Feb 14, 2017
I was going to take Felix to a cute little playgroup Valentine’s Day party this morning and I even showered for the occasion, but, sadly, my taking a shower meant that Felix went with Bryan to take Olivia to school which resulted in Felix falling down at some point and scraping his nose and lips and knee and he was so upset about the whole thing and throwing such a tantrum that even after some kid tylenol all I could do to help him calm down was put him down for a nap. Which he’s not taking, but at least he’s in his bed and getting some much-needed rest. Meanwhile, I’ve been looking at baby clothes.
First of all, we don’t have our 20 week ultrasound to find out the baby’s gender until this Friday. Ugh. It’s not that much longer to wait and I know there are a billion other more pressing matters in the world, but I just want to knoooooow. And I don’t. So instead I’m looking through both boy and girl baby clothes on ThredUp and enjoying the uncomfortable inner struggle between having happy feelings about it being either gender and the impending disappointment that on Friday we’ll (hopefully) know for sure and then it definitely won’t be one or the other. I was a pizza, now I’m a mess. (Covers face.)
The other dilemma I’m having is what kind of clothes to buy this baby. My due date is July 4th and we live in northern Virginia where the summers are pretty hot and humid. Which means it obviously makes sense to buy lightweight summer clothes, buuuut it’s also still going to be a newborn and if it’s crazy hot outside like it often is, then we’ll likely be spending a lot of time inside where it’s air conditioned. So, where does that put me? Regular clothes? Cozy long sleeves? I think I’m going to err on the side of shorts and t-shirts, but I still wonder.
And then of course there’s always the question of just how big this baby is going to be and how quickly he or she will grow out of everything. Both our kids so far have been healthy babies, but Olivia was super skinny and everything fit her long after it was seasonally appropriate, while Felix was a super fat baby and wore size 2T clothes for almost three years straight.
This all complicates my final question which is, how many clothes do I really need for this baby anyway? Could I get away with a pack of white onesies and some cute shorts? Or will the baby spit up so much that I need a bunch of extra clothes on hand? Luckily our other two kids haven’t spit up a crazy amount, but you never know. I keep telling myself it doesn’t really matter, we can always just have a few things on hand and then buy more clothes once the baby is born, but then I think about having to go shopping with a 7 year old out of school for the summer and a toddler and a newborn and a post-c-section body that takes a while to recover and the thought of all that just makes me want to stockpile everything I possibly can.
And of course it probably isn’t helping that I know better what kind of clothes I like for my kids now which means I’ve also gotten a lot more picky about kid clothes than I used to be. And the stuff I like tends to be more expensive, so I try to keep my eye out and buy stuff on clearance, but usually that requires, ya know, shopping before you actually need things. Which I would be happy to do if only I knew the baby’s gender and growth rate and exactly what the weather will be like from at least July-September and approximately how many outfits I need.
But probably this won’t matter after Friday.
Bonus question:
- Do bucket hats really stay on newborns?
katielewisstudio.com 
I can’t wait to know either! Yay! So, I had the same dilemma when Michael was a newborn. He was born in April, in Virginia, and so spent the first two weeks of life, while we were waiting for approval to go back home, in sleepers because it was spring in Virginia and spring in Virginia is definitely cold still a lot of the time. But then we came back to Texas where it was already super super hot and humid. So he wore a lot of onesies mostly. Like that’s pretty much all he wore. I think we still sometimes put him in sleepers for bedtime but he was usually swaddled so he was still plenty warm with a onesie. And he usually had socks on because his little feet would get cold. And I guess sometimes I would put something over him if he was cold inside but mostly if he was inside, he was sleeping so he was swaddled. So I’d go with a lot of onesies and a lot of swaddle blankets. I’m not sure about the hat…I think we had a little waterproof bucket hat and it had a strap so that helped it stay on. But that was more like when he was three months old. Also, don’t forget online shopping! Woot woot! So if you find you really need something but don’t want to drag a seven year old, a three year old, and a newborn to the store, enter Amazon! It was always definitely on my list of favorite things as a new mom. Oh we need this…AMAZON! 🙂 🙂 Love you! Can’t wait to meet your darling new little one! Uh, also, sorry for my suuuuuper long comment. 🙂
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I love your long comments! And it was helpful to hear your thoughts on dressing baby Michael. Thanks!
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Have you heard this tip? Dress babies like you would dress yourself (short sleeves, long sleeves, etc.) + one more layer. So, if it’s blazing hot, little onesie + light blanket. Or cold, jammies + long sleeve onesie underneath. Reed had a REALLY hard time keeping his temp up in the hospital so the nurses had him bundled with SO many blankets and warm rice packs.
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I for reals think I’ve forgotten everything about babies. 😂 So thank you. This is helpful.
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my baby-dressing formula was leggings + shirt (not usually onesies in summer bc the extra snaps step pushes me over the limit work-wise). if the leggings are made of fabric that retains its shape and stretches, they can be worn lots of months with cuffing (and pulling the waistband up to the armpits at first, best part). then i added a sweater or long sleeve on top when it was chillier.
this will probably not surprise you, but i rarely changed my babies’ clothes until they were dirty –– they went from day to night to day in the softy leggings combi. with nora this was every day or two, with esther about six times a day (so much spit up). you can always do lots of laundry (or bribe olivia to be your laundress. i swear esther would be there already if she could pour in the detergent), or have me drive some clothes right over of course.
i tried to keep everything pretty mix-and-match and basic, with a few cute hats and outfits. i actually had too many cute newborn outfits, which kind of overwhelmed me because they were there but not being worn. and dresses and some outfits look kinda odd on a skinny, wrinkly, beautiful baby.
and lastly, i did usually consider the “dress yourself + one more layer” thingy, but what about boiling swamp july, when you swear you would need to remove 14 layers of clothing to be comfortable? where does that put the baby? i’m guessing not much + a backup blankie would be good, but it is hard to know!
okay sorry not lastly. i ordered a baby clothes gift the other day on amazon –– have you heard of polarn o. pyret? it’s a swedish brand, super durable/good quality, fits a long time, one of my favorite baby brands. nora wore one of their cardis at least 100 times over 3 years and esther wears it now. anyway, some of their stuff is 70%+ off on amazon, speaking of buying on clearance in advance.
maybe if i keep writing i can make this longer than your post! i like babies and their clothes.
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Ma! Agh, I have too many things to say in reply! Why are you such a genius????? We are so going baby clothes shopping (at least window shopping if nothing else) no later than next week while I pick your brain further and find out what other gems of wisdom you’ve been holding out on me for all these years. Never move away! I’ll cry forever.
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