Random Things I've Figured Out - Clothing Edition

Today's episode of random things I've figured out about having newborns is centered around clothing and fabric in general.

Some things don't need to be folded.  Onesies, jammies, and burp cloths can just lie flat so you don't have to fuss with unfolding them when you want to grab and use them.

Baby Clothes

Don't buy any until everybody you've ever met who's ever had children has had a chance to give you their hand me downs and gifts.  I've received the entire wardrobes of 3 relatives, one generous internet friend, and enough random gifts from neighbors, friends of my parents, and other relatives to outfit an army of infants.  I have two brand new packages of onesies that the girls are going to outgrow soon that haven't even been opened yet.

Most onesies are designed to go on either over the head or from the bottom up.  I hate pulling things over the babies faces so I pull the neck over the butt instead.

Sort the clothing by size and put the piles out of the way.  Dig through the next size up every week or two and pull out what looks like it will fit now and what you'll actually put on the kid.

Baby clothes sizes make about as much sense as women's clothing sizes.  Some measure by age, others by pounds.  I find that the manufacturers have a really odd sense of how big a baby of a certain weight actually is.  I don't like to have to tug at clothing, especially when you practically have to twist a baby arm to get it into the armhole, so I prefer clothing that claims to be made for babies about 2lbs larger than my babies currently are.

Why do they even make separates for babies?  Tops just squinch up around the neck and pants make changing diapers a pain.  And with pants, you need socks, so there's two more little items to get kicked and pulled off when you don't want them to.  No, you want onesies and footie pajamas.

Yes, you can have too many onesies.  At some point, something you want back will be in the laundry basket and you'll do a load of laundry in order to retrieve it and your clean onesie supply will be replenished.

Expect to do a load of laundry every day.  I'm hardly wearing any clothing and what I am wearing, I'm wearing for a few days at a time, and yet I'm doing laundry every day.  Partially because it's the one chore that's done almost entirely by machines so it's something I can accomplish in 5 minutes whereas other chores require a larger time commitment that I don't have.  I want to accomplish SOMETHING by the end of the day, so laundry is what I go for.

If it's just so friggin adorable, put it on the baby and take pictures.  Odds are, that's the only time the kid will wear it so get that accomplished immediately.

If it's not within reach, they'll never wear it.

Swaddles

To some extent, pretty much all of the styles work.  The Woombie brand runs really small.  It says up to 11lbs, but no, we had trouble zipping them up by 8lbs.

Sheets

Changing sheets on the crib is a pain in the ass.  Get those waterproof bed protector things.  Put all your sheets on the crib, layering with those bed protectors in between.  Then you can just remove one layer when the sheets get wet and not have to struggle to get another sheet on when you want to put a baby to bed.

The mattress in our bassinet is about the same size as a pillow case.  I'm using king sized pillow cases as sheets in that and just putting the mattress inside as if it were a pillow.

Tip from my cousin that I haven't tried yet - he said that his little one would fuss as soon as the head hit the bed until they changed to more of a jersey or flannel sheet.  Apparently the regular sheets were cold.  I have summer babies so cold hasn't been an issue for me yet, but I leave that tip for those of you with winter babies.

Burping and Feeding Cloths

You can't have too many burping cloths.  Once a baby spits up, they like to rub their faces in it, and then spit up again.  I can go through several cloths per burping session because I try to take away the icky cloth before the kid gets the icky all over them.

Cloth diapers make good burp cloths.  Get a big stack from your local consignment store or value village or something.

The bigger the burp cloth, the better.  K likes to use a full towel.  Personally, I don't like to use up that much laundry space for one spot of ick, but he's got a point.

My cousin gave us some Muslin Burpy Bibs that kind of fit over the shoulder and around your neck.  They cost more than I'd like to spend myself, but I do find myself doing laundry to get these back and they are the first ones I reach for.  I've only used them on my own shoulder, I haven't tried having a baby wear one like shown in some of the pictures.

Those really flimsy wash cloths are great for shoving into the babies necks when they eat.  Thicker ones, like the ones you use for baths, those can't get close enough to the skin to really catch all the dribbles.  I've bought several packs of these myself because Tina is such a juicy eater.  For newborns, bibs don't do a whole lot.  You need to really shove something deep into the neck to catch the dribbles before they get into all those neck folds.  I got some of these in the baby aisle of the drugstore.

Mom's Clothes

Leggings and yoga pants.  I'm a jeans person, but ever since the pregnancy I want to be in pajama like clothing all the time.  I got to my pre pregnancy weight almost immediately and my pre pregnancy weight is actually about 15lbs lower than the weight I was at in the years prior to that summer, so most of my clothing is too big for me and yet I still don't want to be in anything that might be at all constricting.  Besides, I sleep at such odd times now that just climbing into bed in what I'm wearing is better than changing into jammies.  Also, if you're a nightgown person, well you're going to be getting up in the middle of the night to pump or nurse, and you'll want to keep your lower half covered so you don't get cold.  Sleeping in leggings and a bra seems to be the best way to go nowadays.

Cheap sports bras.  Good for sleeping and can be converted into hands free pumping bras.

Consider adding a zipper to the front of those things that you wear around the house like solid tshirts or nightgowns.

It's gonna get puked on.  Spend your money accordingly.

You're going to find yourself going out in public in clothing you never would have been seen in before.  I used to never inflict leggings on the public or shorts when I haven't shaved my legs.  I've done both now.  But ya know what?  If other people noticed, I didn't notice them noticing so it doesn't matter.