Worried about March cold and no central heat

melleasndrs

Searched and didn't find this topic yet. I have been trying to fix up my living space. Me and my SO live in my father's unfinished basement at the moment and it gets really really really really cold during the winter. We normally use space heaters when home to help. We are in the process of putting plastic on the windows, making DIY cloth walls, and finding rugs for the cement. I'm so nervous about using space heaters to warm up our room with a newborn. I know they can dry out the air and is very hard to control the temperature to a set degree. Does anyone have any experience with no central heat and a newborn? I feel like I'm worrying for nothing and I should be fine with what I'm already doing.

Any advice or help is appreciated to so me from going super crazy 8-}

melleasndrs

megaugust10 said:

I was going to say about the humidifier as well. I learned if the air is cold you need warm if warm you need cold or it will dry the air out more. You could always try one of the electric fire places if you can find one cheap. My mil has one and it does put some heat out.

Hmm. I'm have to check that out I hope it's not too expensive.

drudolph11

Were about to move into a place that requires hearing oil to run the furnace which is super expensive which we have had before so to cut down on the oil usage we do use the space heaters but we also have standing portable radiators. Radiators use water to radiate the heat and that helps with the dryness and i will second the humidifier.

mangomimosa

I have no advice except carbon monoxide detectors & smoke alarms good luck!

janda426

Ditto all the recommendations above, and are you allowed to just chill upstairs during the day? So you don't have to heat the basement all day long and only worry about it at night? I think night is easier to stay warm with tons of blankets and warm pajamas.

ngolimento

You can put in a humidifier, but honestly humans are highly adaptable to arid conditions. There's more problems with worrying about mildew and mold in the humidifier than just letting the baby get used to dry air, IMO.

As far as heat, I'd just keep a thermometer next to the crib (or on it), but that is just me and my worrying.

JCWhitey

DS was born in the summer but in the middle of winter our heater crapped out on us and we had to use space heaters and dress him in fleece sleep sacks.  The combo worked out just fine!  We bought a nice infrared heater which I guess is supposed to be better and safer (at least the salesman at Home Depot told us that).  I was very happy with it.  The dogs could touch it, we could put clothes on it, etc. and it wouldn't cause harm.  

melleasndrs

Thanks for all the advice! I'm looking into humidifiers and that electric fireplace. I'm a little less worried at least.

crunchymamaof2

We had a freak snowstorm in October a couple years back and were without power for a week. We have one of those tower heaters and an electric fireplace. We used the heater with our generator and it kept the center of our home comfortable. We don't have an open floor plan otherwise I think it would have done really well for the entire house. We just moved it into our bedroom at night. The fireplace works really well too. That was about $200 IIRC.

Lark425

I don't have central heat either, have you looked into an Eden Pure? That might work well for the space.

lisap0924

chilibeansm0m said:

We don't have central heat. I had dd in jan. It was fuckin cold. I mean 25 degrees at the coldest part of night/early am. Her room does have a wall bar heater but it's super old and i don't trust it. We just dressed her warm. We always open her door at night too. IMO it isn't as bad as you think.

I know 25 isn't cold for some of you. I like the cold but that is cold for Californians!

25 is damn cold!
I'm in MA and we have rough cold winters! (My heat is currently on) and 25 is cold!

capulet

DD is an October baby.  Our first winter with her, we lived in a renovated carriage house in Connecticut - it was nice but it was basically a big open space with high ceilings and a lofted bedroom, super expensive to heat.  At night we usually set the thermostat to about 60 degrees, if that.  We layered DD in a onesie and/or a sleeper, a fleece sleep sack (I love the sleep sacks from Carters and used them for DS too even though we didn't have to worry as much about cold with him), and a hat.  She did just fine.  Too much heat increases the risk for SIDS anyway; you don't want your baby to be uncomfortable but just from that experience I think you're fine keeping your home at a somewhat lower temperature than most people are accustomed to.

melleasndrs

This is everything I needed to hear

crunchymamaof2

lisap0924 said:

We don't have central heat. I had dd in jan. It was fuckin cold. I mean 25 degrees at the coldest part of night/early am. Her room does have a wall bar heater but it's super old and i don't trust it. We just dressed her warm. We always open her door at night too. IMO it isn't as bad as you think. I know 25 isn't cold for some of you. I like the cold but that is cold for Californians!

25 is damn cold! I'm in MA and we have rough cold winters! (My heat is currently on) and 25 is cold!

Ma here too. I agree! The only reason we haven't cracked with the heat yet is because were having a wood stove installed next week.

stellarsoundz

crunchymamaof2 said:

lisap0924 said:

chilibeansm0m said:

We don't have central heat. I had dd in jan. It was fuckin cold. I mean 25 degrees at the coldest part of night/early am. Her room does have a wall bar heater but it's super old and i don't trust it. We just dressed her warm. We always open her door at night too. IMO it isn't as bad as you think.

I know 25 isn't cold for some of you. I like the cold but that is cold for Californians!

25 is damn cold!
I'm in MA and we have rough cold winters! (My heat is currently on) and 25 is cold!

Ma here too. I agree! The only reason we haven't cracked with the heat yet is because were having a wood stove installed next week.

Ma here too... I am still sleeping with my bedroom window cracked though. I did have DH take the air conditioner out this week though.

tabitha722

This AZ girl is going to back on out of here... 25 degrees... this stuff is nonsense!

JCWhitey

chilibeansm0m said:

We don't have central heat. I had dd in jan. It was fuckin cold. I mean 25 degrees at the coldest part of night/early am. Her room does have a wall bar heater but it's super old and i don't trust it. We just dressed her warm. We always open her door at night too. IMO it isn't as bad as you think. I know 25 isn't cold for some of you. I like the cold but that is cold for Californians!

I was totally going to say you must be in California.   I've lived in California the past 10 years and feel so spoiled with winter.  We actually had SNOW (the horror!) in Chico last winter and everyone was freaking out about it.  It didn't even make it to the ground before it melted.  The little raised-in-Minnesotan in me was cracking up.  But now I'm back in MN and really dreading winter!  Ugh, I miss it when 25 degrees was "freezing cold" and not "warm sweater weather!".