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Hey there friends. Welcome to the better postpartum podcast. I’m your host Angel Swan, crunchy mom, coffee addict and postpartum doula turned new mom, coach. This podcast is your audio guide to not just surviving but thriving during those early and newborn days. If you want to care for yourself, your household and your baby with confidence, grab your earbuds because this is the only podcast that you need. So what do you say? Should we get started with today’s episode? Let’s do this. Hey, friends, thank you so much for tuning in today. Before we get started, I just wanted to read this really awesome review submitted by Woods woman 315. She says, this is an awesome podcast for new parents full of information and a genuine care for others. This is a great listen for any new parents or anyone looking for solid guidance. Good job. Hey, thank you for that review. And if you’ve been loving this podcast, if you’re learning from it, please go to Apple podcasts. Make sure you subscribe, leave me a five star rating and leave a written review and tell me something that you’ve learned a message that really stuck with you. Or just let me know what your favorite episode has been so far, leaving a rating and review is really the best way to support the show. And it helps other new moms find this podcast so that they can learn from it too. So thank you so much again towards women 315. Now let’s get into today’s episode. So in this next part of our minimal and sustainable postpartum series, we will be talking about the essential baby clothes that you should have. I find that most moms end up with way too many outfits for their babies. And a lot of those outfits never get worn. This happens because people either gift a bunch of clothes to you, or you stock up on clothes, because you have no idea how much you really need. And this totally happened to me. I did a good job on my own of getting the clothes that I needed for the entire first year of Jenny’s life. And then my baby shower happened and I told people do not buy me clothes. I have clothes for an entire year. Don’t give me clothes. And guess what? Literally everyone gave me clothes. I’m not kidding you I had and I know I’ve said this before. I had 10 humongous trash bags stuffed full of baby clothes. And we did not use all that stuff. Like for a while I stressed myself out I was trying to wash all of it. First of all, which literally, I was going two months into her life. And I hadn’t even been able to wash all that laundry yet, because I was diligently working on it every day. But we lived in a small apartment, I had a tiny washing machine. And 10 trash bags full of baby clothes, that’s literally so much laundry. So I stressed myself out for two whole months. And then eventually I was like, You know what, I’m not gonna wash all of these things because she’s not going to wear all of them. And I had so much that I could just be picky about what I wanted to keep and what I was going to give away. So I ended up just choosing a couple of pieces of clothing to keep and then I donated the rest of it to moms who needed clothes who needed you know, baby clothes. So if you are in a situation where you have too much stuff, too many baby clothes, I highly, highly recommend to just go on Facebook, post up have a trash bag full of baby clothes, let them know you know, this is sighs three to six month or whatever the sizes are, come and get it, people will come and take it off your hands for you no problem like literally the same day they will come and get it anyways. So to try and be minimal, right and sustainable. Let’s talk about the essential baby clothes that you need and how much clothing you actually need, like how many pieces of each article of clothing you need. And when shopping for baby clothes or any clothes really, I really recommend visiting your local thrift stores. babies grow so freaking fast. And to me, it just seems crazy to pay full price for brand new clothes that your baby might wear for two months at best. Like truly, they’re gonna grow out of it in a second. Not to mention, the fashion industry is actually one of the most wasteful ones out there. So the more that we can buy secondhand clothes, the better is for the planet and it’s better for your wallet. thrift stores always have a ton of baby clothes. And you can easily go in there and score some really cute outfits. Just be sure to check for stains in the holes before you commit to buying them. If you don’t want to go into a thrift store, check out you know, online stuff like thread up is a really good spot to find us clothes. I like to go on there to get jeggings for Jenny, because I’m just a sucker for babies and toddlers and kids in general who wear jeans. So I can’t always find the little jeggings at the thrift store. So I do go on throw it up for that.

