help for a southerner!

help for a southerner!

When I told Paul that I was going to write this post, he laughed at me and said, “You’re such a Southerner.”

The truth is, I haven’t been anywhere colder than Atlanta since Christmas 2004. And I think I’ve forgotten how cold up north can get.

I don’t know why we decided to visit New England in January except that we were thinking it would give Paul’s parents a chance to have Christmas with Savannah before it got too far away from the actual holiday. Now that we’ve bought the tickets, I’m panicking, wondering if we should have waited until April or something! Oh well.

I’m really nervous about flying with Savannah. Paul wasn’t able to get a direct flight, so I will have four take-offs and landings to deal with. I have been told to nurse Savannah during those – I’m just praying that I don’t throw up myself as I usually want to do! So yeah, I’m a little scared.

The other thing I’m worried about is being able to keep Savannah warm while we’re up there in the bitter cold. For those who live in New England, how do you keep 4 month olds warm in the winter? The warmest thing she owns is a bear outfit. We’re going to borrow some sort of snow suit. What other things should we get for her before coming? I don’t want to go too crazy and get her all these clothes that are too warm for Atlanta, but at the same time I don’t want her to be cold while we’re up there. Any ideas would be most welcome! :-)

Thank you!

10 thoughts on “help for a southerner!

  1. I’m not a parent, but I am from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, which has a similar climate to New England, so I hope this helps you. :)

    A snowsuit is a must, and dressing in layers is really important (ie: a onesie underneath a warm long-sleeved shirt and pants outfit). Make sure she’s dressed in warm fabrics – cotton, denim, etc. And use blankets as well. Because she’s not used to cold weather, I’d wrap her in a warm blanket (ie: fleece) in her car seat and have a blanket covering the car seat so that the wind or snow doesn’t blow directly on her when you’re outside.

    At night, have her wear warm pyjamas and use a sleeping bag – they’re basically a zip-up bag for babies who may squirm out of blankets at night. Also use blankets though.

    It all comes down to lots of layers and lots of blankets.

    Good luck, and have a great trip!
    Jen

  2. Those sleep bags are cool! Savannah actually got two for Christmas, and I’m really excited because she LOVES to kick off her blankets.

    Thanks for your help! Layers are good, because it means I can use the clothes she has. :-) I need to get her some more onesies though – she’s grown out of her 0-3 month ones, and the next ones I have are 9 months.

  3. I say skip the snowsuit, actually. She’s too little to actually play in the snow, and I doubt you’ll want to push her around in a stroller if it’s really cold out.

    Since you can’t have them securely in their carseats with their winter coat/snowsuit on anyway, it’s kind of a pointless thing. Today, I put some bunting on Johnny to just see how it fit. Kind of pointless since once I get him to the car, I have to take him out of it to get him in his seat!

    So we use a fleece poncho that I made. I blogged about it recently. If you have several layers of fleece, just cut them into squares and cut a hole for the head and that’s it! Don’t worry about the fringe since that takes awhile.

    It can stay on her in the car seat. Just use it like a blanket.

    If you have your infant carrier still, just put a hat on her, a onesie, a longsleeved top and some pants that have feet in it.

    Better yet, put her in some fleece pajamas that have the feet. That’s what Johnny wore when we made our trip to Indiana last week. So what if he’s wearing PJs during the day? It’s cozy and he can’t kick off his socks!

    So — infant seat plus those clothes plus a few blankets and I’m sure she’ll be fine. Then you won’t have to worry about a bunch of clothes that you can’t use in ATL anyway.

  4. Ashley…hmm; this sounds vaguely familiar. :)
    If Savannah can handle a ten hour car ride, I’m sure she’ll be great on the plane. Timmy loved just being held all day during our trip. :) And while I worried about nursing Jer during take-off and landing, I wasn’t nearly as stressed about it with Timmy, and he was fine just eating whenever he was hungry! I think things went better because I wasn’t as stressed. Just remember, if she starts fussing and crying, don’t worry about her bothering anyone else on the plane (I did with Jer, and it just made me more upset).
    I thought Timmy would freeze up in the cold U.S., but he was fine. We did the layering for sleeping, and it actually wasn’t any colder at night, than at our house (it was warmer) since people in Chicago have heaters and we don’t. For taking him out (he wasn’t out for long amounts of time) we borrowed a warm fleece thing that has a hood and is designed to be used in car seats (With a slit in it for the seat belt part). Then we’d put him in the car seat and take him quickly into the house or car. The dryness was actually more of an issue for us than the cold! But now we’re back to our wonderful humidity. ;) Have a great trip!!
    Oh, also remember to bring your carrier- you can use it when you go through security (I didn’t realize that until after Jer had pulled away from me and ran away as I was holding Timmy while Daniel was taking care of all the items going through…).

  5. Josiah flew when he was 4 and 5 months and though I was pretty paranoid about it at first, I soon realized that he did fine on landing and take-off whether he was nursing or not. So try and time it right, at least for the initial flight, but if it doesn’t work out, try not to stress about it.

    Layers are great for cold and remember that you will be in heated houses and won’t be outside much. Josiah actually likes the cold. He gets really excited. A little cold from the car to the house won’t be a big deal. And although we definitely have a winter coat for Josiah, often if he goes outside to play for a bit (here in Ohio) I just layer him in sweat shirts because it’s less cumbersome.

    Happy travels!

  6. we have one (actually two) of those things that go over an infant car seat, one is a JJ cole, it goes inside and over, it’s really warm and fleece, and the other just goes over and has a cut out circle for the face. I love them way better than snowsuits, those are a pain to get in and out of the car seat and they get hot in the car etc, so the covers can just be taken off. Layers and footie pjs are a must! :)

  7. I agree with Kacie that she won’t actually be playing in the snow (I assume ;-D). She probably will only be outside for a few minutes at a time, between house and car. It depends largely on how warm the places you’ll be staying are. For us, we found that for Hans’ first winter, a fleece bunting was all we needed. It had a hood, mittened sleeves, and socked feet. He didn’t even need boots or gloves! We did have a separate hat (with full ear coverage) that we often put on instead of the hood, but that was just a preference. Don’t worry :-). She’ll probably “weather” the cold better than you will :-D.

  8. Oh, and just as a foil for Tree’s comment, whether or not they will let you take Savannah through security in the carrier totally depends on who is operating the checkpoing. I’ve found it about half and half. Even when Hans was a tiny baby, they asked me to remove the carrier and carry him through without it about half the time (at least, actually).

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