Receiving blankets, onsies, towels, washclothes - how many does one really need?

[cjra]

We seem to have acquired a ton of all of these things at our showers
this weekend and I'm thinking it's over kill. Everyone says "you need
so much" , but *how* much? AT least without having to do laundry every
day?

[KD]

cjra wrote:
> We seem to have acquired a ton of all of these things at our showers
> this weekend and I'm thinking it's over kill. Everyone says "you need
> so much" , but *how* much? AT least without having to do laundry every
> day?

I can only tell you our own experience in this department, we just had
our first baby 12 weeks ago.

After four baby showers, we also thought we had too many of some of
these items, especially in the baby washcloth department. But fear
not...I have yet to find a number that's too many. I've started keeping
a damp washcloth handy when at home to wipe up spewy faces and
clothing. I also bring a couple with me when I'm out, I put them in one
of those travel wipe containers with a bit of water. And if you have to
clean up some particularly bad mess that baby wipes just can't handle,
well, they're disposable right? :)

Receiving blankets, we go through a lot of those too! We tend to call
'em 'spewy blankets' around our house, as you must have one on your
shoulder each time you pick up our little guy or risk your shirt.

Onesies...if you have lots of bibs to go with 'em, you might not need a
whole pile. At first I put all our bibs in the closet, thinking we
didn't need them until he was eating solids. WRONG! :) They're shirt
savers. Depends on the size too. If you have a variety of sizes,
great. If they're all wee, exchange some. Our son spits up a lot, and
spends most of his time at home in a onesie, sleeps in them too.

Towels - haven't used many of those. If the baby doesn't poop/pee/spew
or otherwise soil it after getting out of the tub, I generally use it
several times before it hits the wash.

Despite having lots of these things...I still do a load of his laundry
nearly every day. Having only one washer, I'd hate to have it back up
much more than that.

Good luck!

KD & G

[Leslie]

cjra wrote:
> We seem to have acquired a ton of all of these things at our showers
> this weekend and I'm thinking it's over kill. Everyone says "you need
> so much" , but *how* much? AT least without having to do laundry every
> day?

It depends on the parent and the baby, really. Different people do
different things. For example. I swaddle my babies and they are always
having exploding diapers that get the blankets dirty. So I feel you
can never have enough receiving blankets. I probably have ten and I
would still run out after a couple of days.

Leslie

[Andrea Phillips]

cjra wrote:
> We seem to have acquired a ton of all of these things at our showers
> this weekend and I'm thinking it's over kill. Everyone says "you need
> so much" , but *how* much? AT least without having to do laundry every
> day?

I assume you're talking about linens, mainly? In my experience, it WAS
overkill. For our May baby, we never actually needed more than about
three towels, ten onesies, four or five additional outfits for
gallivanting around town, two sets of sheets, three or four receiving
blankets, three or four of your preferred rag/burp cloth/hand
towel/cloth diaper for dealing with unexpected messes. Not to say we
didn't HAVE more, but we really didn't NEED even half of the stuff we
wound up with.

We did go through dozens of baby washcloths, but that's because I
discovered they're just perfect for washing my face and a lot of them
wound up with mascara stains. :)

We didn't have a spitter, though, so that might change ratios some; and
if we started encountering diaper explosions such that we started going
through stuff a lot faster, switching diaper sizes right quick fixed
that. :)

I might be just kind of lazy, too. But I never saw a need to, say,
change my daughter's outfit if she'd just been drooling on it,
f'rinstance. And if the diaper leaked in the middle of the night and
there was a wet spot in the crib, I was OK laying her down in another
spot in the crib and leaving it until morning. And I'm philosophically
opposed to bibs and sheet protector pads and the like, because I don't
see much difference in washing one thing or the other, and you've got
to wash the onesies and outfits at the end of the day *anyhow* :)

[Ericka Kammerer]

cjra wrote:
> We seem to have acquired a ton of all of these things at our showers
> this weekend and I'm thinking it's over kill. Everyone says "you need
> so much" , but *how* much? AT least without having to do laundry every
> day?

