Moms of winter babies

What are the pros of having a winter baby?

What kinds of things did you do during your maternity leave with your newborn? Did you feel like you couldn't really get out much?

Re: Moms of winter babies

honestly i have a winter baby and a summer baby. I had pretty bad baby blues with the winter baby. I was in the house all the time. I was too scared to bring out cause of the weather, amd cause of cold and flu season. With the summer baby i had a MUCH better time. thats jmo. I might have had a harder time with my winter baby cause she was my first. That may have come into play also.

Re: Moms of winter babies

My baby was born in December. Since we had been TTC for quite awhile, we were absolutely delighted to have a baby. I really didn't think much about the time of year he would be born in until later.

I guess the plusses are as follows:

*You are at your biggest during pregnancy when it is cool out--foot and ankle swelling wasn't as bad for me either
*Staying inside and getting R & R is attractive. Honestly, the first few weeks were such a blur, it wouldn't matter to me what it was like outside. All I wanted to do was care for my baby and sleep.
*You can get away with big baggy clothes in your early post partum days. Not much of a plus, but hey!

It's a little harder to get out--we were warned not to take DC into really crowded places until he was about 2 months, and we did stick to this since it was winter and a lot of people were sick. I did take DS for walks pretty early on this winter though, and we went to some less crowded stores. It's fine to take baby for walks as long as he/she is bundled up and it's not really frigid out.

It would have been easier to have a spring or summer baby in some ways, but I wouldn't trade my winter baby for the world.

Re: Moms of winter babies

Oh, one other plus. Since he was born in early December, my maternity leave got stretched out a bit because of all the winter holidays. If he was born in spring or summer, this would not have been the case.

Re: Moms of winter babies

dd was due dec 1st and came Nov 26.
The benfits were that I worked all the way until Thanksgiving, thought I was coming back, and during that vacation it became my maternity leave. I was off for the whole holiday season which was nice. I took the baby at 4 weeks to Florida so in the end we were in warm weather anyhow.

Re: Moms of winter babies

I agree with the above poster, (my baby is a December baby too). But I just wanted to add that around the time that your baby wants to play and is big enough to do more, it will be nicer out. So you will be inside when the baby doesnt really have anything to play with outside or at a park anyway and as soon as the baby is ready for more, you will have a whole bunch of new things to do in the nicer weather.
ETA: Also our doctor suggested not bringing the baby into public or crowded places for the first 2 months...it makes it alot easier to not do that when the weather isnt nice anyway.
Im a January baby myself, and I always LOVED my birthday.

Message edited 4/16/2008 10:57:04 AM.

Re: Moms of winter babies

my DD was born Jan 2...we get a year off here so its kinda perfect because this summer she will be able to go outside more...it is kind of hard right now...i want to go outside so badly but its still pretty cold!
i dont have anything to compare it to, but i dont mind a winter baby at all...i would like a march-april baby next time but we shall see!

Re: Moms of winter babies

My DD was born 11/10. I am a winter baby myself (January) and have always HATED it all of my life. I am not a winter person and remember many birthday parties getting cancelled due to snow/weather. I love spring/summer. So, I was happy my DD was at least still kinda fall. But it was tough getting through the winter stuck inside so much. I definitely would prefer that baby #2 is born in spring/summer/early fall. Sorry - you wanted pros. hmmmmm...Well, when the weather turned nice, DD was old enough for me to go out without worrying about germs, etc. And we had a really great spring/summer/fall with her. She was at such a fun age, was finally sleeping through the night.

Re: Moms of winter babies

Jacob was born 11/27. During maternity leave I was able to actually take him out for walks because there were a lot of days that were mild. Other than that it was a difficult on the days that it was too cold to go out. I had very bad PPD and the weather sure didnt help! I actually like how his birthday falls out around Thanksgiving and the holidays.

Re: Moms of winter babies

I loved having a winter baby. I am probably in the minority. I wanted a summer baby but got pregnant rather quickly so he wound up coming just before Christmas.

I thought it was great that I had a newborn and didnt have to take him out of the house in the bad weather if I didnt want to (being I was on leave)
My ped told me to take him wherever I wanted right away but to try to keep people from touching him and getting in his face. So we went to target a lot, BRU, Costco, basically wherever. (and knock on wood DS has never even had a runny nose in his 4 months of life)
I like being inside in the winter so even if I didnt go out for a few days I really didnt get stir crazy.
My favorite is that by this summer he will be 6 months so it will really be a fun summer with him. When they are first born as much as you want to do things, there isnt much you can do because you are tired, recovering and still getting used to a new baby and they are kinda unpredictable. So you never know when they will want to eat, sleep, etc. So you may be able to take walks and go out more, but I like the idea that my first summer with my baby he will be really interactive and enjoying his world. I think if I had a newborn then I would have gotten stir crazy because honestly there are some days with a NB that its just really hard to even get dressed not to mention get out of the house.
The only think I dont like is that parties either have to be inside my house or at a place, not backyard bbqs. But thats not a big deal. (both DH and I are winter babies as well)
My next child I would plan (even though my plan didnt work out this time) to be born between Feb and May.

Re: Moms of winter babies

The downside of a winter baby for me was I did get "Cabin Fever".
It was so hard not being able to get out. I honestly would pray for a snow storm so DH could stay home and I had company. LOL.

The pluses: Even though I didn't go back to work, I ended my work days right before the holidays.
Baggy Clothes
Just vegging out on the cold days.