# Clothes and Towels- How much do I really need!?



## LaLaBelle

I had my baby shower yesterday! I am now the proud recipient of 18 hooded baby towels, 20 baby washcloths, and more clothes than I think the kid can ever possibly wear. 


So, Ladies Who Have Experienced Life With A Baby- how much do I really need? How many bath towels should I keep? Do the washcloths ever come in handy for anything else?

How many outfits do I really need? Luckily, they're in a variety of sizes, but it's still a LOT of clothes, and I'd like to return some and use the store credit to buy some essentials I don't yet have. How many onesies do you have? How many cute dresses? (It's a girl for me!) Do people really remember what they gave you for clothes and expect to see the baby in those outfits?


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## lisa9999

Wow thats an impressive lot of stuff!! You must have some good friends.
We have 3 hooded towels, I think thats enough?
Washcloths - 3 again I'd say.
When you say onesies, do you mean sleepsuits? I usually have 6.
And a little girl can never have too many dresses :)

I'd say keep the ones you like, and get credit for the ones you dont like so much.

xx

ETA - Sophie ended up with 6 coats at xmas, so I returned 4 of them and got credit, a good friend bought her one an I have got away with her never knowing I returned it :)


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## charli87

you definitely dont need that many towels i'd say keep three but return the others.
as for the clothes it depends on who gave it as to if they would expect to see your lo in it. in the first 2 months chloe only wore vests and babygrows, outfits are too much hard work in the early days imo. we most probably had around 20 vests mix of short and long sleeved (although depends on the weather where you are) and at least 20 babygrows, that way we had enough still left when there was a load of washing on.


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## whoops

I have 5 towels, but use about three. I have about 6 sleepsuits and 2 pairs of PJs. You can never have too many vests or bibs IMO.

I have loads of outfits but use them all as I dress her in something different every morning.


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## +tivethoughts

We've got 7 towels and a pack of washcloths...I think 6? 

The towels I'd say for us we've got the right amount. But probably could deal with having less lol. 

Take some stuff back and get credit. Theres more important things you need than 18!! hooded towels lol. xx


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## moondrops

I never used the wash cloths that came with the towels but now she's being weaned i use them to wipe her down afterwards so i don't waste a million baby wipes :) x


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## LaLaBelle

lisa9999 said:


> Wow thats an impressive lot of stuff!! You must have some good friends.
> We have 3 hooded towels, I think thats enough?
> Washcloths - 3 again I'd say.
> When you say onesies, do you mean sleepsuits? I usually have 6.
> And a little girl can never have too many dresses :)
> 
> I'd say keep the ones you like, and get credit for the ones you dont like so much.
> 
> xx
> 
> ETA - Sophie ended up with 6 coats at xmas, so I returned 4 of them and got credit, a good friend bought her one an I have got away with her never knowing I returned it :)

I have some VERY awesome friends. I'm one of the first to have a baby, both in my family and among my groups of friends, and people are super excited. And apparently everyone loves hooded bath towels with little yellow ducks on them, because 15 out of 18 of the towels have ducks on them.

Thanks for the advice!


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## starlight2801

I have four towels and it's more than enough. I have three washcloths and don't use any of them as I still prefer cotton wool.

In terms of clothes I think it's awesome your friends have been so generous but if you were buying yourself you don't need nearly as much as you think you do.

I had loads in newborn and 0-3 size and she grew so quickly she didn't wear anything more than twice. I only have 6 vests and sleep suits and about 10 day outfits now and yes I have to wash more but at least she wears everything. X


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## tristansmum

wow 18 towels!!! I had 2 which was fine but perhaps keep 3 or 4 and take rest back. same with the wash cloths... 4 or 5 will be enough i think.

clothing wise we just kept him in sleepsuits the first month... babies sleep most of the time so fussy outfits are not comfy for them. perhaps keep any thing you really love/friends whho see you lots and will ask about the outfit. from other people you won't see much change it and if they ask tell them its in the wash/grown out of it/not fitting in it yet.


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## Kalah

This is what I had...

