My baby is waking up in the middle of the night because she's cold. How can I keep her warm without heating the whole house?
This is the question I heard most often this past week, from Boston all the way to Arizona. It must be the changing weather!
First, just be sure your little one is waking up from the cold, and not from something else. Check his or her chest by putting your fingers inside their pajamas - it should be warm to the touch, but not hot. Sometimes babies’ sleep patterns change for other reasons - growth spurt, traveling, change in schedule, a new desire for cuddles - so if it doesn’t end up being the temperature there are other things to check.
In our house, my husband likes to sleep in the COLD. But I like my babies to be WARM. The easiest solution for me was to dress baby in layers. I use cotton layers because cotton breathes - synthetic fabrics doesn’t, so you can get a hot, sweaty baby. Start adding one layer at a time (yep, it might take a couple nights to get it right). We would do a short or long sleeved onesie depending on how cold it was, socks, cotton footie pajamas, occasionally a cotton sweatshirt, and a Woolino sleep sack (expensive, but we bought just one for Cimorene and took really good care of it). That worked for us down to about 67 degrees. If your house is even colder, you can get insulated sleep sacks. If your baby is too little for a sleep sack, you can get a heavier weight swaddle, or double up on a lightweight swaddle (remember that really new babies don’t sweat, so be careful not to overheat!).
3 other tips:
Make sure the crib is away from windows. The draft can change the temperature significantly.
If you’re using a pack-n'-play with a mattress that sits right on the floor, make sure it’s on top of a rug (or a couple of towels) to buffer the cold coming up from the floor.
For the tech lovers (ie: my husband): if you don’t care about heating the whole house, you can install an Ecobee thermostat and buy one of their sensors to put in the baby’s room. Then you’ll have peace of mind that your baby is sleeping at the temperature you want. We did this when Cimorene was really little just to make sure her room didn’t go below 68, and if my husband had to crack a window (!!) so be it.
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