What to put newborn in for sleeping at night

[Mamma2bee]

This may be a stupid question but my partner and I are expecting our first baby and we were wondering what do you actually put the baby in to sleep in at night in terms of clothing/coverage?

We've bought a next to me so obviously that'll have the mattress, protector, sheets etc but then what do you actually put on the baby from being a newborn? Is a vest and a sleepsuit the best option?

Genuinely clueless

What time of year is baby due?

I generally did short sleeved vest, sleepsuit and then blanket or sleeping bag once they are old enough to go in a sleeping bag.

Some people do long sleeves vest in sleeping bag rather than sleepsuit.

If it's v warm you might not need the cover at all and might just want clothes.

I dressed mine in a Love to Dream swaddle (suitable from newborn in either the newborn or small size depending on size of baby) and either short sleeved vest (hot weather), sleepsuit or sleepsuit and vest. If you are using sleeping bags/swaddles the website often has a guide for clothing based on temperature which can be a good starting point.

I stressed so much about this exact issue when DS was born as it was august and bloody hot. Short answer is a sleep bag or swaddle bag. Highly recommend the tommee tippee swaddle bag as they have poppers so can have arms in or out. This time of year you would want 2.5 tog I would imagine but depends when they are due. Underneath you could just put a vest or a vest and a sleep suit or just a sleep suit it depends on the temperature. The swaddle bags i mention have a guide on with what to dress baby in underneath the bag depending on temperature

DD was an August baby, she went down in a vest or just a nappy but she wouldn’t drop off unless swaddled, so we used to wrap her in a thin muslin while holding her and then gently unwrap her when we needed to sleep too. But tbh it was cool enough for a light sleeping bag within a couple of weeks after she was born.

DS was May and therefore started in a sleeping bag but then needed to go to thin muslin and nappy territory. Didn’t get him back into a sleeping bag until he was about 3 months.

There’s pros and cons to having babies in each season but DS was much harder to sort than DD! By the time it got particularly hot she was sleeping on her own, and when it was especially cold she wanted holding and co sleeping. DS was the other way around which wasn’t a great combination!

I’d also caution whatever you buy baby they’ll inevitably decide they don’t like 😂 (we had a bunch of swaddles from DD for DS which he hated!) so don’t go buying more than 1 of anything! If you find something baby can sleep in there’s always Amazon Prime or 24hr big supermarkets to get another one a couple of nights later.

April born DD was in bodysuit, sleepsuit and a thin sleeping bag and in the heatwave it was either no sleeping bag or a sleepsuit and a sleeping bag with no bodysuit.

She was a very warm baby so I only ever used 0.5 or 1tog and I co slept so didn't want her to overheat

Even though it is hotter than the sun, baby will be wearing a hat in hospital. They don’t need to wear one when you get them home (assuming after 24 hours), even though your home is cooler.

YY to the swaddle/sleeping bags. DD is in a Purflo one, but we haven’t ever swaddled her arms in. It comes with a guide about layers - currently she is in a 2.5tog, with a short sleeve vest and a sleepsuit. I am too twitchy about them smothering themselves to use a blanket!

I found this chart very helpful. Just get a thermometer for the room and then follow the chart:

www.babycentre.co.uk/a25024140/what-should-my-baby-wear-at-night-infographic

Highly recommend the love2dream swaddles for newborns and they come in different thicknesses depending on the time of year.

Vest, babygrow and sleeping bag (you can get mini newborn ones for the stage before they grow into the 0-6 month ones)

If in winter vest onesie. Now in a sleep sack. In the summer just a nappy. Sometimes vest. Depending how warm it is on a night

Sleeping bag with vest and babygrow winter newborns. In the summer it went to just a vest and bag or if really hot just a vest.

we had grobags which had a little guide on what to wear at what temperatures. One child this was spot on the other it was a touch to cold for him.

Most sleepbags come with a guide (or you can Google image search for similar).

I really recommend the tommee tippee newborn grobags (The ones with poppers so you can swaddle the arms -- I never did though). When your baby is bigger you can buy any old sleeping bag from the supermarket but when they're so little you want something that's snug fitted on the torso so they don't risk slipping down inside the sleeping bag.

Have a look at baby sleeping bags. They're life savers, they kick blankets off all the time and get cold. Also, if you have a look online and google what temp clothing baby at night, you can get these little tables that tell you room temp and then what to put baby in x
If you don't already have one, get a gro egg temp thing for the bedroom so you know what temp it is xx

Thank you so much for all the advice on here! The wee man in due in June (and we're based in Ireland so that doesn't really say much for the weather lol it could be glorious or horrendous!). Thank you everyone :)

I used sleeping bags from day 1 with both mine (they were both over 9lbs) you can get winter and summer weight ones. I loved them for night feeds as you didn't need to fiddle with blankets. Just pick up and feed.

As for what to wear, it was baby grows with a vest when born (Jan) then baby grow with no vest in the late spring / summer then just a vest or nappy on really hot nights.

I found this really useful.

With our little one, we used an ergopouch swaddle at night. It kept baby comfortable and stopped those little startle wakes. I liked that the arms could stay in or come out later, and the TOG rating made it simple to choose layers. I know this thread is older, but I remember asking the same thing, so just adding what worked for us.