Newborn winter bedding

[JL642]

Hello.

Any help very much appreciated!

We have a newborn due in winter and I am starting to worry about what to use at night when we are all (hopefully) sleeping. We have a bedside crib that will be attached to our bed. We also have fitted sheets for the crib and then intend on putting the baby in a 0-3 sleeping bag 2.5 tog at night with a vest and long sleeved baby grow underneath. Is this enough? I read we shouldn’t have any other sheets/quilts in the cot for warmth.

Also, we usually have our heating off at night when we sleep but will we need to keep this on to keep the baby warm?

Babies should sleep in a room that's between 16-18 degrees anyway, so on the cooler side!

What you have described sounds perfect in terms of clothing. There shouldn't be any extra blankets in the baby's bed.

Check the back of the baby's neck, or their tummy to see if they're warm enough.

You could use a Grobag 2.5tog and then the baby's hands/arms are swaddled inside and stay nice and cosy 😊

Thank you

What you suggest sounds right to me. You can keep an eye on the room temp and see whether to leave the heating on overnight during the coldest periods. I think you can get 3.5 tog sleeping bags too if your room is colder.

Some kind of swaddle sleeping bag is best for newborns (although I’m now finding it hard to transition out of them at 4 months). Mine liked to sleep in the arms up position so prefers Love to Dream over the Grobag ones but you might not want to buy too many of one type until you see what your baby likes. I regret buying too many of the normal sleeping bags which we still haven’t used.

Also I would buy second hand Love to Dream or Grobag if you have plenty of time before your baby arrives. There are lots in good condition but of course it’s no good when your baby is already here and you want it for next day delivery.

We had the gro egg room thermometer and it came with this chart to guide you in what to dress baby in based on the room temperature. It was probably one of the most useful things we had in those early stages as I had huge anxiety about safe sleeping and DD over heating.

You say you're due in winter, so another thing to bear in mind is that most sleeping bags say they're only for use from 8lb8oz regardless of baby's age. So a 0-3month might not be suitable straight away. This was the case for our DD and we used some crib bedding from mothercare for the first few weeks. She was born in early summer though, I'm not sure if it would have been warm enough for cold winter nights. Hopefully someone else will be along to offer advice on this.

The swaddle sleeping bags come in newborn sizes if you are going to go down that route but again consider 2nd hand in case it’s not used for long.

Love to Dreams smallest size is 5-8.5 lbs so will fit all newborns as long as not premature.

Be aware sleeping bags have a minimum weight limit so depending how heavy your newborn is you may not be able to go straight to a sleeping bag. Think a grosnug is a swaddle type of sleeping bag.

Thank you everyone. My biggest fear is keeping baby warm both at home and out and about so your comments really helpful.

I have 2 x swaddle grobags 2.5 tog (tomee tipee 0-3) and 2 x sleeping bags 2.5 tog (snuz pod 0-6). I’ll double check the start weight of the grobags tonight - I didn’t think of that.

I have a second hand groegg which hopefully helps and thank you for posting the temperature chart above. Really helpful as I don’t think I got a copy of that with my second hand egg.

It’s all a bit of a minefield and I keep finding things to worry about that I haven’t thought through properly yet!