Depends on the baby. Some babies are very spitty
or tend to have blowout diapers, in which case you can go
through a *lot* of blankets and onesies and so on. Other
babies are pretty neat and tidy and you won't go through
so many. They have a lot of uses, though, so I wouldn't
worry about having too many. The blankets and towels
and such make good rags later, so the more the merrier ;-)
If you have a very spitty baby, you could go through
half a dozen receiving blankets in a day, easy. Or,
maybe you'll just need one every few days. No way to
tell.

Best wishes,
Ericka

[Denise~*]

cjra wrote:
> We seem to have acquired a ton of all of these things at our showers
> this weekend and I'm thinking it's over kill. Everyone says "you need
> so much" , but *how* much? AT least without having to do laundry every
> day?
>

Never can have too many of:
Receiving blankets
onsies
washclothes (can be used as spit rags)

towels: Ehh, a few is OK

[Nikki]

"cjra" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> We seem to have acquired a ton of all of these things at our showers
> this weekend and I'm thinking it's over kill. Everyone says "you need
> so much" , but *how* much? AT least without having to do laundry every
> day?

It really just depends on the baby and parent. I do baby laundry about once
every 5 days. My babies do not spit up. They generally do not drool milk
down their necks when they feed. I do have the occasional exploding diaper
but not every day. If my baby is wearing a onsie and they are clean at
night I have no desire to change them into a 'jammy' onsie. I'll change
them the next morning. I don't feel the need to get a fresh blanket every
day just because. All that means I don't need nearly as many as some
people. For my style and my babies, 8-10 onsies are plenty, 4 receiving
blankets are plenty, and 4 washcloths are good as I give them a bath about 4
times a week. They do not spit up or drool milk so there isn't anything to
mop up off of them on a regular basis and no reason to change their
clothes/bedding a lot. Two crib sheets are plenty for me as well.

Having said that I will admit that I just had to change and clean Brock's
diaper, his clothes, the blanket, the cloth seat cover in the swing, my
nieces shirt, and the carpet under the swing ROFLMAO :-D.


--
Nikki, mama to
Hunter 4/99
Luke 4/01
Brock 4/06
Ben 4/06

[KD]

Andrea Phillips wrote:
> cjra wrote:
> > We seem to have acquired a ton of all of these things at our showers
> > this weekend and I'm thinking it's over kill. Everyone says "you need
> > so much" , but *how* much? AT least without having to do laundry every
> > day?
>
> I assume you're talking about linens, mainly? In my experience, it WAS
> overkill. For our May baby, we never actually needed more than about
> three towels, ten onesies, four or five additional outfits for
> gallivanting around town, two sets of sheets, three or four receiving
> blankets, three or four of your preferred rag/burp cloth/hand
> towel/cloth diaper for dealing with unexpected messes. Not to say we
> didn't HAVE more, but we really didn't NEED even half of the stuff we
> wound up with.
>
> We did go through dozens of baby washcloths, but that's because I
> discovered they're just perfect for washing my face and a lot of them
> wound up with mascara stains. :)
>
> We didn't have a spitter, though, so that might change ratios some; and
> if we started encountering diaper explosions such that we started going
> through stuff a lot faster, switching diaper sizes right quick fixed
> that. :)
>
> I might be just kind of lazy, too. But I never saw a need to, say,
> change my daughter's outfit if she'd just been drooling on it,
> f'rinstance. And if the diaper leaked in the middle of the night and
> there was a wet spot in the crib, I was OK laying her down in another
> spot in the crib and leaving it until morning. And I'm philosophically
> opposed to bibs and sheet protector pads and the like, because I don't
> see much difference in washing one thing or the other, and you've got
> to wash the onesies and outfits at the end of the day *anyhow* :)

I do have a spitter. I do hope his spitting up period is over soon. On
the bib subject, the laundry isn't why I do it...as you say, you have
to wash the things by the end of the day anyhow. But I find it far
easier to change a bib than it is to change a shirt, and without bibs
we change shirts several times a day. Not so much because he doesn't
look pretty, but because the shirt is wet and disgusting. This is
especially true if we're out and about, that way he isn't stuck in a
wet lumpy shirt until we get home.

In his cradle where he sleeps in our room, I put a sheet and absorbant
changing pad, with a second layer of both underneath. That way if one
gets messed, peel it off and you have a clean bed. Of course in the
little cradle there's no clean area to move him to like there would be
in a crib. Hardly happens anyhow, as we don't seem to get the explosive
diaper problem. As someone else said, for us that's an indicator to
move up a diaper size...he starts to get plumbers' butt and the poo
comes right out the back. :) He sleeps swaddled too, so his blankets
generally absorb any mess like that. I put a spare receiving blanket
under his head to absorb any spew as he's lying there.

