CHILD'S PLAY: Tim had his three month check up this fortnight past. He weighs more than 15lb, and is 62cm long - both on the large end of the averages for his age, as I realised when some of the three- to six-month-old clothes that I had been keeping for him have turned out to be too small for him. Some, strangely, are too big. One pair of trousers is three inches too long for his legs but too tight around his tummy.
Sizing for babies is a bit of an unknown entity, especially when the labelling is wrong. At my mum's retirement party, a friend gave me a very cute pair of dungarees for Tim, hanging on a three- to six-month-old month hanger. I had removed them and washed them in non-bio as I do with all his new clothes, before I realised that they had been on the wrong hanger and were for a 0- to three-month-old baby. They won't even look at him and as a result will never be worn.
Some clothes have proved so popular we were given them in triplicate. This was the case with a pair of jean dungarees and stripy T-shirt from Adams. Two previous flatmates gave me the outfit as did a friend of Michael's. I dressed Tim in the first one he was given and took the other two back. Adams has a very positive changing policy and receipts are not needed, so the process was relatively painless, marred only by my inability to enter a baby shop without going into serious debt. I arrived in the shop with one bag and left with three.
There are a few key criteria for baby clothes. Durability is essential. Tim has started teething - the combination of dribbling and the continued vomiting means that his clothes and bibs are washed daily. Snap fasteners are preferable to buttons. A friend of ours suggested recently that the snap fasteners on babygrows should be colour-coded, yellow to yellow etc., and she is absolutely right. I can't count the number of times I have had to undo the fasteners because I have matched them up incorrectly. Fasteners should always be to the front so that babies don't have to lie on them when you put them down for a nap.
I don't want to have change Tim for his naps so it's important that his clothes are soft enough to sleep in. I am quite strict now about dressing him in clothes during the day and leaving babygrows for night time only. The only exception to this is summer babygrows (ones with short legs and sleeves), which are really handy and very comfy.
The vomiting and teething have resulted in my buying a soother, something I was totally against. I had, the odd time, used one that came with Tim's bottles, but he couldn't keep it in his mouth. Several total strangers had subsequently recommended a brand called Nuk, which has a teat shaped a bit like a thumb. Sucking on it definitely helps to settle his tummy, and I also use it to delay him a bit when he is hungry, and I can't feed him immediately. He also chews on it as it's easier to keep in his mouth than either of the teething rings he has - one is too heavy for him to hold just now and the other has a soft toy on one side which he puts in his mouth instead of the ring. It is also handy for calming him down quickly - he burst into tears when startled by the clapping at a recent wedding but the soother quietened him in seconds. If only there were an adult version.
Susan Hayden is an Irish Times staff member.