How many of each....

simsk3887 · February 2015

We're weeding through all of the shower gifts (read, clothes) and I'm wondering how many of each you used and/or are planning to use/have...

Newborn clothes (obviously depends on size of the baby and how fast/slowly they grow)

Bath towels/washcloths

Nursing bras/tanks

Bottles (planning to EBF but will also pump once I go back to work)

Baby blankets/burp cloths

Anything else you'd recommend plenty of, or minimal of...

mrshall1027 · February 2015

I'd definitely like to hear what others have to say about this, as I'm clueless!

carcrashheart · February 2015

As a blanket rule I would say that you could probably take the number you have/get/receive and cut it in half and that's probably about right.

simsk3887 said:
We're weeding through all of the shower gifts (read, clothes) and I'm wondering how many of each you used and/or are planning to use/have...

Newborn clothes (obviously depends on size of the baby and how fast/slowly they grow)
we had 4 sleepers and one outfit with #1. I added second time to 9-10 sleepers and 2-3 outfits.

Of note: #2 has a small waist and is still on NB pants bc 0-3/3 falls off of him. He is 3.5 months. Also, with #1 I felt compelled to change him out of pj's and in to clothes every day. #2 has barely seen a onesie or pants-almost always a sleeper.

If you have a spitty baby you can go through more clothes in one day than a non spitty baby. Think 2-3 clothes changes/day.

Bath towels/washcloths
3 towels works fine for us. We have eleventy billion wash cloths so I use them for lots of things. Bath. Keep one on the changing pad to mop spit up. Whatever else.

Nursing bras/tanks
N/A for me

Bottles (planning to EBF but will also pump once I go back to work)
We FF by choice so we probably have more than others. With #1 I was all "must sit and stare at baby all day. Cannot do anything else." So we had about 7-8 bottles and that would get us through the night and until about dinner time. This time I don't have the time or ability or desire to sit and stare at the baby all day, so I'm constantly doing dishes and washing bottles. Which means we use about the same 3-5 bottles every day and don't need as many as last time.

Baby blankets/burp cloths
Blankets-I dunno, a few? I used them with #1 in the car seat between him and the car seat cap cover. They are all now his lovies. #2 I bought some AA blankets. And have fuzzy blankets. We have more than needed, especially since neither cared for swaddling.

Burp clothes: depends on spitty level of baby. I love the AA burpy bibs-super absorbent. Prefolds diapers are also great. #1 was super spitty and we kept a towel on the floor under where we sat to feed and burp him. Ugh. #2 hasn't been as bad, but still a little spitty. I use anything handy to clean him anymore though. We probably have 5 burpy bibs.

Anything else you'd recommend plenty of, or minimal of...

I bought new to us sleepers for #2 in 0-3/3 mos. there are about 25. It's overload and partially why he's always in a sleeper. We have a billion onesies in 0-3. That's all #1 wore. Not so this time. Definitely don't need 25 sleepers and 25ish onesies. Half that? A few pairs of pants.

Socks are difficult when newborn. I never found socks that fit #1. They kick them off.
A friend gave me her sock stash and they work! But there are probably 20+ pairs of socks. 3-5 pairs would probably be more than enough.

Have 2-3 changing pad covers. 3-5 crib sheets. 2-3 mattress pads.

We have a billion bibs. They come in handy. We have 30+. Too many. They can be handy but at some point storing eleventy billion of everything becomes a pain.

Don't go crazy on pacifiers. Both boys started taking any kind as long as it was a gel like kind. Then they both refused the avent soothies. Both will only take the gumdrop kind and only sometimes. I have a ton of pacifiers that are worthless. Buy a few different kinds to try first. If you plan to use them, of course.

Baby legs: you can never have too many. Eleventy billion pairs is not excessive in baby leg land.

I think that covers it.

carcrashheart · February 2015

Oh, and I am against baby mittens. Pointless. Ugly. Never cute. Also against the mitten cuff on sleeves and don't use them either. Neither child has gone Edward scissor hands to themselves. Sure, a small scratch here and there. But baby skin heals incredibly fast and the scratch today is almost gone tomorrow. The mittens fell off #1's hands so I stopped them. They're stupid, imo. So buy 0!

