Getting Through The Summer Heatwave - Discovering Parenthood

KICKING OFF SUMMER WITH A HEATWAVE

We were definitely not ready to be kicking off summer with a heatwave. What was that about? BC was breaking records it didn’t want to break. I haven’t experienced these temperatures since our trip to Disneyland almost five years ago. We were reaching 42C and feeling like it was much hotter. Where we live, we aren’t really prepared for weather like this. The majority of homes do not have central air conditioning. If you have a portable AC it is really only strong enough for that one room. Thankfully, we have managed to get through this heatwave. We’ll see what the rest of summer vacation has to throw at us.

WHAT WE DID TO TRY AND STAY COOL

There are a few things we did to try and stay cool through this.

Tinfoil on some of our windows. This became a huge TikTok trick and many started doing it. Now, after doing it, it was mentioned to us that it would warp our windows and the window frames. But at this point, we just needed to do anything to try and cool the rooms down.
Lots and lots of water. We were making sure everyone was drinking water before they even felt thirsty. We also got electrolytes to add to the water since we were all sweating so much.
Getting outside early. My husband was amazing in making sure the girls got outside early in the morning when it was the “coolest” out. They were able to go to the park and play and get home before it got too hot out.
Fans and AC. We have two portable AC units but can only use one at a time in the bedrooms or a breaker goes. This resulted in the baby sleeping in the packnplay and the older girls sleeping on the floor in our room. We could run an AC and have a fan going to cool the room. We all finally got some sleep once we switched to this.* You can see the temperature in Orie’s room before we switched to this method in the baby monitor photo below*
Pool time. Thankfully Jason had bought a kiddy pool on clearance last year. It has been put to good use. Including late evening dips to cool off before bed.
Gel ice packs and misting fans. On the same trip to Disneyland almost 5 years ago, we bought a misting fan. It has definitely gotten its money’s worth. We use it in the house, in the car, when outside. It’s amazing how a mist of cold water can help cool you down. I also got several gel ice packs years ago. We put them in our pillowcases at night and to use during the day.
Spray down the house. At this point, we were will to try all sorts of tricks. One suggestion was to spray down the house and windows near the room you want to sleep in.