Sleep - what to put baby in

[Al991]

Excuse my ignorance, I’m just a FTM trying to work things out 😅

My baby will (hopefully) be being born within next few weeks and I’ve headed lots of messages about safe sleeping/what to dress baby in to keep them warm. Many contradicting messages which are causing me to overthink

• I’ve been told don’t use a swaddle bag for a newborn as their feet won’t touch bottom of the cot unless you fold it over, in which case they will get too hot
• also been told don’t use a blanket for swaddling as it’s too hot, can use a muslin but that won’t be warm enough when the weather gets cooler
• but also don’t use loose blankets because of danger of suffocation. I can tuck the blankets in? But is that the safest way?

it’s ok now that it’s hot but there will be a point I need to put baby in something to keep her warm. It seems like everything has been written off!!! I figured despite being told all sorts of different things by the midwife, NCT etc people put babies to bed all the time so there must be a way round these issues.

Hey :)
I used baby sleeping bags like the Tommie tippee ones, the arms can popper closed for swaddling or can be left open so little one can have their arms out.
they come in different tog ratings so can be used year round.
hope that helps x

Baby sleeping bags are fine unless you have a particularly small baby I think. Our baby was born in winter so he slept in a sleeveless vest under onesie and 4.5 tog bag. He's currently in a short or long sleeve vest depending on how warm it is, and a 1.5 tog bag.

Thank you @Emma543 i have one of these actually as I got it as a gift! I was planning on using it and getting different togs if needed but then midwife said not to as the baby’s feet won’t touch bottom of cot?! But I’m thinking that doesn’t matter if there’s no blankets to slip under?

I have a few sleeping bags for my little one, some 2.5 for colder nights and 1.5 for warmer nights and then I just follow the room temperature to decide which to use and what to dress them in. There's lots of baby sleep wear charts to follow depending on the temp of the room. It's great because they can't kick it off but they've room to move etc.

I bought sleeping bags however my baby ended up being premature by 5 weeks. In scbu they just used blankets, so when we took him home we continued using micro lite blanket and tuck it in the edge of the next2me. He’s currently 4 months old now. So he has a vest, sleepsuit and the thin blanket.

I plan to switch to sleeping bag when he goes into a cot in his own room at 6-7months.

When the doctor visited in scbu I asked what she used and she said she used sleeping bags for hers even though it’s not recommended.

We never swaddled ds. He did startle himself awake a lot though so maybe we should have.

Also FTM waiting to give birth, so don't know for sure, but my understanding was the feet need to touch bottom of cot if under a blanket, so they can't wriggle under....if sleeping bag isn't so big they can wriggle down into it, it shouldn't be an issue?

you only need to worry about feet at the bottom if you’re using a blanket, it’s so they can’t accidentally wriggle under it/cover their head.

lullaby trust have some great safe sleep information.

I used sleeping bags, with different tog ratings for different temperatures. The lullaby trust even recommend them so I would say they are very safe if the right size for baby. I’ve added a picture of what they recommend. Hope that helps! It’s all soooo confusing

The midwives/nurses in hospital showed me how to swaddle my baby so it's fine as long as not too tight/hot etc. Alternatively, you can use cellular blankets on the lower half of their body tucked in so it doesn't go above their armpits/head. To be honest, the baby mostly slept on me or I was awake watching him sleep in his cot in the early days.
Then when he a few weeks old and a big enough we transitioned into proper sleeping bags.