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You can also get baby clothes on Facebook marketplace. And inside of the local mom groups that are on Facebook, that’s where I post my huge trash bags full of clothes to give away. And I’ve also gotten my, uh, you know, I do the same thing, I go and look for clothes on there. And I’ve gotten huge bags full of clothes on Facebook for like $10, sometimes free, it is a total steal. Like, even if I don’t keep all the clothes in the bag that I paid for, you know, $10 if I just three things that I like, then it was worth it. And I’ve never had a time where I regretted getting one of those big bags of random baby clothes on Facebook like never ever because I just take out what I want. And then what I don’t want I pass on to the next person. So now let’s talk about the kinds of clothes that you need, and how much of those things you actually need to have. So I like to create a capsule wardrobe for myself and for jetty. And Eric just, I don’t think he has a capsule wardrobe. Really. I mean, I guess we could call it a capsule wardrobe. He has a couple shirts, he has jeans and he has work uniforms. So sure he has a capsule wardrobe. It’s not intentional on his part. But it is intentional for me and Jenny. And the thing that I like about a capsule wardrobe is it keeps things minimal. And I’ve never ever overwhelmed by mountains of laundry, because I just don’t have as much clothes as like the regular person. And using a capsule wardrobe just allows you to have pieces of clothes that you can mix and match. So each piece of clothing is intentionally chosen so that it can be paired with multiple other pieces in your wardrobe, which gives you a ton of possible outfit combinations with just a few pieces of clothes. And when you’re building out your capsule wardrobe, just choose a few key colors that you want to incorporate. And stick to those when buying clothes. I like to go on Pinterest and find capsule wardrobe ideas. I’ll screenshot like a shirt that I like pants that I like or whatever, that’s for me. But you can totally do same thing for your baby. Screenshot things that you like and put them in like a little collage, use an app on your phone and make like a collage of the photos. And then when you go through shopping, you can intentionally shop for things that look similar. And then you know, you can buy those things. And eventually you’ll have a little capsule wardrobe and you can mix and match all of your outfits. It’s awesome. So with your your baby, you’re probably going to need a couple more articles of clothing for them than you would for it yourself simply because babies spit up, they poop they pee all over themselves all the time. And they are more likely to just soil their outfit before the day is over. I don’t I’m sure if you’re listening to this, you’ve had a baby or you’re going to have a baby, you’re going to be doing an outfit change at least once a day at least. So with that in mind, I’m going to be recommending some staples that you should have in your baby’s wardrobe. And I’ll tell you how many of each type of clothing that you should have on hand so that you’re prepared for a surprise, outfit change when your baby inevitably soils their clothes. So let’s get into it. Okay, once these are the first thing that come to mind, how many ones do you actually need? Well, on any given day, you might use multiple ones, these typically about one to three. On a good day, it’s only one right? So when deciding how many ones ease that you need, think about how often you want to be doing laundry. And so for the rest of this episode, I’m going to referring I’m going to be referring to how many pieces of clothes that you need based on like, how many days of like how many days you’re going to go in between doing laundry. So let’s say for one of these, I’ll break it down. So if you’re trying to wash laundry, once a week, you want about 21 One z’s. Personally, I feel like 21 Wednesday’s is a lot. And babies do outgrow their clothes fast, like I said, so maybe just go for like 14 onesies that makes two Wednesdays per day of the week. And you know, you might have those good days right where your baby doesn’t need an outfit change. So you will have some Monday’s leftover or if you’re doing laundry twice a week, which is what I do, then you might only need like 10 onesies. I got by on 10 onesies. The whole time that it was a baby. Now that she’s a toddler, she does get a little more messy. So I’ve got at least two shirts for every day of the week and I only watch her laundry about once a week. But for baby I mean you could totally get by with 10 onesies.

