Bunny ears for baby

One of my favourite baby shower gifts is this knitted bunny beanie.

The pattern is simple enough for the novice knitter but the result is gift-worthy.

I used the recommended yarn and loved the results. The beanie is soft and pliable and the inside of the ears are fluffy.

Puddle is a little big for this particular hat. I made it for a friend's newborn.

Who can resist a little baby with long Peter Rabbit ears? It's cute in a anthropomorphic / LOL cat kind of way!

Lay-what?

In honour of great pregnancy news I've recently heard, I've put together a list of clothes a baby will need in the first six weeks of life. Fun fact, this stuff is called layette.

A few things to consider first

• Your baby won't be spitting up in the first few weeks. If you stay on top of changing her diapers every 2-4 hours, her clothes won't become that soiled. Because you won't need to change her clothes frequently, you won't need a large quantity of basics like sleepers or onesies. That being said, you'll want to have a great poo stain remover on hand just in case.
• Look for clothing that opens in the front and close easily with a zipper or snaps. You'll want dressing your baby to be as fuss-free as possible.
• Dress your baby in layers and consider that babies only require one more layer of clothing than an adult. It's important to not over dress your baby as babies can't regulate their own body temperature like adults.

Sleepers (4-6)
Easy to put on and take off, sleepers will be your best friend for the first six weeks after your baby is born.

Consider having at least a couple of newborn sized sleepers for your baby to wear in the first two to three weeks after giving birth. She'll quickly out grow them but it's nice to have at least one or two things that fit well. You'll also want to have a few sleepers in the next size up, 0-3 months. She'll be swimming in them at first, but will quickly fill them out.

Onesies (5-7)
Now that you're pregnant you should know what a onesie is. Collect an assortment of short and long-sleeved onesies. Look for onesies that open or expand at the neck to pull easily over baby's head. I was fond of kimono oneises because they are so easy to put on.

Leggings (1-3 pairs)
Pair leggings or stretchy pants with a onesie for comfortable day-time wear. Dressing your baby in separate pieces lets you mix and match your baby's wardrobe and allows you to wash what is only soiled.

Pants should have an elastic waist to accommodate growth and movement. If you're cloth diapering your baby, look for pants that have a lot of room in the seat.

Socks (2-3 pairs)
When your baby isn't wearing footed sleepers, you'll likely want to cover her feet with infant-sized socks. She'll be able to wear the same socks for a while without washing them, so you won't need many pairs. Buy snugly-fitting socks but be prepared to lose a few.

Outerwear (1-2 pieces)
Where you live and the time of year your baby is born will influence the type and quantity of outerwear your baby will need in the first six weeks. For fall and winter babies, have one snowsuit. If that seems like overkill, probably a fleece sleeper with room for layers underneath will do.

For spring and summer babies, one or two hoodies or knitted sweaters will be adequate. Winter and fall babies will need these too.

Hat (1-2)
If you're baby is born in the fall or winter, you'll want a couple of warm toques, which cover his ears, to wear outside. Otherwise, a jersey, knit beanie will suffice. Let your baby go bare-headed while inside and reserve the hats for when you venture out. 

Sleep sac (2)
Forget crib blankets, a safe and snug way to dress your baby for sleeping is with a sleep sac. Sleep sacs come in varying degrees of thickness. Consider having a thick, lined sleep sac for night and a lighter one for day-time naps. Pair a sleep sac with either a sleeper or a onesie depending on the temperature indoors. I recommend the Halo SleepSack. 

Where do you get layette?
Ask your mum-friends for second-hand clothes (they likely be pushing them on you), hit a thrift-store, wait for your baby shower. No need to shell out for newborn baby clothes, your kid will grow out them quickly. But if need a hit of retail therapy, check out Sweet Peanut. Their baby clothes are made of cotton and use modern, adult and baby-friendly prints.

A peaceful sleep for mummy

If you swaddle your baby in order to soothe her to sleep then you should consider getting your baby a Halo SleepSack, a combined sleep sac and swaddling blanket.

Why not just use a blanket to swaddle your baby? Blankets can become loose during the night and gather around your baby's face increasing the risk of suffocation. The swaddling wings of the Halo SleepSack velcro together reducing the amount of free flowing fabric.

Doesn't she look cozy and safe?

The SleepSack also allows you to more easily transition away from swaddling to just using a sleep sac. We slowly stopped using the swaddling wings of the SleepSack as Puddle required less and less soothing at night. Until she grew out of the sac, she slept in it every night wearing only a sleeper.

