It’s not great by any means and it’s a far cry from a debate. It’s more of what’s stumping me right now as a mommy to a 16-month old.
One of the first tidbits of advice I grabbed on to as an expecting mother was the piece about always dressing your baby in one layer of clothing more than what you were wearing. That make perfectly good sense to me. I’m naturally cold so I had no issues in dressing my itty, bitty baby in warmer clothes than I. Plus, layers are amazing on mommy so why wouldn’t they be on baby? Maximus was born in the heat of the summer. I still put him in long-sleeve one piece clothes. Afterall, the air conditioning was on in the house and he only weighed 7 lbs. {How? When? He’s HUGE now!} His feet were always covered in his pants or one pieces {socks were too big} and his hands were covered in mittens most of those first few weeks. When he was wearing a short-sleeve onsie, he was swaddled so he wasn’t spending too much time bare armed in the house.
Once he got old enough to not be swaddled, I had to relearn what to put him in. Especially at night. It was about this time and this weather last year that he decided his thumb was of better use outside the swaddle. So we put him in socks, a onsie, and a warm fleece sleeper sack. We turned up the heat a little and felt confident that he wasn’t cold. In the dead of winter, we switched out the short-sleeve onsie with a long-sleeve to ensure extra warmth.
During the day, he was always in a short-sleeve onsie and something long-sleeve. When it was extra cold out, we layered on a sweatshirt instead of a long-sleeve. With him being on the floor all the time, we didn’t want to worry about him getting cold.
Summer came around and I bought shorts so he could show off his chubby legs. He wore a sweatshirt to daycare most mornings and always had socks on. It was a transition that none of us noticed; getting rid of the extra onsie. Fall came around and we found regular shirts in his pile of hand-me-downs. It wasn’t cold yet, so we didn’t think about layering.
Now it’s winter again, but this time I have a very headstrong toddler who hates diaper changes and pulls his socks of just for the fun of it. Putting a short-sleeve onsie on underneath his long-sleeve clothes sounds cumbersome at this point. It also sounds like a horrible battle during diaper changes. Sometimes it’s all we can do to change the diaper, let along button things. We’ve both gotten good at picking clothes that are warm that require no buttoning. Pants and shirts can go on in whatever order necessary for the wiggling boy. And socks, well, we start off the day with them and then remember to take them off the table on the way out the door at daycare.
What do I do about layering? Long-sleeve and a light sweat-shirt or jacket? Or keep sticking a onsie on? It may not be the great debate, but I’m curious to hear what you do. This mama needs a little reassuring that my little babe isn’t going to catch a cold this winter season.
This is far from “expert” advice, but when it is extra cold, we still try to do the onesie. She’s the queen of a long sleeve onesie with a t-shirt over it (her dad’s signature look for her). But she is currently fairly tolerant of this. We’ll see how it goes throughout the winter … and we like to feel confident that her sweet baby belly isn’t sticking out!
Maximus rocked that style last year. Mostly because we had so many short-sleeve onsies. This year we got a lot of hand-me-downs. I feel like I should put him in a onsie especially in those belly open situations. But, he’s a wrestler now. Ugh.
We just use footie pajamas and they get extra fleecy when it gets cold. A’s room is the warmest in the house, so it’s usually a non-issue. 😉
I’m thinking he’s ok in his fleecy pjs too. He moves around so much that we’ve tried putting a blanket on him but it doesn’t stay very long. He sleeps on his tummy so he’s always warm and snuggly in the morning.