How are you coping with this hot weather?

[LadyLotty]

My baby monitor tells me my baby's room is 27 degrees celcius (81 Farenheit). He is just over 12 months and whereas usually he is in a little merino sleepbag with his sleep suit, these days he is just in a sleepless shortie - and still sweating hot!

His room has very thick blackout curtains so its useless my opening the window (other than letting the noise in!)

Shall I put a fan on in his room throughout the night? If I open his door he ends up waking early and then not sleeping through.

What are you all doing during this hot period to keep your little ones cool during the night?

i put mine to bed in just a nappy

to be honest as long as they're asleep i'm not too bothered!

ds2 is in a vest with short arms and legs. He's wrapped in a thin holey blanket but if I don't do that he doesn't sleep. He is used to being wrapped up. Both windows wide open. He usually rolls the blanket off after a while and I rewrap hiom when he wakes to feed.

Dd in just a pj top, no duvet (kicked off) window open

Ds1 naked. fan on him, no duvet, window open!

I used to keep all windows shut as I worried about the noise waking them and them being stolen

I do creep in and shut the windows at about 4am ish when I do a wee to stop the bird noises.

I hate getting my feet dirty/dusty in this weather

Too hot for me - got back into bed this morning and the duvet was horribly wet with dp's sweat

I hate it.

ds 1 and 2 rooms are in the loft conversion and it is boiling up there, heat rising and all that. I keep their blind down all day to minimise the sun shining in. About and hour before bed I open the window as far as it will go and put the fan on full blast. I also put hot water bottles filled with water in the fridge or freezer for a bit and pop those into their beds. They have been sleeping in just pants with thin duvet on them.

DD (5mo) wears only a nappy and is lightly swaddled in muslin.

We are in Spain where it gets mighty hot (temps well into the 30s yesterday), but we have a (silent-ish) ceiling fan, which we keep on and we also put down an awning to stop the sun shining on the glass windows during the day and pull down a shutter to darken the room, leaving windows open (unless there's a storm).

The main problem in the UK is you can't usually do anything to stop the sun shining direct on the window glass - which heats up and makes rooms hot for ages - greenhouse effect, anyone?!

If you've got the money, it's worth investing in shutters on the outside or an awning, I'd say! I wanted to fit some when I was in the UK, but didn't get round to it - then subsequent summers were so rubbish, it wasn't necessary.

Or you could improvise with car windscreen sun shields - sticking them to the outside of windows, if you can?? I'm certainly thinking of doing that if it's still hot when we come back for a visit soon...

we are not doing too badly.
our bedrooms face south and we open the windows only in the evening before bed for about half an hour and in the morning when its still reasonably cool + before the sun shines on the windows. during the day the windows are kept closed and curtains drawn (black out ones in one room, normal one + additional bedsheet over the curtain rail in the other) so it doesnt get too hot in there.
baby only sleeps in a sleepsuit, ds (3) and we only use the duvet covers as blankets atm.

We do the following as we used to live in a hot climate without air con, etc:

1. If you have a fan then get a tea towel and wet it. Put it over the fan's grills (make sure it cant get caught).

This will circulate cool air with some moisture which reduces dehydration.

1. Keep all the blinds/curtins shut as the light heats up the house/flat.

1. Create your own ice lollies. You can buy molds but an alternative would be putting cordial and water in a mug and sticking it in the freezer. The kids can then dig out the frozen drink with a teaspoon.

Be careful not to knock these over in the freezer.

1. Have a cold(ish) bath just before bed.

1. Put a glass of ice next to your bed. When you wake it'll be melted and cool - ready to drink.

1. (If you have space)buy some plastic from the hardware store. put water on it and a little soap (for slippiness) and you instantly have a cheap version of a water slide. The soap means you use less water as well.

Hope this helps.

Message deleted

LOL! Yes, bad punctuation there!
I think everyone else knew what I meant...

Top tip there re the teatowel over the fan. Gonna try that now.

We have a fan on in our room but have been waking up dry and having to go get drinks in the night.

Poor DD, 4 mo, doesn't know what to do with herself.

Thanks forthe tips!
The little room is 28 degrees today... he cried for ages I think he finds the heat unbearable! I will certainly try keeping the room dark and curtains shut during the day, as well as use a fan, plus strip him naked and see how that goes...

I also put two large tubs of water in the freezer to make ice so that they can be used tomorrow night for cooling his room. Probably I will end up with a huge puddly mess, but will let you know how I get on!

Have put on hold any sort of sleep training - DS2 (nearly 7mo) is teething too so we're doubly-doomed.