hi Mac,
you are spot on - all the books tell you that babies should be in 18-22 degrees celcius (to lower the chance of SIDs) and through much trial and error with our baby did we find the right combination of temperature/sleep clothes/etc....just a note though, that all babies are different, our son is a "hot" baby and gets flustered and irritable if he's too hot so adjust accordingly. At 4 weeks, our son was sleeping (in his own room) during the night in:
- 22 to 22.5 degrees celcius (aircon)
- in a long sleeve 100% cotton jumpsuit
- half swaddled in a 100% cotton (slightly stretchy) receiving blanket
- cot was completely bare (only mattress and sheet, no cot bumpers, toys, pillows etc)
During the day, the only difference is we'd put in in a short sleeve jumpsuit.
He was swaddled from day 1 for sleep but by about 3-3.5 weeks started to get really fustrated so we let him have one hand out (half swaddle). The minute they can wriggle out of their swaddle (for our son it was at 5-6 weeks), we put him in a 1.0 tog grobag as you don't want flaying arms to sweep the blanket up over his face or anything near that.
People have differing views on mittens (good to keep hands warm and prevent scratching) but it does hinder tactile exploration - I noticed that babies who are kept mitten free tend to have a better motor skills (I could be wrong as I'm no child development specialist), so keep trimming those nails if you decide to go mitten free!