KD & G

[Anne Rogers]

> It depends on the parent and the baby, really. Different people do
> different things. For example. I swaddle my babies and they are always
> having exploding diapers that get the blankets dirty. So I feel you
> can never have enough receiving blankets. I probably have ten and I
> would still run out after a couple of days.

whereas I've never understood this US obsession with receiving blankets, I
think we have about 3 blankets and a similar number of sheets and even that
seemed too many!

My advice to CJRA would be as it seems you have plenty, that unless you live
in an isolated area where it would be difficult to get new supplies, stick
with what you have and only buy more when you know you want some, and what
you want. We ended up exchanging newborn stuff and that was when we had a
tiny baby who was in newborn for 3 months.

Anne

[Anne Rogers]

> If you have a very spitty baby, you could go through
> half a dozen receiving blankets in a day, easy.

really? don't you just change it over when it's just too much, not after one
spit. Is a receiving blanket just an ordinary small blanket? It sounds like
we use muslins for what lots of people use receiving blankets for and they
are much lighter, small to pop in a diaper bag, smaller to keep a spare one
around and much more economical to wash, we managed with 6, with not very
spitty babies, another pack would have helped had they been.

Anne

[Anne Rogers]

> Receiving blankets

if you can't store them then you have too many!

> onsies

same as above, but as they are smaller it is more!


> washclothes (can be used as spit rags)

I beg to differ here, my parents bought me a 4 pack when I had number 1, 2
are still unused 3 years and another child later!
>
> towels: Ehh, a few is OK

the only time we thought we could have done with more was when DD went
through a habit of doing a tiny poo on her towel after we got her out the
bath, so you'd have to make sure the right type of washing got done, to
ensure there was always a clean towle.

Anne

[cjra]

Ok, y'all have given me stuff to think about... storage space *is* an
issue, so in our case, we can have too much, if we're not going to use
it. We don't have anywhere to put it...

I'm not worried about buying *more*, I'm considering returning some
stuff I've received. I had to buy the bare basics last week (at 38
weeks) 'just in case.' But we had 2 showers this weekend and acquired
more...

Right now I've got 16 receiving blankets - more than enough right?
I've already opened and washed 8 (they come in packages of 4, so this
is 4 packs), will probably open and wash one more pack because I like
the colors, and return the last pack.

now my question - what do you use them FOR??? I mean, I can find some
uses, certainly, but what's their 'official' use?

Onesies - probably ~12 for 0-3 months and another 16 for 3-6 months.
I'm thinking of returning one pack of 4.

Washclothes - ~16 (pack of 8, then a few here and there with the
towels)
Towels/hooded towels - 4. Think I will keep them all because they're so
dang cute I can't resist.

We probably have more warm blankets than we'll ever need too - about 6.
We live in TX where we only need a blanket one month a year.... We have
2 swaddlers. but only one will be good for summer I think, unless we
turn the a/c down real low!

Thanks for the guidance....

[cjra]

KD wrote:
> In his cradle where he sleeps in our room, I put a sheet and absorbant
> changing pad, with a second layer of both underneath. That way if one
> gets messed, peel it off and you have a clean bed. Of course in the
> little cradle there's no clean area to move him to like there would be
> in a crib.

We have a bassinet near the bed, but also a 'co-sleeper' thing for in
the bed which we'll probably use more...not a crib, so also no place to
move the baby to.

[Ericka Kammerer]

Anne Rogers wrote:
>> If you have a very spitty baby, you could go through
>> half a dozen receiving blankets in a day, easy.
>
> really? don't you just change it over when it's just too much, not after one
> spit. Is a receiving blanket just an ordinary small blanket? It sounds like
> we use muslins for what lots of people use receiving blankets for and they
> are much lighter, small to pop in a diaper bag, smaller to keep a spare one
> around and much more economical to wash, we managed with 6, with not very
> spitty babies, another pack would have helped had they been.