Hooded towels - 2 (so you have one as backup incase they pee right after bath time
Washcloths - 5 to 10, they are useful for times other than baths, like if they get sticky a wet cloth is much better than a wet wipe. 
Onesies - 10 or more especially with newborns! They spit up more than you can imagine, some days I had to change Kili 10 minutes after dressing her a few times a day!
Dresses - 1 or 2 of each size until she's about 9 to 12 months old.

ETA: Around age one she'll grow out of the hooded towels anyway, I've just started using my own full size towels on Kili since the hooded baby towels were just too short and thin. They sure are adorable though!


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## browneyes121

Your baby shower sounds like mine! I ended up with 12 towels and more bottles of baby lotion than your average asda! 
I kept 2, but also had loads of hand me down ones so I have about 10 now. You seriously only need three max! 
Clothes, well we have about 25 sleepsuits in each size, 30 vests and a wardrobe crammed full of outfits. It's stupid but I have a serious baby clothes addiction.


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## Mummy2Asher

In the early months I had 25 baby Gros and 25 vests and I washed them once a week...it's slowly cut down to now- 10 baby gros, 20 vests, 20 tops and 15 trousers and some dungarees hoodies cardys etc etc 
7 towels
I would say I changed him 3 times a day on average and I do 5 loads of washing already so I don't think I could have less clothes!


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## Kalah

To the OP it might be helpful to know what UK people call "vests" are what people in the US call "bodysuits" or "onesies" :flower:


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## supertabby

We have 5 hooded towels which is more than enough, two would be enough for us but then we don't bath Isobel daily. We do give her a full wash down every day at the changing table and so our wash clothes come in handy - we have about 15 but probably only need about 5.

Clothes wise, we ended up with 16 vests (onesies?) and 16 sleepsuits in newborn size, which was a lot more than the lists in the baby book and online suggested, but I'm glad we had that much as we needed it. That said Isobel is a reflux baby so sicked up quite a bit. We also had lots of cute outfits (dresses, tops and pants etc) that didn't get much use as sleepsuits are so much easier with a newborn. Now she's 10 weeks old we're putting her in "outfits" more regularly but before she only wore them occasionally.


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## lovingmommy

20 hooded towels! Wow! I only use two or three lol. i would def return them and get something you really need :) onesies tho are amazing! esp for a summer baby, your lo can wear them throughout the day and to bed!


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## Cattia

I would agree three towels is plenty. As for clothes, plenty of vests and babygrows to save you constantly washing! George was almost 9lb when born though so most newborn stuff didn't fit him and he is already out of 0-3 month suits at 6 weeks but you will probably have a more reasonable size baby! My daughter stayed in all the sizes as long as she was supposed to and I loved putting her in pretty dresses so enjoy it while you can, now she runs around everywhere and loves getting dirty she mostly just wears jeans and leggings!


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## membas#1

I have 3 hooded towels and have never used them. I just use our bath towels, they are so much bigger and we can wrap her up in them and they are thicker. 

I also was given way too many clothes. As for NB items...i had so many onesies but we didn't like to put stuff over her head that early so we used a lot of zip up and button up sleep suits. she lived in those. Eventually i started putting stuff over her head so we use onesies and dresses etc now. We have way more than we need of the onesies. I think I have about 10 that i use regularly...3 are long sleeve for chillier days and teh rest short sleeve. I have another 10 or so that i hardly use, but are there in case i need them. They were gifts and hand me downs. I definitely returned a lot of the clothes we got as we didn't need more with all the hand me downs we had from friends!

As for dresses, I have 2 that are 0-3 month and she wears them on occasion. I also have a couple skirts which i prefer over the dresses. Otherwise I have about 5 or 6 pair of cotton pants that go with her onesies and a pair of soft jeans and a pair of corduroy pants. She has a few pair of shorts but hasn't worn them yet...

We have about 6 or so zip up/button up sleeper suits and 3 or 4 sleep gowns. She doesn't wear the gowns much. 

I generally dress her only once for the day--sometimes if she spits up bad i have to change her or if she' poops outside the diaper but those are rare...so i use an outfit and a sleeper a day. i wash her clothes once or twice a week depending on if she's had a messy week. I have plenty of clothes for if she needed 3 changings a day, but thankfully i don' have to use that many!


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