 after a few weeks again. I appreciate they’re not in the early sizes for very long, so I’m actually buying off Vinted to reduce waste/cost

Everyone told me not to buy newborn stuff and I listened to them. Baby was 7lb 7oz so completely average size and I ended up ordering newborn clothes the day we left hospital. He wore them for about a month and the 0-3 month clothing still had tons of room when he moved onto that.

Also loads of people will give you clothes for newborns, either new or hand me downs, so just buy the bare minimum.

Agree that unless you have a really big baby (9lb +) newborn size will be your best bet. Mine was 7lb2 and needed newborn for like 6 weeks at least. Remember they tend to lose a little weight before they start increasing. 0-3 months were huge. If you can find them "up to 1 month" or 0-1 were a nice in-between size.

I also found that everyone gifted us 0-3 months. We ended up with almost 30 sleep suits in that size, he wore each one once and then grew out of that size 😂

I had newborn sizes for my first but she was nearly 10lb so went straight into 0-3. My second I still had all newborn but she was over 10lb, by third I'd got rid of newborn and got 0-3 but he was only 7.5lb. Number 4 I had no idea and had some random sizes, he was 4 weeks early but still 6.6lb. Also different shop come up different sizes. Get 0-3 but also some newborn vests and sleepsuits.

My 7lb babies wore the up to a month for a few weeks. Newborn drowned them initially.

Up to 1 month size works well if you have a larger baby who might not fit into newborn. My 9lb baby fitted these straightaway whilst some 0-3 month stuff was too big (and other 0-3 month stuff fitted just fine, it is a minefield!).
OP definitely get 0-3 month stuff as you will need it anyway, then a couple of newborn bits but not too many. You can get more if needed.

Get plenty of 0-3, you’ll know you’ll need it so nothing wasted. Then I’d also get a few newborn sleepsuits and vests. Most 7lb-something babies, which is pretty average, will fit newborn for the first couple of weeks. If baby is smaller and you need more then that’s what next day delivery is for, or you can dispatch DH to a supermarket. But equally if they don’t fit at all then you won’t have overbought. In your hospital bag I’d pack newborn but also one 0-3 just in case. DD was 7lb13, lost a bit of weight after birth and fitted newborn for nearly a month. DS was 8lb3, never lost any birthweight and he went straight into 0-3. Weirdly they thought DS would be under 7lbs based on the many scans I had so don’t be tempted to go off those either because they’re wrong a lot!!

This is written on my sheet if this is any help regarding baby's growth. I've no idea how to understand it

For me with 2 DD newborn was a waste of money.

My Jan 24 DD was born 8lbs3, by day 5 was 8lbs13, by day 9 was 9lbs 3. At her 6 weeks check weighed 12lbs7 .
Because she is tall and has big feet she couldn't straighten legs in newborn so went straight into 0-3 (my 38 weeker DD1 was born 7lbs4 but also tall with big feet so in days newborn didn't fit).

I will say that cheaper clothes stores (grocery, primark etc) come up bigger than the more expensive brands (mammas and papas, next ) etc.

The "centile" is the relevant bit. A baby at 50% is average, your measurements are all slightly below average. Newborn will fit fine, but get some 0-3 bits in case they are unexpectedly much bigger as you will need them eventually anyway. In utero measurements are never 100% accurate

I didn't have money to waste so just went for 0-3 size which were initially a bit big but not for long. Also I have big babies! Personally I think have mostly second hand stuff with maybe a couple of new outfits for going home / photos. But not everyone wants second hand for their babies.

How big were you as a baby and how big was baby's dad?

My Mum weighed 7lbs 15oz and I weighed similar at 7lbs 15.5oz. Unfortunately MIL can't remember how much DH weighed.

At my 20 week scan I was told my baby is on the 94th centile. I have growth scans at 27, 31 and 36 weeks so will see how they go and decide clothing sizes from there. As I wouldn't have fitted in newborn clothes (up to 7lbs 7oz) at birth, I wasn't planning on buying any that size.

My Dad was 10lbs at birth so hoping baby doesn't take after him!

Just throwing it out there, that I actually needed Tiny Baby clothes for about 4 weeks - born at 37+1 weighing 5lbs 10 and super diddy, even the tiny baby clothes were a bit big. However, with all of this, you can just buy when babies here. We had to put him in a too big sleepsuit for a couple of days until my mum was able yo visit us in hospital with some tiny baby clothes and Size 0 nappies. If you want to be super prepared maybe get one super small outfit, but many babies won't need that. I was clearly clueless because the outfit I thought I'd have him in early on (a super cute winnie the pooh sleeper with 'hello world' on), he didn't fit into until 9mo old!

There is a huge difference between different shops as well. H&M always comes up massive for example. (Which is why this 0-3 outfit fit him at 9mo!). He was born on 5th centile though.

I was born a week early at 6+lbs
And baby's dad was 5+lbs full term

Had my first 3 months ago. We got mostly 0-3 months, had some 0-1 month gifted to us and a friend had a baby 3 months before ours who gave us their newborn clothes. We figured we could buy more. Baby was over 9lb. He was out of newborn within a week. Up to one month lasted an extra week. Asda George is smaller than Tu and Next - he grew out of the 0-3 asda stuff by 5 weeks, by 6/7 weeks he was pretty much exclusively in 3-6 month clothes. The H&M 2-4 month was quite a good fit at that transition point. I'd get sizes from a range of stores so you'll have stuff that fits better at different times.

My third baby was 9lb 10oz; newborn wouldn't have fit him!

Based on the centiles you've shown OP I'd say you're on track to have a baby that will fit newborn or up to 1 month.

I'd like to have everything prepared and have a rough idea of sizes. I don't want to have given birth and be straight up running about looking for clothes. I have an ivf pregnancy in which I developed ohss which pregnancy has prolonged so I'm not really on my feet like I used to be , and I do have some pre existing health conditions so I'm not very active and I'm only on my feet a small amount of time in the day. I don't have alot of support either as have no siblings and baby's dad and I split 2 months ago.
I'm on n.i and you can't order next day delivery from stores online. It takes a few days to a week for items to arrive , even for supermarket sites like george or next.
I'll be moving house end of May and house does need quite a lot of renovating so I really don't want to be leaving preparations until the last month. I'm July in July but my consultant did say at my last appointment that I'd be having close monitoring as I'm pre diabetic and do have high blood pressure , I think she mentioned something about watching for preclampsia and that with it being an ivf pregnancy they wouldn't want me to go over 40 weeks. I am older mum so obviously my concern is delivery earlier than expected and not being prepared so I'd like to have a few things there to do baby . There's simply so many options regarding baby sizes and I just needed some advice what's recommended to go for as it's my first baby and don't really have anyone I can ask