Tuesday, January 29, 2013

getting ready

It's an exciting time around these parts.

Even doing laundry has never been less of a chore.  Yesterday, I washed a bunch of baby Ellie's clothes and blankets and marveled yet again at how tiny everything looks.  And then I happily put everything in its respective place in her ever-improving room.

But.  All you moms out there.  I need your advice.  I have been reading all kinds of articles online, and none of them really help.

How many newborn outfits do I need?  How many onesies, sleepers, etc?

These might seem like trivial questions, but I really just don't know.  Especially with all this cold weather we've been experiencing.  Help a girl out.  Pretend that I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing and then answer the questions.  It's not much of a stretch, I assure you.

Do you guys want to see another ultrasound picture?  I know we've talked about how creepy they make our precious babies look sometimes, but this one makes me really happy.  In fact, I wish it wasn't a picture of a picture so you could really see it.  But, alas.


Do you see those little cheeks?  And those little eyelashes?  Be still my heart.  This one was taken right before 35 weeks, so she should be even chubbier now.  One can only hope.  If she's anything like I was as a baby, she'll have very chubby cheeks [I didn't get the nickname "Pillow Cheeks" for nothing] and probably be very bald for awhile.  And Tim thinks it was the same for him, so I'd say her chances are high.

And this is a picture of me a couple of days after my 36 weeks mark:


My doctor told us last Thursday that I'm far enough along that if I went into labor, they wouldn't try to stop it.  My new doctor has been so great!  I was a little nervous about finding a brand new doctor in a brand new state, but some of Tim's coworkers recommended this one, and he is so nice.  I've already heard lots of great things about him, some from complete strangers.  [I guess that's what you get when you live in a small town.]  And when we went to the hospital to pre-register, they asked if we wanted an impromptu tour of the Labor and Delivery Unit, since their one and only patient had just been discharged.  [Again, small town.]  We readily agreed, and all of the nurses were so friendly.  I think this is going to work out great.

Let me leave you with a picture of Tim and me in front of the Logan temple:


Since I was born in Logan, and since some of my ancestors helped to build this temple, it has always had a special place in my heart.  It was amazing to go on a double date there with my in-laws Jeremy and Ali last weekend.  My heart was filled with its rich history and beautiful spirit.

p.s.  Don't forget to answer my questions!
p.p.s.  Kthxloveyoubye.

6 comments:

karajean said...

Ahhh newborn clothes. You don't need many, but you'll probably need some. Owen was pretty good size at birth (7 lbs 14 oz) and even bigger at 2 weeks ( 9 lbs 5 oz) and he fit into newborn stuff for about a month.

So. Let me see. When Owen was super tiny I didn't really do "outfits" b/c he's a boy/it was easier/I liked to keep him naked/it was August in Arizona. He wore a ton of onesies though. Sometimes up to 3 a day. (Boys pee a lot.) But now I'm rambling. I'd day you'd be good with 6-8 newborn onesies (size 0-3 months would work fine as well) and 3 sleepers? Incase the get messy but you don't want to do the laundry every day, ya know?

Jana said...

My mom says at least half a dozen onesies because newborns go through more than one a day.

So I love you, and I'm starting to love Ellie too. I miss you! Keep the posts coming. LOVE YOU!!!!!

The Muse said...

Here's my 2 cents:

Sleepers: we didn't really use these at first... so many newborn outfits are already as soft as PJs, he just slept in his clothes, and we'd swaddle him. If you plan to swaddle, I recommend the ones they sell that velcro shut. A-mazing. We had about 3 of those.

Outfits? I would say at least 10 (and maybe even more pants), depending on how much you do laundry. A newborn will often poop out of clothes (mine did, anyhow), so you'll often end up changing the outfit a couple times in a day.

Onesies: I'd say about 10. I used them as layers or the main outfit ALL the time. I know it's winter, so you'll do this already, but get a bunch of long-sleeved onesies... they are awesome for layering, even if you only have a short sleeved shirt to go on top of it.

Coat- you only really need one, if you like it. And you'll mostly use blankets to bundle her up when she's so little, so maybe one big fuzzy onesie with arms & legs to keep her warm. Just for the cute factor.

Socks- 5-10 pairs. They don't get as dirty as the clothes that change all the time.

Hats- a few warm ones would be helpful.

Shoes- they are cute, but completely unnecessary. That being said, it's fun to have a few pairs to throw on for giggles and photo ops.

With a little girl, you'll probably want leggings or tights as well, but with only a boy, I don't know much about that.

I hope this helps! Email/call me if you have more questions. I'm no expert, but this is what worked for me.

The Muse said...

I'm also ballparking it here, since I was lucky and mostly people gave me my clothes, so I hardly had to buy anything. I was spoiled, for sure.

And yeah, I hardly used ANY newborn sized clothes. Link was a big boy, and didn't really fit anything 0-3 months for more than about a month. He always wore clothes 3- months "older" than his size... so if you're buying clothes, invest in some bigger clothes... you can always put a little baby in big clothes, but you can't do the opposite.

Denise said...

I had so many of each but honestly you'll be doing laundry so often that you'll always have clean ones. Don't waste too much money on each size but still enough to not worry about it? Does that even make sense? :)

Katie said...

This is a hard question to answer, because it depends largely on how big your baby is, which you obviously don't know. Newborn sized clothes "technically" fit up to 8 lbs, and some babies are born bigger than that!

I would say get a few newborn onesies (maybe 6 or so), but the bulk of it should be 0-3 months. The bigger size will be big on her at first, but it's not going to hurt her. :) Also, the Gerber brand stuff always seemed really small to me, so if you have some 0-3 month Gerber stuff, I'm sure it'll fit a newborn.

Also, one thing I noticed with many brands is that when they say an age, they mean up to that age. So if it says 6 months, it means 3-6 months. The best way to tell when something will fit is by looking at the weight range, not the age!

Hope that all helps. It's so funny how much trial and error there is to parenting. It's practically impossible to know what is going to work for you and your baby until she's here. You'll be totally fine. :)