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The next piece of baby clothing is going to be pants or shorts. So the same idea applies here as far as how many pairs of pants or shorts that you need. I will say though that shorts really are not necessary. They’re just cute. Right? Babies in shorts are pretty cute. But babies can totally just go and rock a onesie on its own and go shortlist and no one will ever think twice about it. Jenny was born on July 5 In the middle of summer. It was so hot. She would wear his a onesie. And some days, she would just go in a diaper. And it was totally fine. People would always tell me I’m so jealous of her she gets to go around in her diaper. So if you want to do shorts, if you want the whole outfit, then you can go for that you do you, but you could totally go without shorts. Now, if you’re dressing for colder weather, then you definitely should get some pants. So when deciding how many pairs of pants you need, I’d say you probably don’t need quite as many as onesies. But it might be good to have the same amount as onesies because, you know, the first thing is to get messy. When your baby poops like has a blowout is going to be the onesie and the pants because that’s around their butt. So maybe you plan to go through about two pairs of pants per day and that should get you enough pants until your next laundry day. All right, the next staple in any baby’s wardrobe is footie pajamas. And don’t please don’t let the word pajamas fool you. Okay. footies can be worn all day every day. They’re super cute. They’re not just for sleeping. footie pajamas are especially great for the colder weather. They’re essentially like a full body suit that keeps your baby warm right from shoulder to toe. And then in the winter, a lot of parents will just put their baby in a onesie and then put the footie pajamas over top of that, and that’s their go to outfit. So depending on the season, the number of footie pajamas that you’ll want is going to change. During the spring and summer, you probably don’t need more than one per day because your baby will likely only be wearing them overnight. And hopefully they’re not having a blog overnight. I will just pray that little prayer for you. During the fall and winter, you might want to have two pairs of buddy pajamas per day. If your baby’s gonna be wearing them all day as their outfit kind of the same as like pants, right? If they’re going to be using that as their main outfit, then maybe two per day. So if you’re a new mom, I’m going to tell you a secret because you probably don’t know this, but you should hope you should 100% Avoid footie pajamas that come with snaps or buttons at all costs. Here’s why. Okay, they take forever to take off and put on for diapers. Well, it sounds so bad to take them off but re snapping or re buttoning those things is such a pain in the butt. And it’s especially difficult for those middle of the night diaper changes when it’s dark and you can barely see what you’re doing. I always say that the zipper footie pajamas are the way to go, they are so much easier and just overall, way more convenient. So always go always go for the zipper over the buttons or snaps. Okay. The next thing that you want to have on hand is going to be swaddles. I don’t care what kind you get, but you should get them. And this is more so for you know, little babies, newborns, maybe even up to around four months when they start rolling. And I know that swaddles are typically something that goes with sleep, so I will mention them again when we talk about sleep essentials. But if you have a newborn, chances are they’re going to be swaddled for a large part of the day, just to keep them comfortable, so I figured I’d mention them now along with the clothes. I personally, personally, can I say that word correctly, okay. I personally like the traditional muslin blankets swaddle because they’re super versatile, but I understand that not everyone is great at using them as a swaddle. So, if you don’t like the blanket, style swaddle, you can go for Velcro. The velcro ones are great. And if you’re feeling really fancy, you can grab a halo sleepsack they’re they’re nice, but they are pricey. So I will say that I did not have any of those. I think I bought one and Jenny just like didn’t really go for it. So we just kept the muslin sleep Zacks. Now as far as how many bottles that you need, I think one per day is fine. A lot of times you can use a swaddle for multiple days in a row without it getting all messed up. So you might even get away with one swaddle for every two days. But that’s it’s really up to you. And of course, if

