Buy Less Than You Think
Almost every list written for new parents is longer than it needs to be. A newborn spends the first twelve weeks feeding, sleeping and being carried, and the things that genuinely help are the ones that make those three easier. Everything else can wait until you know which kind of baby you have.
Start with clothing, because it is the one thing you will handle a dozen times a day. Envelope necklines matter more than prints: they let a bodysuit come off downwards on a bad day rather than over a face. Poppers that run the full length of one leg turn a night change into one movement. Flat seams and soft, washed cotton stop the small red marks that look alarming and mean nothing.
The First Wardrobe
Six to eight bodysuits, four sleepsuits, two cardigans and a hat will carry a newborn through a week between washes. Buy the 0–3M size in a smaller quantity than everything else; most babies are through it before the packaging is in the recycling. Size up early rather than late, and hem a sleeve if you have to.
- Bodysuits with an envelope neck and a three-popper gusset.
- Sleepsuits with integrated feet, so socks stop being a problem to solve.
- One warm knitted layer that goes over everything else.
- A soft hat with ties, for the first weeks outdoors.
- Muslins, in a quantity that feels excessive until week two.
Washing, Not Storing
Wash everything before it is worn, at forty degrees, with a detergent that has no fragrance in it. Skip fabric conditioner entirely for the first months: it coats the fibres, and coated cotton holds less water and breathes less well against skin that is still learning to regulate its own temperature.
Nothing on a newborn checklist is as useful as a second set of the thing you already know works.
Keep the receipts, keep the tags on the larger sizes, and give yourself permission to return the half of the list you never opened. The first three months are short, and the shopping is the least of it.
