Ok, this has been bugging me the last two nights.

How warm does it have to be for the baby in the house, and how can you tell if they are comfortable?

I like sleeping in a cold house. We have our thermostat set at 58 for night, 68 at day. If I get up early, I turn the thermostat up to 68 (I've been getting up around 3-4am for some reason occasionally). We sleep with a sheet, DH has his half of the electric blanket on, and then a heavy comforter. I used to use the electric blanket, but I've been a nuclear reactor - I often sleep with my legs out of the covers now. I know my body temp is whacked out with the pregnancy.

The baby room is the "warmest" room in the house - used to have the computer in there, and I know it was warmer.

I'm afraid I'm going to make the baby cold when we bring her home! I know not to use the blankets for the baby, use the sleeper bag things, but how can I tell if she is cold? Should I put a heater in the room (it's across the hall from ours, and we keep up on the detectors). I'm planning on breastfeeding, will I get too cold at night? Should I try to change our sleeping habits - turn the heat up and sleep with less blankets?

I don't really want to turn up the heat - we have propane, and last year spent $4000 on heating. We already have spent $700 this year, and have to get another fill next week - that will be probably around $800 based on prices. The last fill lasted from the beginning of Oct to now, but it's colder out.

(I am not interested in co-sleeping. DH tries to smother ME on a regular basis!)

I know I'm obsessing a little on this, but I really am at a loss!! Help?

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I just check their arms and legs -- you can tell if they are cold. But I did the same thing this summer when we brought the baby home and it was so hot! It's like you can't win. And I think the rule of them is, One more layer than what you have on.

Our daughter got really cold one night as an infant (wood heat burnt out and I fell asleep hard). I finally woke up, she was so cold, and I brought her to bed and warmed her up. The nurses told me at the hospital, if we ever did get her too cold, to lay her on top of our bodies -- and in that case that was what we did.

We didn't have a heater for the first 18 mos of ds's life. It was too expensive to fix, we actually just had a parent at dh's school find the part wholesale and fix it for us, now we're scared about the pg&e bill! Now that it's fixed, we only run it for about 30 min in the morning and at bath/bedtime, never overnight, it never gets less than about 55 in the house.
Anyway, we always layered ds at night--long sleeved onesie, fuzzy foot pajamas, sleep sack and hat. When we had a cold night, I would run a space heater in his room on low (we have one that has safety features in it and always use a power strip with surge protection). Dh and I use an electric blanket, so this was the best solution I could come up with since we couldn't give him one. Once he could lift his face and move it, I actually did use a thin velour blanket for a little extra warmth. Even though we have the heater now, I will still run his space heater on low if it's really cold (45 or lower, this is CA after all). This worked well for us.
During the day, he was layered, the first couple months he had on a onesie, foot sleeper, blanket and hat. Once he was a little bigger, always a onesie, shirt, pants, sweater, socks and robeez type shoes to keep the socks on.
I have read many times that people overheat their babies. The rule is one more layer than you're wearing and there is never a reason to have the temp over 68 degrees in the house, not healthy. I've also read that you need to open their window in their room every day for 30 min to help air out allergens, dust etc, no matter what the weather (it's supposed to help with asthma, I think)
sorry so long, we just struggled with this too!

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Doing my best to raise a GEEK- Genuine Enthusiastic Empowered Kid!

When we were in England we did not have central heating... we put dd in a shortsleeve onesie, a fuzzy footie pajama and then a winter sleep sack, sometimes I put a blanket over her... she was warm enough. I honestly think that having all this heating and a/c on all the time is bad for you, maybe I am strange....

As for nursing, have your nursing staion all ready, with a blanket for you and something warm for your feet... do you have a boppy?? I did not have one with dd #1 but use one now with my 9 wk old and it is a godsend!

If it gets too cold, I would use a little heater...

HTH! Take care

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married 8 years to a crazy Brit, mommy to a banana, she is 4 and a pineapple who is 11 months, mommy to 3 ~angel~ babies

They send the little one home with a knit cap for a reason. They lose so much body warmth through their bare little heads. Other than that, the little one will tell you when s/he is too hot or two cold - they will cry. And you're going to be up with the baby every two hours anyway so you'll be able to check on him/her and adjust as needed.

You have to go with what is best for your baby in your area. In our part of the country, our weather is extremely dry - even more so when it snows - so a humidifier is more important than adding heat. As a matter of fact, dry heat would make the situation worse. However, if humidity isn't an issue for you, an extra area heater isn't a horrible idea.

When we first brought DD home, I did turn on the wall heater in her bedroom just to make it a little cozier in there. I would say 58 is a bit low for a baby, but I wouldn't worry too much if the house was set at 68.

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"Poor people work for their money. Rich people make their money work for them."

Definitely check the babies arms or legs or stomach. Not the hands, that isn't as accurate.

We keep our house mid 70's but dh wears shorts and a t-shirt and I rarely wear long sleeves. Also the baby isn't bundled up either. She is so warm natured that we could definitely lower the temperature quite a bit.

Just adjust things as you learn what temperature the baby likes. If we bundled Kinsley up as much as some people do or say she would be sweating soooo much. If you are worried keep a hat on the baby and put a heater in the nursery you can adjust to keep that room a little warmer and your room can still be cool for you.

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Proud mommy to adorable Kinsley

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