Enough preemie/newborn clothing for the first few days?
I have finally started shopping for clothes for our baby who is due March 23rd, but may come sooner due to complications. The chance the baby will be preemie is about 90%. I have hardly any shopping choices in this town, and we’re stuck with Walmart or a consignment store. I’m very happy that for I have found 9 outfits(sleepers/onesies) and I have a variety of colors since we don’t know if it is a boy or girl.
I’m reluctant to go overboard because I don’t want an abundance of green things or yellow things. So I have bought 3 things in pink, 3 in blue and 3 in green. Of course, depending on what we have, 3 of these items will not really be the appropriate color.
In your opinion, how much more should I have prepared…and should I just stay away from gender specific colors now? I have 3 sleepers, 3 onesies and 3 pant/top outfits.
Also, other then white/yellow/green, what other colors would you use as a unisex choice?
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The preemie clothes run from 3 – 5 pounds, and seldom to hospitals let you take babies home before 5 pounds. Newborn (not size 0 – 3) run from 5 – 8 pounds, and if your baby is born early, this is still likely the smallest size you’ll need.
I am having twins, and I stocked up on newborn sizes since twins average 5.25 pounds at birth. Mine are already past this at 34 weeks.
I understand they are telling you your baby will be born premature. That DOES NOT mean you will need preemie clothes. That means you will need newborn clothes, the 5 – 8 pounds. Because even if your baby is born as a micropreemie, it still won’t come home until it is about 5 pounds. Sometimes they send a baby home at 4 pounds, but really this is unusual.
Girls can wear blue but boys can’t wear pink. If you get some blue and its a girl, slap a pink ribbon on her head, or pink hat. Girls can play sports too, so even blue with sports is FINE for girls. Just slap something pink on her head and it is an immediate girl outfit.
Get maybe 3 preemie outfits. Cheap ones, because the odds of you being able to use them are slim. It may be nice for take home pics, but the baby IF it can fit into them will also fit into the newborn clothes as long as they are not footed. Get the newborn onsies and sleeper robes.
I got my clothes used from a thrift store, and have tons of newborn, 0 -3, 3-6, 6 – 9 and 9-12 already! Buying used it is so much less expensive… and they are the same items!
I am starting to worry my twins will not be in their newborn clothes as long as I suspected, but I am already really glad I did not get any preemie clothes. Again, even if your baby is born premature, you can’t take that home when they are that size. Once they are 4.5 pounds you MAY be able to take them home (likely not) but at that point the newborn size will fit.
You don’t need to cloth them in the NICU, so you don’t need preemie sizes.
Of newborn size I would suggest 15 onsies, 10 sleepers, and 4 dressier outfits for pictures. Watch out for footed sleepers. If the baby is a bit small for them they can get their feet stuck in the crotch which makes for a very sad baby. Better to get the robes. They last from 5 to 15 pounds, so are a great value. If you get pajamas, generally get the ones without the feet built in. Onsies are cheap and I don’t think you’ll mind having extra on hand. Even 20 onsies wouldn’t be out of line, seeing as though they are only about $1 each new.
There is a chance you won’t need even the newborn size. My doc was really worried I would have my twins early because I am short and started out overweight, but at 34 weeks they are the perfect size for their age and they are showing no signs of wanting to come out yet!
I can’t imagine having two 8 pound babies inside me though. At 5lbs 3oz and 5lbs 9oz I already can’t walk for more than 10 minutes before basically winding down to a stop!
How long are you expecing these clothes to alst? Even when my son was a newborn i changed his clothes every day… i put him in a sleeper at night, and in an outfit during the day. So for me, that wouldn’t have been enough to get very far… What you have may get you through a week or two before you have to wash it all.
If you don’t want to find out the sex of the baby, then I would just go with what you have already bought. It’s not too difficult to have someone make a run to the store after the baby is born to get more clothing once you know the sex of the baby.
You really shouldn’t worry about preemie clothing though. If your child is a preemie, you likely won’t be taking him/her anywhere except for the doctor’s office for a while, and by the time you do start taking him/her places, he/she will have outgrown the preemie clothing.
And if your baby is not premature, the clothing will be too small right at birth!
Do you have any stores like Once Upon a Child or other used clothing stores? I bought a ton of my daughters clothes there and they are super cheap and the clothes are like new.
If not I recommend shopping Target, you can shop online if there isn’t on near you.
I’d try to least have a weeks worth of clothes for baby up front because you are not going to feel like doing much of anything but sleeping when you can and taking care of baby for a while after you get home from the hospital.
I’d say at least 7 onsies and 7 sleepers. The other outfits are fine, you won’t be going out much at first while you recover so you can worry about all the cute pant/shirt or dresses after a few weeks. Not to mention your baby will grow out of those clothes super fast so you don’t want to buy to many anyway.
