After coming home from the hospital with a healthy and happy baby, there may be no better feeling than knowing everything you'll need for Baby's first few months is right at your fingertips. To avoid mad dashes to the store during Baby's first hours and days at home, many mothers-to-be choose a layette while they're still pregnant. That way, everything new parents will need for their child – from playtime to bath time to bedtime – has already been selected.

"A baby is born with nothing, so you have to outfit them with everything they need to come into the world,'' says Marion Tarnofsky, owner of the Manhattan baby boutique LaLayette ET Plus.

For parents, a layette provides the security of knowing that all the necessities have already been stashed away before the baby arrives. "Your things are already washed, they're in your drawers and you're totally organized,'' says Marianne Lee, a New York City mother of two boys. "Once you get home, there's no organization in your life. It's definitely helpful because for the first few months, the last thing you want to do is shop."

At some stores, mothers-to-be choose their baby's first items of clothing and bedding and buy them on the spot. Women who know the gender of their baby can buy accordingly. Women who don't tend to buy everything in neutrals: white, yellow and pale green. At other stores, a future mom can choose complete layettes for both a boy and a girl, which the store will then set aside for the rest of her pregnancy.

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