Adventures in Infant Clothing

So Castiel is 8 months old, and I've learned a lot about infant clothing in that time.  The main thing I have learned is that baby clothes are sized about as consistently as women's clothing - you can't tell just by the size if it will fit!  Even the weight/height guidelines for the manufacturer's sizing isn't very reliable. 

Here are some of my other observations:

Gap Baby Clothes run very large as a rule.  Also, if you watch the sales, you can get some very cute clothes for very little $$$. 

Old Navy's sizing is pretty accurate - at least I've found it to be so far.  I have been very pleased with everything I have bought from Old Navy.  Great clearance prices too!  We stock up - in fact, we once bought the same shirt in the same size twice when we were buying for future sizes!!

 Faded Glory (from Walmart) - we have bought a lot of pajamas in this brand and have been very pleased, but they do shrink very quickly in the wash, so it is best to buy a size UP. 

Garananimals (from Walmart) - I think their toddler/kids clothes are very cute and extremely affordable; however, the few infant pieces I had from Garanimals I didn't like.  I felt like they weren't soft enough for an infant. 

Speaking of Walmart, I LOVED their newborn onesies - they were soft and wore very well.  I was so sad to pack them away, but that may have just been because I was sad that he had outgrown those teensy-weensy clothes.  They were also great since they were so cheap - newborn sizes aren't worn long enough to spend too much money on them!  As he's gotten bigger, Walmart onesies don't seem to wear on him as well -- the neck gets all stretched out.  I guess because he's much more mobile!  

Gerber - I have to admit it - I have not been pleased with ANY Gerber clothing!  I got a pack of Gerber white onesies and they ran VERY small and were VERY thin.  I also got a pack of Gerber pajamas from Target on clearance, and although they are great zip-up pjs (more on that later), they were full of "pills" (what my mom calls "picked" up) almost from the first wash.  After just a few washes, they look terrible. 

Carter's - this one is a hard one, since Carter's has a variety of different levels of brands that are sold at different stores.  I've been very pleased with all Carter's regular clothes, no matter where they were bought.  Some Carter's pajamas we bought at Kohl's haven't washed/worn very well, but others that were bought there have been great.  Go figure!  

Now, speaking of pajamas, I have finally decided that zip-up is the ONLY way to go!!!  Middle-of-the-night diaper changes are much quicker when you can just unzip/zip instead of struggling with snaps!  Especially now that if you aren't fast enough he has flipped over and tried to crawl off the table!

My last observation is this:  Castiél didn't wear clothes much for the first 5 months of his life!  As I went back to look for pictures for this blog, he was hanging out just in his diaper in about 90% of the pictures!  :)