Side snap kimono shirts-I forgot that #1 lived in these as a newborn. Shirt and diaper and that was it. We had 2-3 in NB anf 2-3 in 0-3. #2 never wore them once home. My taste in clothing changed a lot from #1 as a baby to #2.

simsk3887 · February 2015

Thanks, @carcrashheart‌! That's a ton of super helpful info.

aggiebug · February 2015

carcrashheart said:
Oh, and I am against baby mittens. Pointless. Ugly. Never cute. Also against the mitten cuff on sleeves and don't use them either. Neither child has gone Edward scissor hands to themselves. Sure, a small scratch here and there. But baby skin heals incredibly fast and the scratch today is almost gone tomorrow. The mittens fell off #1's hands so I stopped them. They're stupid, imo. So buy 0.

Obviously your kids never woke themselves up because they pulled their hair or scratched themselves. DD likes her hands in her face except she frequently tries to scratch her eyeball out and gets wildly upset. That being said we prefer the sleeves that fold over vs the mittens. And my nephew was notorious for grabbing his hair and pulling it.

MRads · February 2015

simsk3887 said:
We're weeding through all of the shower gifts (read, clothes) and I'm wondering how many of each you used and/or are planning to use/have...

Newborn clothes (obviously depends on size of the baby and how fast/slowly they grow)

Bath towels/washcloths

Nursing bras/tanks

Bottles (planning to EBF but will also pump once I go back to work)

Baby blankets/burp cloths

Anything else you'd recommend plenty of, or minimal of...

Bottles: I had a lot of bottles. Unfortunately, if you BF and work, you go through a lot of bottles. I used 8 a day. 4 4oz bottles to DC, 2 bottles to pump in to, 2 bottles to store pumped milk. You don't want to pump directly in to refrigerated milk, so if you pump more than once, you'll need one to hold and one to pump. I had 4 Avent bottles that were my pump bottles (pump was avent) and 8 dr brown bottles.

Blankets: I had a summer baby who didn't spit up, so I didn't use many recieving blankets, but I have 8-10 A&A blankets that i swaddled him in and are now his blankies.

I bought one nursing bra and was given a few tanks. I might be minority, but I nursed in regular bras and tanks and didn't wear any nursing attire after 2 weeks pp.

NB clothes: Ben was a bit of a peanut. I didn't buy any nB clothes, because I thought they would be a waste, but he was 5lb8oz when we brought him home from the hospital and was in NB clothes till about 10 weeks. I ended up buying a few outfits for him, but we are fortunate that my sisters and I rotate clothes, so his wardrobe is mostly hand me downs and I only needed a couple of outfits on top of what I had from them. I think I bought 5.

liall09 · February 2015

Newborn clothes (obviously depends on size of the baby and how fast/slowly they grow)
We had a limited selection of NB clothing. A mostly outgrew it by 6ish weeks (she was 7lbs, 1 oz at birth, came home at 6 lbs, 5 oz. and was back to birth weight by 1.5 or so weeks old. We did have a lot of blowouts to deal with (BF poop is very runny and most BF babies poop very frequently) so expect to go through several outfits a day.
Bath towels/washcloths
We had way more washcloths than we needed (I think 12?) and we had three towels, which was a good number.
Nursing bras/tanks
I was one of those people who went from an A cup pre-pregnancy to a C+ cup with BFing, so there was no way my old bras would work. I'd recommend having enough bras/tanks that you can wear one a day until you do laundry. Since I tossed mine into A's laundry, they were usually washed twice a week, so I had about 4-5. I couldn't use mine for more than one day because inevitably I would leak or she would dribble/spit up on them.
Bottles (planning to EBF but will also pump once I go back to work)
Like @MRads said, you'll need several bottles a day for pumping (don't forget to count what you'll need if you pump before work too). I found that transferring to the 2.5 ounce Medela test tube like bottles after pumping worked best for me. Also, you may want to have a variety of bottle brands avaialble at home in case LO has a strong opinion on them.
Baby blankets/burp cloths
We did not use many blankets, but we used a TON of burp clothes, at least 2-4 a day. A spit up a ton, but was a happy spitter. It was nice knowing that we had enough to go through several days of laundry. I want to say that we had around 10-12 of them.

Anything else you'd recommend plenty of, or minimal of...

I recommend lots of waterproof mats. We used them to line the changing table/pad (one upstairs and one downstairs) and we'd put the mats on the ground for A to have naked time when she needed to air out a bit. We had something like these to put on top of the changing pad cover and something like these for naked time and the changing table downstairs. Also, a friend recommended layering a waterproof mattress cover, a sheet, another waterproof pad and another sheet on top for the crib. It makes MOTN sheet changes due to whatever bodily fluid the baby decides to decorate with so much easier.

How many of each....

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