Well, it's not unusual for a spitty baby to take out
a blanket (receiving blankets tend to be around 30" square)
after most feedings. I mean, even if the baby hasn't hit
*every* square inch, they're not exactly pleasant once
most of the blanket is soggy ;-) I wouldn't say a receiving
blanket is large or difficult to deal with. They seem rather
a nice size to be useful for a variety of applications to
me.

Best wishes,
Ericka

[Ericka Kammerer]

cjra wrote:

> Right now I've got 16 receiving blankets - more than enough right?
> I've already opened and washed 8 (they come in packages of 4, so this
> is 4 packs), will probably open and wash one more pack because I like
> the colors, and return the last pack.
>
> now my question - what do you use them FOR??? I mean, I can find some
> uses, certainly, but what's their 'official' use?

Does it matter? ;-) I think 16 is more than enough,
but you can certainly find a whole slew of uses for them--
blanket, swaddling cloth, burp cloth, head restraint,
floor cover, sun shade, towel, lovey, etc.

> Onesies - probably ~12 for 0-3 months and another 16 for 3-6 months.
> I'm thinking of returning one pack of 4.

Sounds reasonable, depending on how you use them.
If you tend to keep the baby in onesies most of the time,
then maybe you keep them if you have storage space. If
you tend to put the baby in outfits without a onesie
underneath, then 16 is overkill.

> Washclothes - ~16 (pack of 8, then a few here and there with the
> towels)

That's plenty, but they have lots of other uses
besides baby, so I find them handy.

> Towels/hooded towels - 4. Think I will keep them all because they're so
> dang cute I can't resist.

That doesn't seem excessive to me. You can get by
with fewer, certainly, but if you've got room it doesn't
seem unreasonable to have four towels ;-)

Best wishes,
Ericka

[Caledonia]

cjra wrote:

> now my question - what do you use them FOR??? I mean, I can find some
> uses, certainly, but what's their 'official' use?

(a) Diaper changing spot, carried in diaper bag
(b) Left on a car seat in a hot car, to cool the seat before popping
baby back in
(c) Sun shade, clipped onto stroller with clothespins
(d) Swaddling
(e) The official use as a small blanket when in an air-conditioned
space
(f) Safe/clean spot to put baby down when visiting somewhere with a
so-so floor

And the list goes on. Now, 3 years out, they're used for baby dolls as
blankets, and some have been cut up and are used as washclothes for
washing hands after eating.

> Onesies - probably ~12 for 0-3 months and another 16 for 3-6 months.
> I'm thinking of returning one pack of 4.
>
> Washclothes - ~16 (pack of 8, then a few here and there with the
> towels)
> Towels/hooded towels - 4. Think I will keep them all because they're so
> dang cute I can't resist.
>
> We probably have more warm blankets than we'll ever need too - about 6.
> We live in TX where we only need a blanket one month a year.... We have
> 2 swaddlers. but only one will be good for summer I think, unless we
> turn the a/c down real low!

We have no a/c, but I was always stunned (or maybe, 'hence, I was
always stunned') when going into a bank or the mall or the supermarket
just how *cold* it was in the summer, hence I always had a blanket for
my onesie-clad baby.

Caledonia

[Irrational Number]

Caledonia wrote:

> cjra wrote:
>
>>now my question - what do you use them FOR??? I mean, I can find some
>>uses, certainly, but what's their 'official' use?
>
> (a) Diaper changing spot, carried in diaper bag
> (b) Left on a car seat in a hot car, to cool the seat before popping
> baby back in
> (c) Sun shade, clipped onto stroller with clothespins
> (d) Swaddling
> (e) The official use as a small blanket when in an air-conditioned
> space
> (f) Safe/clean spot to put baby down when visiting somewhere with a
> so-so floor

I had a tendency to let baby sleep wherever,
so I kept a blanket at each possible location
(family room, my room, baby's room, car,
parents' house, etc.).

Also, they are useful as a big burpcloth,
say baby throws up on floor, it's nice to
wipe with something big.

I also put one on the diaper changing pad,
so that it was easy to just throw it in
the wash when it got dirty, instead of
dealing with taking off the changing pad
cover (it's just me, I'm clumsy when it
comes to elasticized covers, you should
watch me try to take the crib mattress
cover off!).

