aka The Cutest Little Clothes Ever - baby clothes
I have decided that I am really just writing these blogs for me. One day my daughter is going to ask me questions about how I raised her. One day my daughter is going to ask me questions about how to take care of her babies. And I’m not confident my memory will serve me well when those times come. So, while I hope others get some benefit from reading my thoughts, I realize these posts are mostly beneficial to me. I’m thankful I can record my thoughts throughout this process – a place I can revisit later when I want to reminisce.
This post is about baby clothes. For someone so teeny tiny, babies tend to have a lot of clothes. People love to buy baby clothes – they’re typically inexpensive, thoughtful and super cute gifts. Did I mention they’re super cute?? It’s hard to pass by a rack of little baby clothes that are on sale for <$5 and not buy anything!
So, as I recently packed up all of Adleigh’s newborn clothes (insert sobbing), I took an inventory so I could get really specific in this post. Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on how you look at it), Adleigh was so little, she actually wore her newborn clothes until she was 3 months old. Whereas most babies hardly get to wear any of their newborn size clothes, she wore all of them many, many times. Side note: this was also great because I got to take pictures of her in the same outfit weeks and months apart and see how much she had grown!
Here is what we had for her (give or take a couple) – and it was much more than enough:
13 footie PJs
13 long sleeve onesies
14 short sleeve onesies
4 sleeveless onesies
12 pairs of leggings
9 outfits (something on a hanger that can be worn by itself as a complete outfit, i.e. a romper or a dress)
And, that’s what I pared everything down to! We received far more clothing than that! I was able to exchange some things for bigger sizes that we would need, or for items that we needed but did not receive. I rotated through everything so she pretty much wore everything once before she wore anything twice. And it was nice not to have to do laundry every day, or even every few days – I could, and still can, get by doing laundry once a week or even less than that.
I keep her closet organized by size. When we put away all the clothes we got initially, we went through each size group to see what we had.
Funny sidebar – my mom and I set out to do this thinking it was such a girly task and David would want nothing to do with it. Well, he walked by and insisted he wanted input on what we kept and what we returned. That’s when I knew Adleigh had him wrapped around her finger.
So we sorted by size, and then by “type” of clothes – long sleeve onesie, short sleeve onesie, pants, dresses, one piece outfits, etc. Within each size and within each type I tried not to have excess. Honestly it was hard, because, like I said, little girl clothes are ADORABLE. So I really struggled with the desire to keep everything so little and cute, vs. the feeling that I was being wasteful having so many clothes that she could never wear all of them.
I don't know what the magic number is for the "right amount" of clothes. Honestly, most of us live in abundance and would never have to worry about having just enough for our sons or daughters. We will all have excess. The good news is, because your child probably won't wear most things many times, you typically end up with hand-me-downs that are in pretty good shape for future babies, your friends, or children in need.
Honestly, I let this stress me out far too much, and still do. Ultimately – if people have given you clothes (whether new or hand-me-downs) and you don’t want to think about it- throw them in the laundry, put them in your child’s closet and let that baby wear what they wear… then pack ‘em all up when he/she outgrows them. It’s not a big deal. Mommyhood has it’s stressors and struggles – why I let this be one of them, I don’t know.
