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baby stuff: how much do I really need?
I'm starting to sort through all the "stuff" I got at my shower.
How much do I really need?
onesies, receiving blankets, regular blankets, hooded towels, washcloths, bibs, pacifiers (I plan to BF), sleep sacks...
Re: baby stuff: how much do I really need?
In our experience...
onesies - lots;
receiving blankets - 3; I didn't get a lot of use out of these, but if you're going to have a spring/summer baby it's probably good to have a few.
regular blankets - 3-4; I used his real blankets more and he still uses them in his crib
hooded towels - a couple; we bathe every other day and re-use towels; now he just uses adult towels.
washcloths - a lot; didn't need them much when he was an infant, but they come in handy when they start solids.
bibs - a lot; same as washcloths.
pacifiers - a lot, you may use them even if you BF - we did! saved my nipples from constant sucking. and they always go missing.
sleep sacks - 2-3.
For the first month our little girl lived in the kimono style t-shirts and sleep & plays because it was an easy combination. Truth be told, I was a little scared of putting a onesie over her head for a while, but I'm a wimp and had never dressed a baby until the day we took Feisty home.
I'd say getting a bunch of the inexpensive baby wash cloths is a good idea. My girl spits up a lot and I don't go anywhere without a wash cloth or two. The standard receiving blankets will work while the baby is small for swaddling, but I'm a big fan of the sleep sacks and the Aiden & Anais receiving blankets (also nice light weight covers for shielding the sun and such). It might be worth keeping a few different kinds of pacifiers around in case he doesn't like the first one you try- same with bottles. While I like the hooded towels we found that they weren't warm enough after a bath. I usually pick her up in one of those and then wrap another "real" towel around her.
One thing I had way too many of was hats. I probably have 10 hats. The baby doesn't need to wear a hat in the house and my little girl doesn't like them anyway (even the ones I crocheted for her). If your little guy loves hats let me know and I'll send you some.
Totally agree w/ above recommendations. You need way more blankets & washcloths than you think so don't return them! As far as pacifiers go, it's more of a personal decision than anything. I EBF'd both kids and used pacifiers from day 1 w/out any "nipple confusion" issues...but there are people who FF and EBF and are against them for various reasons (I honestly don't know why but I know people have strong opinions about them). I wouldn't open them until you know the baby even likes pacifiers though - some babies don't take them at all, and some only take certain brands.
2 of my favorite things as a mom are the Breast Friend pillow (looks totally dorky but it's AMAZING in making BFing easier), and the Boppy (so versatile for anything from BFing to tummy time to just letting the baby snuggle in it while you eat or whatever).
Jake blowing out the candle at Katie's coming home party
Katie Belle
Kristen, Chad, Jake, Katie & Sadie the Wonderdog, est. 6/17/06
I agree with most of what's above. I personally think that you can never have too many receiving blankets, though. I second the Aden and Anais blankets; they are FANTASTIC. Perfect for summer especially. But the "regular" receiving blankets are good, too. Our babies almost always have a blanket on in our house, both for warmth and for comfort reasons. We use them to swaddle, we use them in the stroller/carseat, and we use two rolled up to tuck around the baby in the bassinet for that extra snuggly feeling.
Burp cloths are another one -- you can never have too many burp cloths.
I didn't use as many receiving blankets as the other ladies -- I preferred to use cloth diapers for burp rags. I bought 24 of those because I used a clean one at nearly every feeding, so that was about 3 days worth before I had to do laundry. I had something like 20 receiving blankets (nearly all were gifts); I probably would have been fine with 4 or 5.
For sleep sacks/swaddlers, you can probably get by with two but I would recommend 3 for the first couple months because there were times when DD spit up in her crib more than once in a night. You don't want to get stuck with nothing clean to put the baby in at 3 am. My DD liked the SwaddleMes so I had 2 lightweight and 2 fleece.
I'd recommend a dozen washcloths. You can get the cute baby ones (I like Carter's brand -- I often find them at Marshalls/TJMaxx) but you could also use the adult size ones you already own. Same thing with towels - the hooded towels are cute but there isn't a real need to buy special towels if you don't want to. The hooded towels aren't very useful past the first year anyway because they're so small kids quickly outgrow them.
Pacifiers - wait and see if your kid will take one in the hospital. If he does, get the nurses to give you a handful on the way out the door.
Infant bibs I needed a ton of because I formula fed and DD dribbled all over the place when she ate from the bottle. If you breastfeed, you might not need many of the infant bibs. You don't need to buy any of the larger solid food eating bibs for six months.
We have four towels and that is perfect - DD gets a bath every night and we use one twice before washing it. But, like Mainely said, you don't really need special baby towels.
We have 8 receiving blankets and we barely used them. Maybe because DD was born in the hot Texas summer and/or because we had a bunch of "swaddling" blankets.
We have like 10 regular blankets and I thought that was a ridiculous amount, but they've actually come in handy. We use them in the stroller and the carseat, and on the floor for extra padding. I wouldn't say you need 10, but at least four or five would be good.
Bibs - 3 meals a day, laundry twice a week - at least 12.
Sleep sacks - two or three.
Onesies - 5-10. We didn't/don't change DD as much as other people on here.
We used tons of burp clothes because DD was a spitter-upper. We had 15 and we still ran out of them.