-- Anita --

[Anne Rogers]

> Well, it's not unusual for a spitty baby to take out
> a blanket (receiving blankets tend to be around 30" square)
> after most feedings. I mean, even if the baby hasn't hit
> *every* square inch, they're not exactly pleasant once
> most of the blanket is soggy ;-) I wouldn't say a receiving
> blanket is large or difficult to deal with. They seem rather
> a nice size to be useful for a variety of applications to
> me.

Right, I'm not sure we actually have such things, all our blankets are much
more like 36" by 48", I've not gone extensive baby shopping, but all the
blankets I've seen have been intended for use on a cot, or as a temporary
floor covering, it's fairly rare in my experience to see someone out and
about with a baby wrapped in a blanket. So the blankets that we had were
huge for any changing bag, so not something you'd take unless you
specifically needed a blanket. A muslin on the other hand is about 24"
square and I would use for much of the purposes you are describing, because
to use a blanket the size we generally have that way would be very
uneconmical and create a lot or washing and problems storing them once
clean!

Anne

[Anne Rogers]

>
> Right now I've got 16 receiving blankets - more than enough right?
> I've already opened and washed 8 (they come in packages of 4, so this
> is 4 packs), will probably open and wash one more pack because I like
> the colors, and return the last pack.
>
> now my question - what do you use them FOR??? I mean, I can find some
> uses, certainly, but what's their 'official' use?

personally I would return some of these, particularly as you are using cloth
diapers, they are a new concept to me, but the uses I've just learnt have a
big cross over with uses for diapers!
>
> Onesies - probably ~12 for 0-3 months and another 16 for 3-6 months.
> I'm thinking of returning one pack of 4.

I don't think we had more than 7 in either size, so I'd almost certainly
return some of the 3-6 month ones, we'd have used more had it not been for
the fact that we were given so many cute outfits, that we only used them at
night, but still I can't imagine needing 16.
>
> Washclothes - ~16 (pack of 8, then a few here and there with the
> towels)

others seem to use them, I don't! I'd return the full pack, or at least keep
it until a couple of weeks after the birth then exchange for what you have
figured you need!

> Towels/hooded towels - 4. Think I will keep them all because they're so
> dang cute I can't resist.

keep! we managed with 2 for number 1 and 3 for number 2, but 4 would be a
very good number especially if you go swimming
>
> We probably have more warm blankets than we'll ever need too - about 6.
> We live in TX where we only need a blanket one month a year.... We have
> 2 swaddlers. but only one will be good for summer I think, unless we
> turn the a/c down real low!

haha, I've only finally twigged in this thread that a receiving blanket
isn't just a regular blanket, even living in the UK we've not needed 6, I
think we have 3 and we use them on the cot about 9-10 months of the year.
What we have found saves a blanket is a playmat, rather nice as though ours
isn't anything more than a thin quilt it has nice pictures rather than being
plain like a blanket.

Cheers

Anne

[Ericka Kammerer]

Anne Rogers wrote:
>> Right now I've got 16 receiving blankets - more than enough right?
>> I've already opened and washed 8 (they come in packages of 4, so this
>> is 4 packs), will probably open and wash one more pack because I like
>> the colors, and return the last pack.
>>
>> now my question - what do you use them FOR??? I mean, I can find some
>> uses, certainly, but what's their 'official' use?
>
> personally I would return some of these, particularly as you are using cloth
> diapers, they are a new concept to me, but the uses I've just learnt have a
> big cross over with uses for diapers!

Although, that depends on what sort of cloth diapers
you use. If you use flat, square diapers then you can use
them for all these other things. If you choose contoured
diapers or all-in-ones or something like that, then the
diapers aren't very useful for all those other purposes.

Best wishes,
Ericka

[cjra]

Caledonia wrote:
> cjra wrote:

> >
> > We probably have more warm blankets than we'll ever need too - about 6.
> > We live in TX where we only need a blanket one month a year.... We have
> > 2 swaddlers. but only one will be good for summer I think, unless we
> > turn the a/c down real low!
>
> We have no a/c, but I was always stunned (or maybe, 'hence, I was
> always stunned') when going into a bank or the mall or the supermarket
> just how *cold* it was in the summer, hence I always had a blanket for
> my onesie-clad baby.

