Baby due soon. Question about baby sleeping

I don't know. This is our first child. We've read books and done the
baby classes but still have questions. This may sound stupid, but here
goes.

We bring baby home the first day. We have a "pack and play" that baby
will sleep next to our bed for a while. My question. I've read that to
reduce the risk of SIDS, you do not want to put sheets or blankets in
the crib. And by crib, I'm going to refer it to the pack and play
until baby sleeps in a real crib in his own room a month later.

So we put the baby to sleep on his back, in the pack in play. Nothing
else is in there. Except baby wearing his pajamas. Is this right? What
room temperature? We're in N California, so weather isn't bad. But we
have an central AC. Not sure if the room has to be a certain
temperature.

wrote in message
ups.com...
I don't know. This is our first child. We've read books and done the
baby classes but still have questions. This may sound stupid, but here
goes.

We bring baby home the first day. We have a "pack and play" that baby
will sleep next to our bed for a while. My question. I've read that to
reduce the risk of SIDS, you do not want to put sheets or blankets in
the crib. And by crib, I'm going to refer it to the pack and play
until baby sleeps in a real crib in his own room a month later.

So we put the baby to sleep on his back, in the pack in play. Nothing
else is in there. Except baby wearing his pajamas. Is this right? What
room temperature? We're in N California, so weather isn't bad. But we
have an central AC. Not sure if the room has to be a certain
temperature.


Congratulation on your impending parenthood. I'm in Northern California
too. You can put a fitted sheet in the PNP to cover the mattress.
Depending on the temperatures in your home, and outside, you may want to put
baby in a terrycloth sleeper or onesie. You can also swaddle baby tightly
in a blanket and put them to sleep that way -- it's lose blankets that you
don't want to have near baby's face. But a tightly wrapped "baby burrito"
will both sooth baby by reminding them of the tight confines of the womb,
and keep them toasty warm.

In regards to the temps...there is no one set temperature. Whatever is
comfortable for you, will be comfortable for baby. If it's chilly and you
want to put on long sleeves or a sweater, then baby will be cold in a short
sleeved legless outfit. If it's toasty warm outside and you are wearing
flip-flops, shorts and a t-shirt, then you likely won't want your baby to be
wearing a thick blanket sleeper.

In the hottest part of the summer, you probably have the air conditioning
on. Put it where it's comfortable for you, both during the day and at
night. Many babies seem to be heat generators and don't need lots of
clothes, but baby will tell you if it's cold by crying, so you'll figure it
out.
--

Jamie
Earth Angels:
Taylor Marlys -- 01/03/03
Addison Grace -- 09/30/04

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hmm, no sheets and blankets seems fairly extreme, SIDS guidelines say no
heavy blankets or duvets, comforters, that kind of thing, but regular crib
sheets and cellular blankets are fine. Some people choose to avoid them
completely and replace with a baby sleeping bag, but the reason is often
that the babies throw their sheets off and get cold and wake up! With the
A/C on, it might be a little cool in the crib with nothing extra. The
recommended temperature seems to vary depending on who you ask, in the UK
18C (65F) seemed to be a pretty common recommendation, but I've seen
anything in the range 65-72 mentioned.

To be honest, I wouldn't recommend starting out with the pack n play, I've
known a few people who've tried that and found it's not worked that well,
the mattress is no where near as comfortable as a regular crib and there can
be drafts low down. Also, it's pretty low down to try and lay a sleeping
baby in, which is pretty difficult for a new mum particularly after a
c-section, plus the baby is more likely to wake up, the more difficult the
transfer is. If they are going in there awake (very much depends on the
personality of your baby), then they may find they are too far away and
unable to see mum or dad and get upset. I had one baby that in the early
stages had to be put down asleep and the other was the complete opposite
absolutely wouldn't go down asleep, neither of them would have managed with
the pack n play, the first woke up to easily, the 2nd needed to be able to
see me to go to sleep. I would recommend either moving the crib into your
room (if there is space to set up the pack n play, there should be room,
even if it means building it in situ), or getting a bassinet topper for the
pack n play, or a free standing bassinet, or possibly even a cosleeper, I
had the bassinet pulled right next to my bed, the top was level with the
side of the bed, for both children it would have been easier if the mattress
was level with the bed and the side could be dropped down.

I also think setting your sights on moving the baby into his own room at
1mth is likely to result in disappointment. Firstly, for SIDS prevention
it's recommeded baby stays in your room for the first 6mths. For me, that
was too long and I moved them when we seemed to be disturbing the baby by
being in the same room (at first they don't seem to be disturbed by
anything), for one this was about 4mths, the other a bit after 2mths.

Cheers

Anne

"Anne Rogers" wrote in message
...
hmm, no sheets and blankets seems fairly extreme, SIDS guidelines say no
heavy blankets or duvets, comforters, that kind of thing, but regular crib
sheets and cellular blankets are fine. Some people choose to avoid them
completely and replace with a baby sleeping bag, but the reason is often
that the babies throw their sheets off and get cold and wake up! With the
A/C on, it might be a little cool in the crib with nothing extra. The
recommended temperature seems to vary depending on who you ask, in the UK
18C (65F) seemed to be a pretty common recommendation, but I've seen
anything in the range 65-72 mentioned.

To be honest, I wouldn't recommend starting out with the pack n play, I've
known a few people who've tried that and found it's not worked that well,
the mattress is no where near as comfortable as a regular crib and there
can be drafts low down. Also, it's pretty low down to try and lay a
sleeping baby in, which is pretty difficult for a new mum particularly
after a c-section, plus the baby is more likely to wake up, the more
difficult the transfer is. If they are going in there awake (very much
depends on the personality of your baby), then they may find they are too
far away and unable to see mum or dad and get upset. I had one baby that
in the early stages had to be put down asleep and the other was the
complete opposite absolutely wouldn't go down asleep, neither of them
would have managed with the pack n play, the first woke up to easily, the
2nd needed to be able to see me to go to sleep. I would recommend either
moving the crib into your room (if there is space to set up the pack n
play, there should be room, even if it means building it in situ), or
getting a bassinet topper for the pack n play, or a free standing
bassinet, or possibly even a cosleeper, I had the bassinet pulled right
next to my bed, the top was level with the side of the bed, for both
children it would have been easier if the mattress was level with the bed
and the side could be dropped down.

We used a PNP with bassinet top in our room for both of our babies. It
worked out well.

I also think setting your sights on moving the baby into his own room at
1mth is likely to result in disappointment. Firstly, for SIDS prevention
it's recommeded baby stays in your room for the first 6mths. For me, that
was too long and I moved them when we seemed to be disturbing the baby by
being in the same room (at first they don't seem to be disturbed by
anything), for one this was about 4mths, the other a bit after 2mths.

We sort of did the same thing -- played it by ear in terms of when to move
the baby into their own room. With Taylor is was 6 weeks, when it slowly
dawned on me that Taylor was rousing and squeeking in her sleep, but not
actually waking up. But I would jump up and pick her up, thus waking her
all the way up. If I didn't jump up, some of those times she'd settle and
fall back into a deeper sleep. So that's the point when we decided to move
her. We put her straight into her crib from there and she was fine.

With Addie, again, we just played it by ear, and ended up keeping her in our
room until about 10 weeks. We pretty much got to the same point, that it
seemed like she would sleep better and longer in her own room. Again, we
went straight into the crib at that point, and she was fine. She was also
still tightly swaddled at that point, so the transfer from PNP/bassinet to
crib was minimal.
--

Jamie
Earth Angels:
Taylor Marlys -- 01/03/03
Addison Grace -- 09/30/04

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