RE: newborn clothes
Hi Nina. Congratulations on your upcoming arrival! My baby was born at the end of last April, so we needed some slightly-warmer clothes for a little while and summer clothes soon-after.
While baby still has his/her umbilical cord stump, I've heard that anything other than onesies are find (onesies tend to bull too tighly across the belly and not allow enough air to get to the cord stump--it needs to dry out before it can fall off). Gowns are fine if your baby likes them. I thought they would be beneficial for easy night time diaper changes, but my little guy hated all the extra, floppy material. We used a lot of the little snap-up one-piece stretchies that Baby Gap and Old Navy sell. Department stores sell them too--brands like Little Me and Ralph Lauren (which get expensive). I've seen these in both short sleeve/short pants versions and more commonly in long-sleeve/long long pants versions (with and without feet). Even if it's summertime, you probaby will want to dress your newborn in the long versions, unless your house is super-hot. If it's hot, you can just do a side-snap shirt and diaper and swaddle with a light receiving blanket (which is how they wrap the babies in the hospital anyway).
It's hard to say how many of each: I'd recommend roughly 6-7 long-sleeve stretchies and maybe 3-4 short-sleeve versions (for daytime).
Hope that helps a little.
Lisa
& Jack, age 1
Lisa
Mama to Jack (4/20/01)
and Joshua (11/16/03)