True, I forgot about that.....I hate having to carry a fleece in the
summer here! We lived happily w/o a/c in our house before, but we
installed it when we bought this house and have used it this summer
(summer began in April I think....) as we can't yet open all our
windows. When we're home it's set at 80F, with the ceiling fans on
(sometimes 82F, but at night no more than 80). That's great for us, but
I'm a little concerned about how to determine the right temp when the
baby is here.... I know how to dress for the heat, just have to make
sure I've got the right level for the bub.

[cjra]

Ericka Kammerer wrote:
> cjra wrote:

> >
> > now my question - what do you use them FOR??? I mean, I can find some
> > uses, certainly, but what's their 'official' use?
>
> Does it matter? ;-)

Well I was kind of wondering why "receiving" - what the basis of the
name was. Not that it matters, but it does help to see what eveyrone
uses them for.

> > Towels/hooded towels - 4. Think I will keep them all because they're so
> > dang cute I can't resist.
>
> That doesn't seem excessive to me. You can get by
> with fewer, certainly, but if you've got room it doesn't
> seem unreasonable to have four towels ;-)

I looked again and there's 6, but I'll return two as they're not that
great anyway. We don't have loads of room. This stuff is small and
doesn't take up a lot of space, but at the same time it adds up.

[KD]

cjra wrote:
> Ericka Kammerer wrote:
> > cjra wrote:
>
> > >
> > > now my question - what do you use them FOR??? I mean, I can find some
> > > uses, certainly, but what's their 'official' use?
> >
> > Does it matter? ;-)
>
> Well I was kind of wondering why "receiving" - what the basis of the
> name was. Not that it matters, but it does help to see what eveyrone
> uses them for.

Personally, mine receive lots 'o spew! :) But I get what ya mean, it
almost sounds like you're supposed to present your baby wrapped in one
of these, to 'receive' their admiring public or something.

Hmm, I wonder if there are differing opinions on this topic? :D

KD & G

[Jamie Clark]

cjra wrote:
> Ok, y'all have given me stuff to think about... storage space *is* an
> issue, so in our case, we can have too much, if we're not going to use
> it. We don't have anywhere to put it...
>
> I'm not worried about buying *more*, I'm considering returning some
> stuff I've received. I had to buy the bare basics last week (at 38
> weeks) 'just in case.' But we had 2 showers this weekend and acquired
> more...
>
> Right now I've got 16 receiving blankets - more than enough right?
> I've already opened and washed 8 (they come in packages of 4, so this
> is 4 packs), will probably open and wash one more pack because I like
> the colors, and return the last pack.
>
> now my question - what do you use them FOR??? I mean, I can find some
> uses, certainly, but what's their 'official' use?

We used receiving blankets to swaddle. The best ones have some stretch in
them. If you really want to swaddle them well and tight, you use two -- one
over the first swaddle, and it helps keep them in. I learned that in the
hospital. We also used receiving blankets as pads if we laid baby down on
the floor or sofa, or outdoors in the grass. We used them as changing table
covers, either at home, or on the fly. We use receiving blankets as drool
protectors if someone holds the baby -- the blanket goes first over the
shoulder. We rolled them up and used them as pads in the car seat when baby
was tiny, and we used them later when baby was about 4 months old to prop
her up in the Johnny Jump Up or Excersaucer. All sorts of uses~!

> Onesies - probably ~12 for 0-3 months and another 16 for 3-6 months.
> I'm thinking of returning one pack of 4.
>
> Washclothes - ~16 (pack of 8, then a few here and there with the
> towels)

I thought we'd never use/need the baby washcloths, but once we brought baby
home and tried to give her a bath, I understood their use. I tried to use a
regular wash cloth, and couldn't believe how big, heavy, and stiff it felt.
On me, not so much, but on baby, it was huge! So the baby wash cloths were
great to have. As someone else said, you can use them to take care of
spills, wipe faces and hands, etc.

> Towels/hooded towels - 4. Think I will keep them all because they're
> so dang cute I can't resist.

I got one hooded towel and it worked fine, but other than that, I just used
a regular towel that matched the bathroom set.

> We probably have more warm blankets than we'll ever need too - about
> 6. We live in TX where we only need a blanket one month a year.... We
> have 2 swaddlers. but only one will be good for summer I think,
> unless we turn the a/c down real low!
>
> Thanks for the guidance....

--

Jamie
Earth Angels:
Taylor Marlys, 1/3/03
Addison Grace, 9/30/04

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