Newborn clothes sizes

[katzenkowz]

You know, they take these wonderful professional photos of your beautiful, albeit bruised up, newborn at the hospital. You're supposed to pack an outfit for these photos, right? Now tell me, first off, just how do you pack for an infant who could weigh anywhere between 6-10# give or take at birth? Secondly, all those adorable little 0-3mo outfits look WAY too big for a 6 pound baby--or even a 10 pound baby--so my baby is condemned to be swimming in his fancy outfit for newborn photos. And the HATS!!!! I know their heards are disproportionately big, but REALLY!!! I got a preemie cap just in case, but couldn't find any preemie outfits at BRU--might resort to the nicer second-hand stuff I have.
I know babies don't go much of anywhere in the first month, so clothes that are too big are not supposed to be important, but I can think of 2 really important dress-up occasions--those newborn photo shoots at the hospital and the Baptism--where I want my baby to look like I know how to dress him. Can't they make newborn clothes rated for 6-10pounds or something??

[twins r fun]

You're right-newborn clothes don't fit for awhile. But don't waste money on preemie stuff because if your baby is over 6 pounds they won't fit. I had quite a few preemie outfits for my preemie twins, but by the time they finally came home from the hospital they weighed over 5 pounds. The preemie outfits only fit for another week to two, about 6 1/2 pounds or so depending on the outfit. Then there was a long in between stage where they were swimming in the 0-3 months. And on the note of the hospital photos-I was very disappointed. In our hospital the nurse took them and she did not know what she was doing-off center, bad lightinge, etc. In fact we got pictures of one twin taken and had them back before the other baby came home and we decided it wasn't worth getting them taken of him. Hopefully your hospital does a better job.

Nicole

[momathome]

One solution: Little Me has a newborn size that is bigger than preemie and smaller than 0-3 months. I had a little munchkin (about 5 1/2 pounds) and Little Me newborn-size was the only thing that actually fit her for the first month. We had a Ralph Lauren 0-3 month outfit that seemed to run on the small side - it fit her well and she wore it home from the hospital. Good luck!
-Lauren

[Melanie]

Pack a couple of outfits. Our Little Me 10# & under is what Ds wore for his hospital photo, and yest it was too big, but they only show from the chest up anyhow. We ended up buying 1 preemie outfit for him b/c everything I had was so huge. He was 7 lbs. 8 oz. & 20 inches. I was diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes so I thought I was going to have a really large baby, so I returned almost all of the clothes which were for under 10 pounds.

He spent the first weeks in the lost side-snap shirts & pair of pants that swum on him or onesies.


Mommy to Jonah

[jojo2324]

So cute!! Too bad our hospital doesn't take pictures...We were told the camera broke. But I won't start...I've already had my tirade today about our local hospital. We just took pictures of Gannon in his little plastic bucket, but they are not nearly as cute as Evan. So much hair! And so alert.

About the clothes...The doctors told us we were having a small baby, that maybe he would be 6 1/2 lbs. I had already been on my buying frenzy and had gotten a fair amount of 0-3 month sizes, and then felt justified doing so when the doctor told us his possible birth weight. (I am realizing now, based on stories I've heard, that doctors tend to be off in the weight guessing game, and not in our favor:) He was a bigger baby, 8lbs, 7oz and the 0-3 mo stuff was swimming on him. Especially the carter's onesies...they are so long. And he's in the 90th %tile for height. Actually he is just starting to look "dressed" in the 0-3mo size. He is three weeks old now and his feet are the problem. His body fits into footies, but his feet are too scrunched up. I put him in coveralls, but he's even outgrown his socks. (sized up to 12 months!) We've been forced to move on to the next size. But now he looks disheveled again. And I am one of those people who likes things to fit exactly (socks always pulled up, shirts tucked in, everything just so), so it's driving me crazy. Don't know what I contributed to this thread, just my thoughts :)


ps...the one thing that fit him perfectly pretty early on was a footie from Old Navy...They seem to run a little smaller than Gap.

[Garrettsmom]

Wow, I guess all you guys knew something I didn't...my son got his picture taken in the hospital T-shirt, which, by the way, is the tiniest thing I've ever seen and it was still big on him, and he was 8lbs 4oz! Not like it mattered, since they gave him his bath and then took the picture while he was still screaming. He was overdue and wrinkly, etc. and it is seriously a picture only a mother could love, and I don't even like it! In any case, I was asleep when they did it anyway, which you might be as well, so leave your husband good instructions if you have specifics in mind for the photo! As for baptisms, wait until the baby is closer to 3 months and then buy the 0-3 month outfit. My son was baptized at 3 1/2 months and was a big baby, and the 3 month outfit fit well. Good luck!

[suzska]

Thanks! It took them about 5 shots to get one with his eyes open and his hands not over his face, etc. They were pretty patient, and since everything is digital, we could see what the pic would look like so they knew to try another shot.

The nurse at the hospital was sure I was going to have an 8.5 pound baby! That scared me because I'm small and I didn't want to deliver a big baby. Guess it was all the "water" (or as the doctor said, "Boys pee a lot."). I was "hoping" for 6.5 to 7.5 pounds, and Evan came out right in the middle at 7-1.

Evan has "big" feet to go along with the big head. The one 0-3 outfit that fit him well was from Baby Gap. (But he couldn't quite fit into the hat that went with the outfit.) The socks from Gap seem to be a little "stretchier" then the ones from Target/Wal-Mart, etc. I haven't tried the Old Navy socks yet, but I would think they would be similar to Baby Gap. They are "triple roll" socks, but I just usually fold them down once now.

[suzska]

Evan was baptized at 3 weeks, and he was in his outfit (Which was his dad's or his uncle's outfit--DH's mom couldn't remember whose was whose. I just picked the one I liked better.) for all of about 3 minutes. I never got any pictures beforehand--there wasn't time. In our church now they dip them in the font, so the clothes come off first thing and they are just wrapped in a blanket or something. Afterwards I didn't see the point in putting him back in the outfit (since it would be hard to change him, etc.), so he just went into a stretchie. Now I can't remember the exact order of things. Maybe we did put him in the outfit, but I know I changed him into the stretchie soon after. Anyway, using DH's outfit saved me the money of going out to buy something new that I didn't really like anyway (they're all too "satiny" now, IMO).

[Rachels]

My baby was 6 pounds 1 oz at birth, and I had to go out and get her a bunch of preemie clothes. They fit for the first four weeks or so, which was worth it to me. You might think about getting a preemie-sized gown, which continues to fit well because it has no legs. They're adorable, and look really cute in pictures. Carter's makes some, as does Little Me. I found them in BRU. Macy's also carries a good amount of Carter's stuff. Baby Gap also has some preemie things, and it might be worth one or two preemie t-shirts from them. Again, things without legs will fit longer.

The newborn photo is great, but don't worry if it isn't perfect. I think you'll find that you enjoy the photos that come a week or two later much more, because your baby begins to look less smushed. I had a pretty short pushing phase, so Abby's head wasn't at all misshapen at birth, and I still found her to look much more distinct by about 8 days. It's the slightly-later pictures that I have in frames, not the day-old one.
-Rachel

[jojo2324]

Regarding gowns...I found that those from Carter's were much larger than those from Gap. Maybe Gannon has really chunky arms or something, I don't know, but the gowns from Gap were really narrow across the chest and through the arms. It's very stressful getting a newborn's arms into anything as it is, so I just used the Carter's.