Do I need warm clothes for a summer baby?

[trrk]

My baby is due early July and was just wondering if they need much in the way of warmer clothes.

For my hospital bag I have long sleeve sleepsuits (newborn size) and short sleave vests (newborn size) and one light cotton cardigan (size 0-3) as well as a cellular blanket. Will this be sufficient for coming home from hospital?

How about afterwards? With the house getting quite hot I guess a newborn wouldn't need cardigans inside (and we have blankets and sleeping bags for nighttime/naps) but what would they need for the pram? Don't want to buy a bunch of warm stuff that we won't use in summer!

Babies do still need hats in the first week or so, as they will struggle to regulate their temperature at first. Just thin cotton ones.

Agree about hat for the hospital bag. I'd also say long sleeves and legs for at home as whilst you won't necessarily need to keep them warm you'll want to keep their skin protected from the sun. Personally I'd want a couple of cardigans in case of sickness/washing delay etc. I wouldn't, however, go mad as there's always internet shopping 🤣

Assuming you're in the UK, yes. But I admire your optimism and hope you don't end up using any of it!

(Had an august heatwave baby, she was still in warm clothes after a few weeks)

If you live in Britain it could be anything from 16 - 32 degrees in July, hedge your bets. But unless you live very remotely you can always buy extra clothings as required from supermarkets, once you know have large your baby is - we had to get tiny baby sized clothes (the one below newborn) when dd was smaller than predicted by scans, my second dd was tiny too, I cook them small - the 24 hour asda was useful!

I used these for my DC in Summer, for the pram and car seat when it wasn’t too warm.
www.tuppenceandcrumble.com/cotton-starsnug-stars-print

Extremities tend to get cold, even in summer, so socks are useful even if you aren't dressing baby in trousers or a footed babygro.

I tended to prefer a short sleeved poppered vest and shorts combo in the summer, just because the vest kept their nappy on a bit better and didn't ride up their back, and shorts gave their legs more coverage.

Yes absolutely. A 'oncies' at least for hospital. It will probably feel hideously hot to you, but just being under a cellular blanket, they will possibly need it.

And then cardigans definitely at home. Newborns don't really have bedtimes at first. They tend to just sleep anywhere, and 'final' bedtime may be around 11pm at first, so they absolutely need warm clothes in the evening at least. July and August aren't always warm even in the day. I have a mid-August birthday and can't tell you the number of times I've cancelled picnics or been under big blankets at a BBQ. Of course, there could easily be a heat wave, but then they will be fine in just a vest.

What I will say is definitely don't buy lots of clothes. As crazy as it sounds one of my biggest causes of anxiety with a newborn was just how many clothes I had. I had hand-me-downs from a close relative, plus gifts, and I just felt like I should be using them all as people had taken their time and money to give them to us. But some just didn't fit at the right season, never fitted because he was skinny and they were designed for chunky babies. I really just had a core of a few clothes I washed. As long as you have a few vests, a few oncies and a couple of cardigans and blankets, you will be fine. People will gift you clothes and you can pick up absolutely anything you find you need depending on the weather from any supermarket clothing - Tesco, Asda, Sainsburys, etc.

My late June baby lived mainly in onsies with a vest under. Nighttime sleep, I looked up what he should be wearing based on the temperature in his room: tog of sleeping bag, short sleeve vest, long sleeve vest or onsie. Just Google 'newborn tog guide'

Oh and there is also the 'your baby should wear one more layer than you' bullshit. I'm currently in a t-shirt, jumper, blanket over me on the sofa, while my husband is perfectly warm in a t-shirt right next to me. So God knows what that means we should dress a baby in right now.

My DS was born in the 2018 July heatwave. He was in short sleeved vests and bodysuits in the hospital (which was hotter than the sun, but they insisted), and then stayed in them for a week or so at home. By about 2 weeks old he was just in a vest indoors because he was so hot! If we went out I usually put a bodysuit on him as well, though, and a thin hat.

It was unreasonably hot that year, though. Many of his early pictures involve him in just a nappy and his big sister in just her pants...