Zip n' go

When I was pregnant with Pud, and didn't know she was a girl, a friend passed along a bag of gender-neutral baby clothing. The bag was full of the usual stuff, except for one thing, a tiny, pink sleeper.

"It doesn't matter if you have a boy, "she said when I saw the sleeper, "you'll need this."

Kushies It's My Planet 2 pink, preemie sleeper

She was right. We used that sleeper everyday for the first two weeks. If Pud had been a boy, we would have used that sleeper everyday for the first two weeks.

Why? First of all it was the only sleeper that properly fit her. Her feet went into the little feet parts, and her hands went into the little hand parts. The sleeper didn't bunch up around her face - a fear for a new parent who is constantly asking, "is she breathing?"

Nobody ever wants to give you the teeny-tiny clothes because they won't get used for long. But the truth is, if the item is practical, it will be worn everyday until it no longer fits. And infants wear sleepers all day long because most parents (even me!) don't have the energy to dress them in cute little outfits.

The second reason, and the most heavenly, is the tiny, pink sleeper had a zipper! (Don't freak out, the zippered area was properly constructed so no little baby parts would not get zipped up.) Changing Pud in the middle of the night when she was wearing her tiny, pink sleeper meant I never had to fully wake up to fiddle with the snaps. And you know how I feel about snaps...

If you're pregnant and don't have a tiny sleeper, go to a second-hand shop, go through your friend's boxes of baby clothing, just get yourself a really small sleeper. And never mind the colour.

Kimono snap

We all have those times when you're just about to change your kid's clothes and she gives a look that says, "if you pull one more onesie over my head I'm going to make you wish you weren't a parent". Well, on those days I make sure to dress Pud in a kimono onesie.

When Pud was born we received two of the Jacadi kimono onesies pictured below (I'll discuss how beautiful Jacadi clothing is in another post). I avoided using them at first because I couldn't make out how they snapped together. They reminded me of those annoying brain-teaser puzzles my older brother gets in his stocking every year. But then, after I started to emerge from my post-delivery haze, I remembered that one time, a few years ago, when I solved a Christmas brain-teaser all by myself. And so I tried the kimono onesie and I haven't looked back since.

Do yourself a favour, go buy some kimono onesies. And when your best friend has a baby, pass them along to her.

More fresh than Joe

In case you've been living under a rock, and that rock is located in Canada, you might not know that Loblaw's (which owns and operates Real Canadian Superstore) has a line of kid's clothing under the label, Joe Fresh. Considering Joe Fresh is owned by a low-priced grocery store, it's surprisingly fashionable. This has largely to do with the fact that it's creative director, Joe Mimran, is the guy who started Club Monaco.

We received a very cute sundress for Pud when she was born. Thankfully it finally fits her. If the sun stays out for the remainder of the summer, she'll get lots of wear out of it.

Joe Fresh sundress in colourful plaid

The bride, and Pud, wore white

Our close friends Kora and Will are getting married today. And I want Puddle to wear something that is fancy enough to suit the venue - a beautiful old heritage home - and that will fit her properly. I find that fit is critical in making baby clothes look good. If a dress is too big, it just bunches and floats around the baby, losing its style.

Luckily I had an opportunity to dash off to H&M. H&M designs fashionable - and usually functional - baby and children's clothes at cheap prices. Unfortunately the day I went they didn't have a lot of dresses in stock that would fit a six week-old. The only dress that would fit Pud was cute, but not as fancy as I would have liked, it was basically a onesie with tutu ruffles around the waist.  And it was white. At six weeks-old and at her first wedding, Pud broke wedding etiquette and wore white to a wedding.

H&M white, onesie, tutu-dress $14.99. I chose long sleeves so that if the weather turned cold, we didn't have to wrap Pud up, covering her pretty dress.

We also took Puddle to the rehearsal dinner last night. Luckily, I had one dress tucked away that would fit her - a dress of mine!

I love vintage baby clothing. It's so different from the clothing babies wear now, beautiful detailing, finer materials, and lots of influence from adult fashion trends. This dress has matching leggings that were too big for Pud so I made sure she wore a white cloth diaper. One great advantage to cloth diapers is that because they're made of cloth, they don't have to be covered up like disposables do. In fact, cloth diapers can be incorporated into an outfit!