Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Clothes sizing, or, why Jeannie needs to return to work

Annie is 10 weeks old today. I guess I should start referring to her age in months now? Otherwise, I'll start sounding like one of those moms that says that her 3-year-old child is 36 months old. :) So, Annie is also 2 months old.

I also tried on my pre-pregnancy jeans this morning and they fit!! (a little tight, but comfortable enough to wear). This is a very good sign, because my jeans were the first to go when I was pregnant. Of course, this happens just as I had given up on them, broke down and bought a new pair of jeans in a larger size. But that's OK.

And speaking of clothes and sizing, I figured out why it seems that babies don't fit into any of the clothes that their moms get as shower presents. I was at BRU last night and noticed the sizing chart for Carter's clothes. Size "NB" (newborn) is for 5 to 8 lbs. The next size is 3 months! Yeah, that's kind of a large jump, right? Except that the "3 months" size is for babies who weigh 8 to 12 pounds. This seems a little off, in my opinion. Annie is in the 25th percentile of 2 month old babies, and the smallest baby in my new moms' group, yet she weighs over 10 pounds. Several babies that I know (including my niece) were 8 pounds or larger when they were born. Annie will almost definitely be larger than 12 pounds by the time she turns 3 months. I think Carter's would be more accurate to say that these clothes are for "0-3 months" like other clothing manufacturers ... in fact, I think on some Carter's clothes that I got as hand-me-downs, the sizing is listed as 0-3.

After reading this post over, I realize why I need to go back to work. I need to be worried about things besides the meaning of the 3 months size by Carter's. Well, maybe it's a good break. It's much easier to worry about baby clothes sizing than most of the things that go on at my job.

1 comment:

A Fuss said...

And we both know that Gerber's is even worse than Carters! Amazingly, Maddie was born at 8lb5oz, and is probably right around that weight again after some initial loss but some newborn clothes are swimming on her, even Carter's stuff. I think that newborn sizing is pretty much the same as jeans sizing. Completely unpredictable and irrelevant. Congrats on fitting into the old jeans!