Baby blankets are more than bedding to a baby, they are a soft home where a newborn human begins life outside of the warmth of a womb. In the first few hours, days and weeks, the blankets baby needs most are the ones that will sooth and calm, keep warm and swaddle for a feeling of protection.

Later personalized baby blankets with designs and names and cartoon characters and fun colors with alphabets and numbers may become something they themselves select to snuggle or play with, but in the beginning blankets for babies are a cocoon of softness and comfort, and that is what we should never forget when selecting a layette set, which is a small selection of clothes, baby bedding and products for a teeny newborn.

Cotton Baby Blankets

Baby doesn’t need half as many things as advertisers wish to make us believe. Just a few undershirts or nighties with drawstrings for easy access, a couple sleepers, a pair or two of teeny little socks, some cloth or disposable diapers, and a few receiving blankets. Knitted baby blankets are nice to have for throwing over a carriage to take a stroll or to drape over mom’s shoulders while nursing, but medium sized baby receiving blankets will be just fine as well. Cotton baby blankets (in fact all things cotton) are best for baby’s delicate skin because it breathes and still keeps them snug and warm. If at all possible I would recommend organic baby blankets that are free of chemicals and dyes even if baby doesn’t appear to be allergic. Organic is a good way to start life.

Baby Bassinette and Baby Bedding

During the first months, personal baby bedding isn’t a huge priority unless baby will be in a crib in their very own baby nursery right from day one, but otherwise it’s enough to snuggle her/him in some blankets, pad a small baby bassinet with two or three medium sized baby fleece blankets (folded to fit the bassinette shape) and on top of that just spread a cotton baby receiving blanket to act as a sheet that can be changed frequently, and that’s it.

After about 3 months or so, when baby has a crib and may sleep on her/his own during the night then you can slowly select a fancier baby crib set from the zillions of baby bedding sets on the market, but there is no rush to do so before baby arrives or immediately after.

Baby Products – Less is Enough

Don’t stress out about not having something, especially if it’s your first baby – babies primarily sleep, sleep and sleep, and every few hours wake up and look for a breast or a bottle and fall back to sleep. In between all this they soil their diapers and need changing – so lots of diapers, lots of wet wipes and a little powder is good to have nearby.

Once a day, usually in the morning, baby can have a bath, so a little tub is nice (but not essential), a soft washcloth, a little mild, preferably organic, baby shampoo or gel and a large very soft towel with a teeny hood. If your house is cold it may be a nice touch to have a portable heater to set in the kitchen or bathroom while bathing baby. But honestly, all the things you think you need, you really don’t.

Fancy dressers and changing tables, cribs and night lights and stuffed animals and padded crib sets and cartoon characters and monogrammed baby blankets and dozens of bath products and bells and whistles really are designed for parents not newborn babies. Teeny babies that arrive after 9 months in a watery womb are happiest when snuggled close to mother’s breast, allowed to sleep, kept clean, and fed when needed.

A Blink of an Eye

That simplicity of needing almost nothing will change, and after a few months you will want more things to make your job easier, like baby slings, carriages, strollers, high chairs and fancy baby accessories for the crib and maybe even personalized baby clothes, but don’t panic too soon.

Enjoy baby without a lot of baby stuff…revel in their tiny fingers and toes and little gurgling sounds and the way they smell and how they sleep in simple cotton baby blankets….don’t waist your time worrying and shopping because they will be newborn for only a blink of an eye…

My baby sister (who now has babies of her own) came into the world when I was almost 10 years old. Since it was before the era of ultrasounds, no one actually knew if she’d be a SHE or a HE, but it was practically guaranteed by local townspeople, especially the midwife’s intuition, that she would be a BOY!

During the months of waiting I saved every penny of my allowance to buy a present for my little brother.

The Sunday before the arrival of the new addition, I went secretly to the local market to select a gift for my little brother. I looked through baskets of plush toys, was offered the latest cartoon bearing baby bottles and bibs, pondered over the packages of white cloth baby diapers and was bewildered by the tininess of a myriad little baby undershirts. But I wanted something special, and I finally found it at the little old lady’s stall at the back of the market. She had the most marvelous handmade baby blankets I had ever seen. There were dozens of blankets for babies, even organic baby blankets before organic was popular, and knitted baby blankets, and embroidered baby blankets and…

I selected a very large baby blanket (because I refused to believe my brother would fit in one of those cute, tiny ones), actually it was a huge, thick cotton baby blanket in pale BLUE! Very satisfied with myself, I went home, wrapped it up and waited.

When the little bundle emerged from the midwife’s delivery room a week later I was not at all prepared to hear the verdict.

My baby brother was a GIRL!

But everyone was so terribly thrilled about my brother being a sister that practically the whole town arrived with delightful PINK presents, pink baby blankets, pink frilly dresses, tiny pink satin slippers and pink lacy bonnets. I was quite devastated.

There was no way I could present my sister with my brother’s BLUE baby blanket as a gift!

So I hid it in my closet and never said a peep to my mother or anyone.
As the weeks passed, I grew to adore my little sister, and helped with her care as much as a 10 year old could. I learnt to change her diapers, bathe her, powder her tiny bottom and swaddle her in the teeny tiny pink receiving blankets.

One day she became ill, allergic to the formula she’d been drinking, and this caused her to soil or vomit upon every single baby blanket she’d been given. When at last, several vomity hours later, her little stomach had been calmed with goats’ milk (and she had been bathed and powdered), my mother turned to me exhausted, almost in tears, and said, “I have nothing to wrap her in…go find a small sheet or a towel or something…anything….!”

And that was when I ran to my closet, unwrapped my brother’s special blanket and returned to swaddle my little sister in the soft folds of the huge BLUE baby blanket. I cradled her in my arms until she fell asleep… all swathed in blue.