Summer vs Winter baby

[FizzyFlamingo]

If you've had babies born in the summer and winter months what were the pros?

Our first born is a July baby and I loved the long days and being able to go for evening walks to help break up cluster feeding marathons/witching hours and give me a short break. I used to look forward to that time and remember wondering how people managed with winter babies. Fast forward to now and I'm due our second at the end of December so... I'm about to find out!

I like the idea of everything being cozy and snug this time but I absolutely hate jan and feb as they're normally long, dark, cold months so the thought of having a newborn during this time (with a toddler in tow who needs to be out the house!) is filling me with a bit of dread and anxiety!

So anyone who's experienced both please give me some positives to look forward to about having a mid-winter baby 😬

I had two July babies but one born in the UK and one in Australia, so a summer baby and then a winter baby. The thing I loved is that we could go out and not worry about the sun and at night there was no concern about the bedroom getting too hot - admittedly this was more of a feature of living in Aus.

You can wear a sling when out and about in winter and not worry about the baby drowning in sweat (might be a me issue...). The noise of rain on a pram raincover is rhythmic and soothing while your toddler splashes in puddles (second baby came during lockdown so yes we went out in the rain a lot). Longer nights make for darker bedrooms, so less chance of your toddler waking up at 5am demanding to start the day. Breastfeeding makes me hot - much more pleasant in winter.

With any luck your toddler will have just had a load of new toys from Christmas, so you might have less entertaining to do than usual.

I hope this helps a little. If I think of any more I'll add them. I'm having a February baby this time and I'm very happy as I used to hate February 😀

I’ve got 2 summer and a winter

my first was winter and I liked the coziness of hunkering down - didn’t feel pressured to ‘get out’ in the open etc

the summer babies I was up with the toddler so felt more natural and easier to be out and about

pros and cons to both I reckon

First was a July and I was so stressed trying to keep her cool in the heat, it was awful. Also the pregnancy itself was hard as I was big when it was hot and I just had no energy. Hospital was unbearable too. Second was January and so much nicer. Didn’t have to worry about overheating, pregnancy was a lot more comfortable and had a lot more energy. Hospital was great. Going for wintery walks was really nice too. This time I’m having an autumn baby so hopefully avoiding the horrible hot weather. Summer was definitely the worst for me.

From an education perspective, those born in winter are ready for primary school when their time comes, whereas summer born children often (not always), struggle and are not always ready.

I had a baby last December and I’m glad I didn’t have to worry about any potential heatwaves, baby overheating and things like that.

I’m also glad that he’ll be one of the older children at school instead of one of the youngest.

I had a baby last December and it was really nice getting snuggled in for a few weeks and basically hibernating. She was born during a cold snap though (in the minuses where we were) so I found it quite stressful as our bedroom was really cold and I was worried about her being too cold. And it was freezing dragging her out for midwife appointments. And our gas bill was ridiculously expensive as we needed to keep the heating on full time to try keep the house warm. But overall I didn't mind having a winter baby. It was nice as the weather got better we could go out and about more when she was older and more interested in the world.

Ah yes I forgot about the worry of the hot bedroom! I remember setting my alarm to wake up every hour or so throughout the night to check her temperature wasn't too hot (in hindsight absolute madness when she was sleeping quite well at that point so I should have been too!). We also very nearly bought an expensive air con unit - thankfully we saw sense and didn't do that 😂. Won't need to worry about that in winter!

Ah yes the sweaty breastfeeding too, that wasn't fun in the first few weeks when she would feed for ages and it was like handling a slippery eel!

I think you're right, there will definitely be pros and cons, I just need reminding of what the cons were with a summer born! 😂

Also true about the school age. I'm already worrying about my daughter being one of the youngest when she starts school so that won't be a worry this time around!

The school thing puts me off having a summer baby.

I think it's better to have an autumn/winter baby all things considered.

Dd1 was November, DD2 was May, DD3 was February. Loved the winter of DD1, snuggling down not feeling the need to go out. DD2 was the start of a long hot summer, loved the night wakes when it was getting light and warm. DD3 - Feb is the start of spring and hope - days start getting longer - all good in their own way

Obviously only my experience, but neither my July born or August born DC ever had issues at school.

Neither were top of the class level (at infants) and school was most definitely more of a social affair for them (!) but it really did seem to level out academically by year 4/5

I really don’t think many can tell who is winter/who is summer by the time they’re teenagers

I have had a September,January and July baby. On a practical level the Autumn and Summer babies were easier. Educationally they have all been fine

Both DC are born in December. Benefits were: being heavily pregnant in autumn / winter rather than summer, baby classes / clothes / equipment are often heavily discounted in the summer, easier to do skin to skin time with breastfeeding - DC and I often spent entire days in bed lol