Revelations About Baby Clothes

When your poor baby girl cannot move her little feet, raise her arms or touch her toes, you may want to "retire" that too tight sleeper. (The latest revelation and the kind of expert mom advice that you are going to get by reading my blog.)

To make matters worse, it was actually my mother who insisted that BABY's sleepers were too tight to keep wearing. I didn't want to believe it. I ignore her. I didn't want to acknowledge that she was right. I turned the other way. I washed that sleeper and put in the drawer. I put BABY in it a few days later. This is commonly known as denial.

Don't fault me - it is hard to look at the situation objectively when you are in love with an outfit. It's hard to say goodbye to baby outfits before their time. Ok, ok before my time.

I have attachment issues. I get attached. I fall in love with these little baby clothes. I find myself in the baby clothing section of stores - including my grocery store (hello Joe Fresh!) - holding a new little girl outfit in the air and picturing BABY in it. Seeing her cub cub legs and rolly polly arms filling out the clothes to perfection.

Adult clothing is very different. If they were my clothes I would wear them. I would love them as I was wearing them. I would find more ways to wear them more often - layered over things, under things. I would accessorize. I would dress it up and dress it down. If I wasn't completely fulfilled by wearing it for the initial term (however many months that would be), I would still keep it. I would stow it away in big plastic Tupperware containers in my storage room, or in tiny little white cardboard boxes from Ikea, or under my bed. Maybe I would hang it in the back of my closet. I would come back to it next year when the weather changes. I would wear it year after year. Maybe I would give it away - to a friend or family member. The clothes would have a long life span - at least as long as I liked them.

Baby clothes are a whole new experience. It is an experience that I am still getting used to.

You see with baby clothes, I buy them. They are super cute in many different ways. A touch like smaller versions of adult clothes with their tiny belt hoops, polished hems, collars, and little pockets. These childrenwear designers know that a 2 month old doesn't need a belt or to put anything in their pocket. It's all to provoke a sense of familiarity. We're hooked. Then they sprinkle on the little details - baby only details - that make us ohhh and aahhh.

The cuteness of the design is not even the whole problem. I could probably live with design cuteness. In fact, I EXPECT a high level of cuteness for the entire baby fashion industry. The real problem is what happens when these clothes are brought home. We take them out of the bags, and we wash them. We put them on our cub cub, rolly polly children and they look so damn cute. Our children sit there, big smiles and sporadic movements, while we ohh and ahh. We take the children out where others swoon over them. These clothes become our favorite outfits. We find occasions to showcase these outfits because our children look so damn cute in them. We are attached.

In three washes our children start to grow out of the outfits that we love - our favorite outfits. The buttons pull apart slightly. The arms and legs become just that much shorter. Our children out grow them before we are really finished loving these outfits.

And that's how it all began for BABY's too tight sleeper that I am attached to. Now it's... well it's too tight.

~ humps