We also use washclothes for wipes with our cloth diapers, so we have a ton... I keep 4 or 5 on hand for baths and then have a ton for wipes.... I don't wash our tubby washclothes with our diaper washclothes so I don't worry about whether the WC I am using the tub cleaned poop off the day before
We have a hooded towel per kid that we use (we do baths every couple of days at home and MIL does them at her house in the in between, she has towels there too)
We used a bunch of receiving blankets (in the beginning we had two each in their carseats, great for helping the baby sit up straight when they are teeny)
We also had a ton of onesies... but the boys have always had more clothes than they needed...
We used a bib for drool and also at each meal and we had a ton of these!
We didn't use very many sleep sacks... I think we had a bunch but by the time it was cool enough to use them, the boys were over them so they just used a regular blanket in their cribs...
Hmm. We have a zillion wash cloths and don't use them. I'm curious other than wiping poop what people use them for?
We got a ton of blankets. My son at this point sleeps with 3 blankets in his bed. He love to pile them up and sleep on them. We also had a kid with SERIOUS GERD who threw up non stop for the first 6-8 months. So we went through a lot of blankets. After a while I would just wipe them and they needed to be super soiled to go in the wash cause we were constantly going through them. But, like I said, he had some serious puke problems (which I'm learning is a-typical).
Onsies, I don't think you can have enough. In all honesty, I'm constantly running out of them even now. They are the perfect undergarment and help to keep them warm/cool, love them.
There was a great post on www.babyrabies.com that talks about the 10 most important things with an infant. I will agree with her 100% on all of them. The boppy was my savior and DH and I agree, hands down best thing we ever got (and we got one from a friend). I would include the new waterproof cover for the boppy in case you have a puker like I did.
Hooded towels. We used one bathrobe with a hood. In hind sight, we had a bunch more, but I had to do so much laundry anyway (puke) that we just washed it everytime we washed his other clothes. I think with baby #2, we'll most likely open the others and rotate.
I always felt like I needed to only use the bare minimum and didn't open things if I could get away with not using them. One thing I've learned, I wouldn't take this approach again. I'm opening and using everything. Especially if you planning on having more kids. Open it and even if you don't use it, you will eventually. IMO.
Sorry... forgot to add. Pacifiers were one of those things I tried to use the minimum on. Big regret. Like Megan said, they go missing. Keep every single one, you will need some in the car, in every bag, they are a life savor. I BF'd too and my kid would have been latched to my nipple 24-7 if we didn't do the pacifier. The nurses in the hospital even said, this kid is going to need to be pacified.
Bibs. Keep them all. They get dirty, you will need them all. Especially when they move on to solids. Plus, they protect clothes for pukers
I think the girls have it covered.
My biggest mistake was washing all the clothes before he was here...including all the newborn stuff. I didn't know I was going to have a nearly 10lb baby on my hands. So I had a ton of newborn stuff that I couldn't return and couldn't use. That was sucky.
My OBs office has a sign that the hospital will no longer be providing pacifers to parents due to some sort of AMA or something regulations-- just wanted to throw that out there. It might just be that hospita but I know we won't be getting any during our stay.
Bummer. See what happens when I've been out of the newborn business for three years? I'm totally behind the times!
You girls have the best advice, I swear- Sprinkles thanks you in advance!
A good friend of mine who had her baby this past fall passed along this website/baby buying advice list that I've found really useful, and since finding it I've had a lot of other Moms I know recommend it:
http://www.lucieslist.com/
Hope it's helpful to other to-be Mommas!
The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware; joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware. -Henry Miller
http://cookthehumbletable.blogspot.com/
I'm going to buck the trend and say I didn't need that many of these things.
Wash clothes, we have a rotation of about 15 now. Towels, we have about 6? Receiving blankets, I had about 12 but used the 2 from the hospital the most since they were bigger. Once she hit 3 months I stopped using receiving blankets. Sleep sacks, I had 2. Now that she is bigger we have one and manage. Bibs, I had 2? Then Kimberly gave me a few, but we got the plastic wipe down ones so they don't get stained and I can use them again and again. I have 3 sets ofsheets and 2 mattress pads. A few blankets people made for us. Oneises, I must have been lucky b/c we never changed Caroline but once during the day in between pj's. So, 8 oneises, 3 long sleeves, 3 t-shirts. She got a lot of outfits after she was born. Remember, we were caught off guard big time and somehow survived on little the first few months and I'm glad I didn't go out and buy a bunch!
My big thing was, and still is, lots of footed pj's. Even with my "limited" supply I only do her laundry once a week.
Oh, and we used gerber cloth diapers for burp cloths, pads to put on the changing pad (so if she peed I didn't have to change the cover every time), and a million other uses. Still use them. I bought 2 packs of 12 of those bad boys.
This is what we have
Liam has probably 10-12 onesies in his current size. But he usually wears 2 a day.
4 hooded towels
A million wash clothes. seriously. I bought thicker ones for bath time and then the cheaper thin ones for when I feed him solids.
We did not use sleep sacks but both my kids loved their miracle blankets!
4 regular blankets
We also used gerber cloth diapers as burp cloths
Liam has a ton of pacifiers, I am always losing them (soothies bounce and roll!!). He probably has 10, maybe more I am always picking up a pack here and there.
15-20 bibs. But my kid is a drooler while teething so he wears one for the better parrt of the day over his clothes.