Last year at this time, as New York was entering what would prove to be a sweltering, relentless summer of 90 degree days and off-the-charts humidity, my wife was bracing herself. Despite our plans to a) not have a Fall baby (Fall is already overloaded with holidays for us) and b) not be pregnant during the summer, both of those things were well past the point of no return. She was six months in and it was about to get unbearably hot.
Window units offer little respite from the heat in a NYC apartment building, especially one on the top floor. Summer was no picnic for totally un-pregnant, occasionally drunk me, I can only imagine how miserable it was for my totally super-pregnant, never-eve-close-to-drunk, constantly achy wife.
Thankfully, one year later and 8 months into parenthood, that’s all over. Except now we have a kid to worry about, with another hot summer on the horizon. Sigh.
Can babies melt?
As I said, it’s a year later and we’re bracing for what may be another hot-as-hell summer. My wife is obviously (thankfully!) not pregnant this time, but now that our baby is out and about (well, not so much with the “about,” he’s only 8 months), we have new concerns. Like keeping the kid cool. And I don’t just mean strapping on his wraparound shades. Although that definitely helps.
Being extremely hot or extremely cold is never fun, but in theory it’s easier to deal with the cold than the heat. When it’s cold, you can just keep layering on clothes. When it’s hot, you can get naked and that’s it. If you’re still hot, there’s not much else you can do, short of pulling a Hellraiser (which gives me a great idea for my son’s Halloween costume!), and babies can’t even pound a few cold ones to beat the heat.
On a positive note, babies love being naked. I assume. And it’s easy enough to get them there when all they sport is a onesie and a diaper. But they probably should keep the diaper on. No one needs to smell errant crap on a scorching summer day.
It’s our first summer with a baby, and though we’ve been taking swim lessons, the only pool we’ll have access to is a 2 hour train ride away and little help more than once a month. I have no idea how he’ll react to the heat. Maybe he’ll love it!
Or maybe we’ll need to sit him a bucket of ice the whole time. Can’t choke on ice!