My daughter was in 3-6 months clothes by the time she was 3 weeks old! lol, she has always been big for her age, but if you have a preemie maybe that will not be the case for you. Better to wait and see.
Congrats and good luck!
If baby is significantly premature, he’ll probably be in the NICU for a while, and the hospital will provide clothes. So there’s no need to stock up on a ton of tiny clothes right now. (Also, I’m sure that family/friends will be happy to do some shopping for you, if you don’t want to take the time away from your baby.)
Once baby comes home you WILL need more than 3 sleepers — babies spit up and leak out of their diapers, so you should expect to go through 2-3 outfits per day at least. And I assume you don’t want to do laundry every day.
As for colors …. it really doesn’t matter. Your son will not suffer for wearing a pink sleeper, and your daughter will be harmed if she wears a blue one. Personally, I think that any color BUT pink and floral prints is appropriate for either sex. I didn’t find out the sex in advance and was given a ton of blue outfits. (Many of them hand-me-downs from my sisters, who both had daughters and also hadn’t found out in advance so bought a lot of ‘neutral blue’ clothes. ) If you’re worried, save the ‘inappropriate’ colors for when you’re at home, and dress baby in more gender-obvious colors and styles when you go out.
Have you tried shopping on-line? Target and K-Mart, as well as speciality stores like BabysRUs have online stores. And Amazon sells baby stuff too.
Red, purple, brown, gray, orange, baby blue, white, yellow, green. Pretty much any color can be unisex depending on the shade.
You can get a bunch of onesies/sleepers in any color and then wait and find out what the gender is and then go get bottoms. Skirts and girly pants that could match any of those or boy pants that match. And then you can get some gender specific stuff after you know what the gender is.
I would just get around 2 sleepers and a few onesies in preemie. Usually preemies spend a lot of time in the hospital and aren’t usually let out until they reach their original due date. By that time they are usually out of preemie sizes.
For the most part I would get regular newborn sizes.
You will be washing clothes 24/7 with that amount of stuff. Babies poop, pee, and vomit all over themselves all the time and need a LOT of changes. Get some stuff that baby can grow into as well in the 0-3 month size. Even if he/she is a preemie, they won’t stay little for very long! I’d definitely suggest buying onesies in the 5 pack that gerber sells. They are pretty cheap and you can go a while without having to wash them all the time. I guess you’ll just have to wait to see whether it’s a boy or a girl to get more outfits. Congrats on the baby!
Well Congratulations!
I also waited until after the baby was born to find out the sex, it was so worth the wait the surprise was great!
I think you really don’t need to buy anymore stuff.. Wait till after he or she is born. You will probably get a lot of gifts after the baby is born. I think I only bought maybe 6 sleepers that were unisex. I am telling you they grow out of the newborn stuff so fast. So, save your money and wait till the baby is born. It will be so fun to pick out pink or blue when you have the baby..
My son was 6 weeks early when I had him. Right now you have almost 6 weeks left. The chances of the baby having to stay more than a couple of days are slim. We were out of the hospital on the 5th day. You can pretty much buy any colors other than pink. Blue on a girl won’t look as bad as pink on a boy. Plus you probably won’t be taking him/her out much before he/she is to big for preemie clothes. My suggestion would be to buy a couple more outfits and be done with preemie clothes. Don’t go out and spend a lot of money on preemie clothes either because he/she will probably only be in that size for a week or two. Good luck!
P.S. Don’t go overboard with preemie diapers either but make sure you have enough newborn clothes and diapers
Just because babies are born over 5 pounds does not mean they will stay that big. Most babies loose weight after they are born. My son was born at 5 pounds 7 ounces. We left the hospital with him weighing 4 pounds 11 ounces. Just because they clothes have a weight on them doesn’t mean it is accurate. Make sure you have enough of both just incase.
I would you suggest you (or send out your partner/friend/relative) a week or so before your due date to get some newborn things in white. Do not open them and keep the receipts. Then you can have someone (partner/relative/etc) wash some clothes for you while you are in the hospital so they are ready when you get home with the baby. This way if you don’t need or want some of them not everything will be open so you can return some of it.
Good luck!
I would honestly wait to really buy anymore stuff. You dont really know how small of a preemie you will have. My friends daughter was a preemie and over 9lbs! Also…there is nothing wrong with using a pink sleeper on a boy or a blue on a girl…especially if you are just hanging around the house. My daughter has a few blue outfits..I like her in blue. I would hold off….once you have the baby you can get someone to run out and grab a few items of clothing…especially if the baby is in the NICU for a little. Good luck!