Going home outfit!

DoubleB

Hi Everyone, I'm looking for a few tips about what to dress my baby in when we are bringing him/her home from hospital. Baby is due in mid June but I have a feeling it could be earlier!! Is a vest, baby gro, cardigan/soft jacket, hat enough with cellular blanket over baby sounding about right? Also what time during the day seems to be the norm for being discharged from hospital and how many nights is the norm if there are no complications? Also while I'm here, what would baby sleep in during summer months and what or how many blankets? I feel clueless. Thanks everyone for ur time!

KKkitty

DoubleB wrote: »

Hi Everyone, I'm looking for a few tips about what to dress my baby in when we are bringing him/her home from hospital. Baby is due in mid June but I have a feeling it could be earlier!! Is a vest, baby gro, cardigan/soft jacket, hat enough with cellular blanket over baby sounding about right? Also what time during the day seems to be the norm for being discharged from hospital and how many nights is the norm if there are no complications? Also while I'm here, what would baby sleep in during summer months and what or how many blankets? I feel clueless. Thanks everyone for ur time!

That should suffice as a going home outfit. Get a room thermometer with the ratings for how many layers to wrap her up in for your home. I found them to be great. Ask your PHN for one in advance. With my first I was kept in for around 2 days. It's about the norm for your first. A midwife will show you how to bathe your baby and feeding and burping. Don't be afraid to ask questions. Good luck with the birth and I hope all goes well

DoubleB

kkkitty, Thanks so much for your great tips there. I've never heard of those thermometers that tell how many layers I'll have to try get my hands on one. Do you think I need to bother with one of those pram suits then? Ya know the little warm romper type snow suit things? I might wait until the end of the summer to buy one in a bigger size for winter. So hard to know what to buy. Also did you bring fitted sheets and blankets to the hospital? If so what size.... cot/ moses basket? Thanks so much. x

KKkitty

DoubleB wrote: »

kkkitty, Thanks so much for your great tips there. I've never heard of those thermometers that tell how many layers I'll have to try get my hands on one. Do you think I need to bother with one of those pram suits then? Ya know the little warm romper type snow suit things? I might wait until the end of the summer to buy one in a bigger size for winter. So hard to know what to buy. Also did you bring fitted sheets and blankets to the hospital? If so what size.... cot/ moses basket? Thanks so much. x

A standard baby gro during the summer months should be fine. Stock up on thicker ones if you think there's a slight drop in temperature at all. Romper suits are perfect for winter. Bring your own blankets to the hospital and size wise get small ones and a few bigger ones for swaddling. You should be allowed home early in the day too. A doctor will give you the once over and make sure you're fit and ready to go home. Have you decided on a birthing plan yet? I've gone both ways with pain relief and without.

MollFlanders

Heya, I'm in the same boat ~ packing at the minute! The midwife told us at the antenatal class to bring pillow cases to use in the hospital as sheets for the baby as the hospital cribs are bigger and are square ~ also saves on washing she said!
For going home I have a fleecy baby grow, hat and a pramsuit but a little jacket and blanket would be perfect either. You can adjust the temperature in the car! I bought a Groegg on Amazon to watch temperature at home: http://www.mothercare.ie/grobag-egg-room-thermometer.html
Most baby monitors have an inbuilt themometer as well.
Good luck!

dublinlady

Because babies get so cold as newborns - as they can't really regulate thir temp - knowing the Irish weather - unless it's in the 20's I'd be bringing the baby home in a vest, sleep suit & snow/pram suit. You can get one that isn't too thick and then just pop a cellular blanket on top if needs be. If the babies room is about 18-19 degrees then it'll be sleeping in a vest, sleep suit and have one blanket on - a cellular one. We swaddled my daughter for the first few months using one of these.
Some of the baby monitors have thermometers on them - is really recommend one f those as you can check the temp on the hand piece without having to go into room - eg angelcare monitor. We find it great even still for my 13 month old as the weather is so changeable it's hard to know how many blankets to have on them! When she hit about 5-6 months we started using the gro bags which are a big help!

We got discharged from hosp after the doc gave us the ok which is usually around lunch time after they've done the morning rounds!

sillysocks

I found the Morrck 'baby hoodie' brilliant when our little one was newborn. We got the fleece one, it goes into the car seat and stays there (holes for the straps etc), so you just put baby into the seat in their normal clothes and that wraps fully around then. I tried one of those snow suits one my newborn and gave up halfway through!

The baby hoodie also meant that if baby was asleep when we got somewhere and we were going inside with her in the car seat we could open out the blanket and not struggle taking coat off etc and waking her.

Www.morrck.com

DoubleB

Wow- thanks everyone for such great tips. I am definitely going to invest in one of those baby hoodies they look great and very handy. There are some lovely designs on the site. Did any of you feel the need to turn the heat on during the night to maintain the room temp of baby's room? Sorry about all the questions. Also on a completely different note how often did you or are you planning to bath your newborn? Every second evening sound about right and if so what product did you use? I would like to use pure coconut oil but it can be dangerous as it makes baby so slippy.Will the midwives show us things like how to bathe/ feed etc in hospital? I have tonnes of questions. I'm the first of all my friends to have a baby so don't have the luxury of asking them questions!!! Thanks for your time everyone. Really appreciate it.

KKkitty

Get a thermometer to help with the heat and how many layers etc to put on baby. If you have oil heating invest in a humidifier for baby's room as oil heating can be quiet stuffy on a baby. Any of the Johnson and Johnson bathing products should be fine. I bathed mine every 2nd evening. Even though they're not active as such the little folds of skin can become irritated quite quickly. Midwives will show you feeding and bathing techniques. We've all been where you are now so ask any questions that come to mind.

sillysocks

I'd say every second night sounds fine for bath. We didn't use any products at all for the first few months - just water and facecloth. In the hospital that's what they advised so we stuck with that. I think a lot of babies get reactions to the Johnson and Johnson products so if you do decide to get some don't stock pile a load of them in case the baby gets allergic and products are wasted (same goes for wipes, and nappies really - you wont know which are best for your baby until you start using them).

Midwives should show you everything in the hospital, but if they don't don't be afraid to ask. A lot of the time they're very busy but I found if I asked them questions they were very helpful and spent time going through things with me.
I think in most hospitals you can ring the post natal ward up to a few weeks (maybe 6) after baby is born with any questions you have once baby goes home.

Suucee

I had baby Last april and got a snow suit for going home or going in pram. She was soo small and was lost in it so we just wrapped blankets around her in car and pram. I found out about that baby hoodie thing when she was about 9 months so a bit too late at that stage. I ended up getting no use out of the 0-3 month snow suit as by the time she grew in to it it was alot warmer out.

Re blankets at night, i have oil and didnt want to put it on at night as it would be heating up rooms that werent been used at 3 or 4 in the morning so i used an elec heater in our room and had it set for 18 degrees so when the temp in the room dropped below that the heater would come on and when it went up to 20 it would knock off again. When she was about 6 weeks i started using the grow bag as she was so wiggly she wouldnt be covered when i would wake up.

For the first few weeks we bathed her every 3rd night and slowly started to increase it to every second night. We use the johnsons products and have no problems. The midwives really are brilliant and i also found my PHN great.

DoubleB

Great tips all round. Thanks so much. All great ideas. I have a lot to do!!!! Thanks again everyone.