8 Things Nobody Mentioned about Raising a Baby During a Texas Summer

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It’s hot outside. We all know this. Morning showers have been rendered obsolete. Only five minutes outside can trick your body into thinking it’s on fire, and the only way to put out the flames is to produce gallons upon gallons of sweat.  And not just from your underarms, noooooo. Your head sweats. You can feel it collecting at your hairline the moment you walk outside. There’s sweat between your fat rolls and in areas you didn’t even know could produce it.

Before baby, this was no big deal. Sure it was annoying, but after a few minutes of cooling down in your car or while walking around Target, you were ready to go along your merry way. But not after baby. Now there are two sweaty things and suddenly your comfort isn’t a priority anymore.

8 Things Nobody Mentioned about Raising a Baby During a Texas Summer- Orange Grove Temperature Sign- Corpus Christi Moms Blog

1. Your car is a constant fire ball that you have to quickly jump into. Loading up a baby is serious business. All those straps and clips take time. Factor in a hot car and groceries and it becomes a hot mess. What do you do first? Turn on the car and strap in baby? Strap in baby then turn on car? You never want to leave your child exposed in a parking lot, but placing them into a steaming, humidity filled car with an internal heat of 500 degrees seems like borderline child abuse. Standing outside waiting for the car to cool isn’t the best option either since you are still at the mercy of the sun. That’s when an upgrade to a “push-to-start” vehicle  starts to seem like the best idea ever.

2. Baby sweats a lot. I didn’t know that was a thing babies did so proficiently at a young age. The poor guy will have a sizable sweat stain on his back after about an hour of outdoor/shopping activity. Why? Because A) The car is a fireball and B) The car seat is basically a baby toaster oven.

3. The car seat is a necessary yet cruel punishment. Besides being super heavy and a pain to unload and carry across a hot parking lot, that thing is like a Hot Pocket jacket. It retains all the heat and slowly heats your baby, creating a sweaty mess. All that padding is necessary for safety, but you can tell by the full body sweat stain that your baby feels miserable.

4. You have to finish all of your errands before noon. After a few disastrous trips that ended in tears for both of you, you decide that getting all of your errands done before the hottest part of the day is the best choice. Do you really want to unload a baby, stroller, and diaper bag five times a day? Nope. While having the cruel, unforgiving sun beating down on you? Double nope.

5. Is my child even getting enough AC? Since young children are rear facing in their car seats, I seriously question how much cold air he is actually getting. Because he wasn’t that sweaty and red when I loaded him up after grocery shopping and all we did was drive home.

8 Things Nobody Mentioned about Raising a Baby During a Texas Summer- Miserably Hot Baby- Corpus Christi Moms Blog

6. Planning for an outdoor event is madness. Did you remember to pack the: sunscreen, bug spray, baby sunglasses, floppy hat, second floppy hat, swimsuit, swimming diapers, normal diapers, bottle/water/formula, baby food, change of clothes, towel, and extra blanket? Some mornings I don’t remember if I’ve washed my face, so how am I supposed to remember everything he needs to stay happy and healthy?

7. Let’s find somewhere cool and live there for the next five hours. When staying at home is driving you crazy, sometimes you just have to go out and see that other adults still exist. Hoping from place to place doesn’t seem like a fun option, so let’s go camp out at the children’s play place at the mall until dad gets home.

8. You helplessly realize that summer begins in April and ends in October. To the rest of the world, summer started on June 20th, but who are we kidding? Summer in Texas starts around Easter and won’t go anywhere just because the calendar says it’s Fall. So enjoy sweating your tails off in those Halloween costumes, because we won’t see notably cooler weather until Christmas.