jerryklasic
New member
I have a 6 month old and began packing away her first half-year's worth of clothes and was thinking that I wish I had known some things when I bought all of this stuff as a pregnant new mom. So why not share what I have learned in the hopes that other future/new parents don't make the same mistakes I did? I hope this info is helpful. 
EDIT: Thanks to all for the feedback! Clarified my point above in brackets about why “newborn” feels scammy to me. I hear everyone on the critique about needing newborn clothes... point taken! I forget that not all babies are chunkah munkahs right out of the gate. It definitely depends on how big your babe is. With my baby, I wish I hadn’t bought anything in newborn even though 0-3 was a little big at first. I agree with those below who said to get just essentials in newborn sizes and to keep your tags on and receipts!
Also, one more thing that I just remembered: ZIPPERS OVER SNAPS for pajamas! I thought the snaps look cute, but turns out they are super annoying, especially in the middle of the night when you are half asleep. I only buy zip up pajamas now.
Good luck to all the new parents and pregnant parents out there. You got this!
- You really don't need newborn clothes. Maybe if you have a preemie, but otherwise, newborns can wear 0-3 month clothes. Newborn is generally only up to 8 pounds. My baby was 8 pounds when she was born. You see my point. Spend your money on 0-3 months, not newborn sizes to get your money's worth. [Considering that the average weight of a baby born in the US is between 6 and 9 pounds, so many “average size” babies have sized out of newborn right out of the womb, let alone newborns who are considered above average weight. To me, this does not rationalize calling a size “newborn,” since it is not inclusive of such a wide margin of actual newborns. This is why it feels scammy to me and like a marketing ploy, where it seems to the uninitiated new parent like an essential size - “newborn!” - when actually many newborns are too big to ever wear it. But alas, it’s all been washed and ready to go for when baby gets home from the hospital, so you can’t return. I think “newborn” should either be rebranded or more size inclusive to reflect a wider margin of actual newborn baby weights.]
- This is possibly the BIGGEST mistake I made: I did not understand the sizes. One might think (as I did), that if the label says "3 months" that your child would BEGIN wearing this outfit at 3 months. Not so! This means that it is UP TO 3 months. So 3 months means 0-3, 6 months means 3-6, and so on. Had I knows this, I would have made very different purchasing decisions.
- You really don't need a lot of going out clothes for 0-3 months, and now that there is a pandemic, arguably for longer. It's common practice to not really take the baby out of the house for the first few months of life, and I think in these times, many of us are not leaving our houses much at all. Sure, you could dress your baby in a cute outfit every day to just stay in the house. If that's your vibe, go for it! (Also note that the first month you might feel lucky just to get a shower in, so dressing the baby in a cute outfit might be low on your priority list.) But if you don't see yourself getting baby dressed up to lounge around the house for the hundredth day in a row, spend your money on more sleep n' play pajama type things than actual going out outfits.
- If you have friends offering their hand-me-downs, take them! I was so lucky to have two friends who had babies a little before me and felt so fortunate to take what they were giving away. Your baby will wear the clothes for such a short amount of time cause they grow quickly. There are several things that our baby didn't wear at all and most things she wore only a few times at most (yes, that is partially because of the pandemic). So if you can get things in good shape for free, go for it! And then supplement what you get for free with some essentials (another shout out to the sleep n' play pajamas things, which have really been the staple wardrobe item for our babe).
- This last thing might be frowned upon my some, but I'm going to say it anyway: we are now trying to buy as much gender neutral clothing as we can going forward. The reason: we are considering having another baby, and if that baby is a boy, we will have to start from scratch because we have so much pink frilly stuff. So, when we supplement the hand-me-downs we have received to this point, it will be with gender neutral stuff when possible so that we can reuse at least some of the clothes we already have if we have a boy. If you're all about the girly stuff, I get it! We are just trying to think of ways to save money in the future.
EDIT: Thanks to all for the feedback! Clarified my point above in brackets about why “newborn” feels scammy to me. I hear everyone on the critique about needing newborn clothes... point taken! I forget that not all babies are chunkah munkahs right out of the gate. It definitely depends on how big your babe is. With my baby, I wish I hadn’t bought anything in newborn even though 0-3 was a little big at first. I agree with those below who said to get just essentials in newborn sizes and to keep your tags on and receipts!
Also, one more thing that I just remembered: ZIPPERS OVER SNAPS for pajamas! I thought the snaps look cute, but turns out they are super annoying, especially in the middle of the night when you are half asleep. I only buy zip up pajamas now.
Good luck to all the new parents and pregnant parents out there. You got this!
he was/is very long though.