How to keep baby warm at night...?

[germin8]

Our DD's crib is in our room right by our bed. She is ~4 months now.

With winter coming, I am wondering how to keep her warm.

We sleep with a sheet & down comforter... much too warm for us to notice how cold it really is in the room. Our DD only wears her PJ and one receiving blanket tucked around her. I would think she gets cold before we would notice, so we adjusted (raised) our temperature to 73F/23C.

I'm not sure what we will do when winter actually arrives. It was only a low of 55F/13C last night. Do we buy her warmer clothes? Do I put a long-sleeve onesie under her PJ? I don't think blankets are recommended at such a young age. Should we use our space heater at night? Should we just keep the heat on at 73F/23C (or whatever temp) all night?

Am I concerned for nothing?

[Hannah32]

I gave in and bought the sleep sacks, even though I think they are ridiculous on many levels. They have fleecy ones. We also keep the heat higher than before the baby. He seems comfy.

[Friday13th]

Well I'll start by saying 73 is way warmer than we keep it during the day. We run about 65-68 during the day and around 60 at night. We all cosleep so it's pretty toasty but I think for a baby in a crib you could do a fleece footie and/or a sleep sack with a onesie under the whole thing and they'll be fine. I think layers are the key.

[Jend1002]

We used sleep sacks that have full sleeves (that made more sense to me) with a cotton sleeper underneath. It worked perfectly.

[germin8]

Thanks for the tips.

Yes, I thought 73F was too warm. I wasn't sure what would be best for baby.

I'll look into the sleep sacks & fleece footies... and layers. Thanks.

[Super~Single~Mama]

I co-sleep, but I would be careful about the fleece pj's. They were WAY to warm for my hot sleeper. Even in winter my ds wears thick cotton pants and a long sleeve cotton shirt to bed. Socks too on the really cold nights. He just sweated like CRAZY in the fleece stuff - which just made him cold, ironically.

So, I would try to get a few things, cotton, and one fleece thing, and see how it works for your babe before buying a whole bunch of things that might not work.

[nukuspot]

I don't think sleep sacks are ridiculous, as a matter of fact they have been our saving grace. DD cosleeps but HATES having our comforter on top of her. So even still at 18 mo we have 3 sleepsacks sleepsacks in 3 different weights and use one of them with long sleeved footie Pjs under it. If it's really cold we will put a onsie underneath the Pjs too. We use wood heat so it's almost impossible to set a temperature at night and keep it that way all night so it's nice to have options as far as thickness of the sleepsacks.

[MamitaM]

My son and I co-sleep. He sleeps in a sleeper and sometimes in his swaddle blanket and I do pull my covers up to his waste. In Winter when it gets colder I have a nice fleece long sleeved sleep sac for him if he needs it.

[Hannah32]

I don't find sleep sacks themselves ridiculous, but I find the whole "NO BLANKETS" thing ridiculous. However, since we've moved our baby to his own room, I erred on the side of paranoia and just bought the darn things.

[LZP]

DD is 3 months, and she sleeps in our bed, with our covers. we have a sheet and a comforter. I am hyper-aware while sleeping now, and the blankets are never near going over her head anyway. she wears long-sleeved footie PJs if I feel cold enough to wear L/S and pants. Our night time heat temp is set to 62-64deg F, depending on how cold it is outside. On our coldest night so far, I did put a little hat on her, since even my head was cold being outside the covers.
co-sleeping is so nice, not wondering if baby is too cold or too warm- just lean over and feel!!

as she gets older, we will probably start her in her crib then bring her into bed when we go to sleep, and then we'll do PJs and a sleepsack, since she is a squirmy sleeper, and kicks off her blanket even during a short nap.

[cristeen]

Last winter, my guy wore wool and we used a space heater to keep the room at 65.

This winter thats not an option. And at a year, he refuses to stay under blankets. Its just started getting cold here. So he's wearing a wool layer (shirt, longies, socks) under a footed fleece pj. The wool breaths and absorbs any sweat... But i cant imagine not putting him in layers, it can get down into the 40s at night.

[confustication]

Hm, my little guys both climb into my bed now... My 2yo burrows under the covers beside me on my left, and my 1 yo kicks off the covers on my right as he sprawls across 75% of a king size bed. (How does that work, anyway?)

I tend to dress them based on the weather- while it has been getting a little cooler here at night, my bedroom is the warmest room in the house. Cotton pjs seem to be enough for us most of the time, and when it gets really cold (well below zero) fleece sleepers are great.

I don't worry about comforters anymore with mine as they are big enough that they pretty well deal with it themselves but when they were smaller, I made sure it stayed below their faces.

As for the sleep sacks- I've tried them, I'm not a huge fan because I felt that they actually interfered with the natural rhythm of skin to skin contact my kids often sought while nursing and cosleeping.

Personally, i don't think *I* could sleep well in a room over 70 degrees... I like ours somewhere between 60 and 70. I drive my husband batty by crackin window in the winter. The kids have always been warm enough.

[Ruthie's momma]

I am not sure what is so ridiculous about a sleep sack.... It is nothing more that a bunting of sorts. And, those have been used as a means of keeping babies warm for years.

We have always slept in a much cooler temperature (mid 60's, at the most). That being said, if DD isn't in bed with us, she has always slept in a sleep sack. If it is particularly cold, I add a t-shirt under her cotton pajamas and layer a sleep sack on top.

[mkksmom]

We do cotton pj's under fleece PJ's. She doesn't sleep well with just fleece for some reason, but this combo works. I feel her back before I go to bed and check to make sure she isn't seating. We keep the temp at about 68, but it's probably cooler upstairs by a degree or 2.

[aumismommy]

We hosted a camping yoga retreat with our son only being 6 weeks at the time (no, we weren't thinking when we planned it) and our midwives suggested getting a lambie (lambskin that we got from overland.com) to keep him away from a chill. It was awesome. He just sleeps right on top of it (it's low pile wool so he can't smother his face deep). It's machine washable which rocks. Oh and they said to use for tummy time too which we do and he seems to like that plus it keeps me from having to keep the edges of blankets down.

[colsxjack]

We do a sleep sack and either onesie, or cotton jammies or fleece jammies...depending on temp.

Our DD hates a blanlet because she likes to move around and cant with a blanket. She gets all tangled up in it. We do a short sleeve sleep sack so she doesn't get too hot but her little feet stay covered. She tends on the hotter side.

[JudiAU]

Fleece footie works well, even layered with a onsie or pants if needed. Sleep bags works well too I wouldn't use a blanket at that age. We also like knit sheets.

[Learning_Mum]

Originally Posted by Hannah32

I don't find sleep sacks themselves ridiculous, but I find the whole "NO BLANKETS" thing ridiculous. However, since we've moved our baby to his own room, I erred on the side of paranoia and just bought the darn things.

We did sleep sacks because both boys would kick their blankets off and get could because they obviously weren't able to pull the blankets back up. They were awesome. We had ones that were like duvets and they were so warm and comfy.

[gemasita]

I gave in and bought the sleep sacks, even though I think they are ridiculous on many levels.

As a childbirth educator, I got some literature from the sleep sack company and all of it is "don't co-sleep!" so I couldn't, in good conscience, hand that stuff out. The sleep sack itself seems ok but I don't like the company spreading the "no co-sleeping" message.

[mckittre]

We have more trouble now that we've stopped co-sleeping. My 20 month old is perfectly safe with blankets, but won't stay under them, so we put him in a one-piece fleece suit for nighttime. We heat with wood, and it can get quite cold by morning sometimes.