help for new parents!

[sully01]

Hi there,

This is my first post so please excuse the beginners questions.

We have six weeks to go until our first child arrives and are getting things ready for it in the house. We now have a cot but very little bedding. I was hoping to find out what others here use(d) for newborns. To be honest our house is old and can be coldish - it definitely wasn't 16-18 degrees when I got up this morning! A friend of mine has given me a couple of Grobags which seem great but I doubt would be enough on their own.

I was born into a cold house and survived ok so I'm not unduly worried but any help/advice would be gratefully received.

Thanks a lot.

welcome to MN

We used the carry cot from the pram for the first 12 or so weeks before moving the carrycot into the cot and eventually putting the baby to sleep in the cot

back in those days we used sheets and cellular blankets, keeping the baby's feet at the bottom of the carry cot/cot, so no knowledge of gro bags I'm afraid

Hello! Congrats on your baby to come!

Grobags are great and in fact the baby can be quite cosy in them as they generate heat in them and it stays warm at a nice regular temperature. We used to live in an old cottage and our bedroom was very cold. From birth we used a moses basket for both DSs when we lived in that house (now on DS3 currently napping in his moses basket!). I didn't use grobags from birth but started off swaddling both boys in a square cotton blanket and covering them in an additional cotton blanket (nothing too heavy). When they got to about 10 weeks I put the moses basket in the cot and from the following week used just the cot and at about that age started using grobags. Both my first DSs loved the grobags and only gave them up when they went to real beds.

grobags are great. you don't use extra blankets with them. you just make sure your baby has enough clothes on. if it's very cold perhaps a long sleeve vest, socks, plus babygro. the pack it comes in will give you a guide. also, check they are suitable for your newborn, ie small enough. again, the pack will advise.

Welcome! And congratulations on the impending arrival :-)

What the others said about gro-bags, they're super!

Also make sure you have a thermometer in the bedroom the baby sleeps in and the main rooms he/she is in during the day. Some days the thermometer says 18 when I would swear it's somewhere around 0! You don't have to buy them though, I bought some and then had tonnes thrown at me in hospital/by the HVs when I got out... d'oh!