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you start out with a small stashes swaddles and you find out that you need more, you can always buy more, I always say like, start out with the basics, right and then just buy things as you need them. That way. You’re not over buying stuff and then not using it, because that’s just wasteful. spending your money that you don’t need to spend all the things. Okay, the next thing that you want to grab is socks and mittens. So you really don’t need a lot of these but they do get lost easily. So how many you actually need just depends on how diligent that you’re going to be about hunting down those socks and mittens that have fallen off of your baby. They’re not something that will get dirty as often as the other clothes so you just really need about like one pair per day. And the mittens that I’m talking about are not the Cold Weather mittens. Therefore, newborns who have a long sharp nails because newborns tend to, you know, flip, flail their arms around, and they scratch themselves in the face. So if your baby is older and pass the face scratching phase, you might not even want these. Next thing is hats. So people love to give babies hats, but they really don’t need very many. A lot of my clients have like buckets of hats, and I’m like, what, what is your baby wearing a hat, I’ve never seen him wear a hat. So you can totally get away with just having two or three hats for your baby, even if they’re newborn. Okay. I know people think that newborns display need to wear hat all the time. And they can they can wear a hat during the day to keep in their body heat. But they they really don’t. It’s not recommended that they wear a hat to sleep because it can become a suffocation hazard if they wiggle their way out of the hat. And to be honest, a lot of babies just won’t keep the hat on their head anyway, they will just wiggle until they get it off. Jenny was totally one of those babies. So I wouldn’t go crazy about getting a bunch of hats just have two or three that match most of their outfits and stick with that. Alright, the last thing to talk about is going to be the seasonal clothing items. So obviously summer babies are easy to dress they just need the bare minimum the stuff we’ve already talked about. Winter babies do need a little bit more. When dressing for the colder months. Consider getting a full bodied snow suit to wear if the temperatures in your area get to be freezing cold. And you really all need one snow suit to get you through the winter. Next up is sweaters so if you don’t have a ton of the excuse me, you don’t need a ton of these. But I like to have about three good sweaters on hand and just rotate those through the fall. You know when it’s too chilly to go without but too warm to wear a winter coat which brings us to the winter coat. So if it’s not so cold that you need a full body suit, but it’s too chilly for just a sweater then a winter coat is fine. You only need one and then some Mittens. Mittens are another great thing to have again, you only need like one or two pairs I would have to just in case you misplaced the the one because it happens a little mittens are so small. So now I’m actually talking about cold weather mittens not just the protecting your face from being scratched mittens. And then lastly, fleece booties are the bomb. I love fleece booties for babies, they stay on so much better than socks. And they can act as shoes until your baby is really walking on their own and needs real shoes. Because I mean have you ever tried to keep a shoe shoe on a baby that does does not happen? It doesn’t work they fall off all the time. Fleece booties don’t fall off because they have elastic around the ankle that holds them on. Now I will make sure that I put a link for fleece booties in the episode description because that’s not something that I’ve ever found at the thrift store and I I think you’re gonna love them. They were definitely a must have item for me. And I think that is everything for the baby clothes. If I missed something, please let me know. And I will put together another podcast episode for corrections or I’ll add it to the next one. All right, friends, if you like the tips that I gave on this podcast and you want to work with me, so you can find balance in your new motherhood journey. Get your baby on a predictable schedule. Prioritize yourself care without sacrificing a tidy home and stop feeling overwhelmed by a never ending to do list. Go to Angel swan.com/back To you I promise you are going to love it. The link is in the episode description for you as well. That’s Angel Swan comm slash back to you. And as always, don’t forget, you can come hang out with me on Instagram at Angel swan. You can grab my free resources on my website, I’ve got a postpartum planner. I’ve got a three day challenge to get your baby on a predictable schedule. All the good things on there, Angel swan.com. And of course, don’t forget to go to Apple podcasts rate review and subscribe. Thank you so much for listening. I

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will talk to you soon. Bye bye. Thank you so much for listening to the better postpartum podcast. Here’s what I want you to do next. If you loved what you heard today, would you do me a giant favor and leave me a written five star review? Those little love notes that you leave are the perfect way to thank me for putting out these episodes just for you. Seriously, it would mean the world to me. Next, take a screenshot of the episode you’re listening to right now and share it on your Instagram stories and make sure you tag me at Angel dot Swan that’s SW o n so that more moms can find this podcast and hopefully you get the advice and encouragement they need to truly thrive with their babies. And don’t forget to come back every single week for more nuggets of wisdom and truth bombs about the early motherhood journey. I’ll talk to you next time bye bye