Camping with a baby

In my last post, I wrote about our experience taking Max to Cosmic Honey for a camping party weekend. When I drafted that post it got very long because I was trying to talk about everything related to partying with a baby AND being prepared for a camping weekend. So instead, I decided to split the post in two. 

Steve and I both enjoy camping so we didn’t want that to stop just because we have a baby who needs to nap a lot. Our first trip with him was when he was 4 months old. Now he’s 18 months, and has recently transitioned to one nap per day. I’m hopeful that our next trip will be a little easier! 

It’s not always going to be easy, and if you go camping with your young child they probably won’t get as much sleep as they usually would. But they’ll have so much fun outdoors, it will be way worth the hassle! 

Practice makes perfect

I just wanted to shout out to the fact that our first camping trip with Max was in July 2020, he was 4 months old. I told Steve, we have to practice. So the weekend before our trip, we camped in the backyard. It was July 4th weekend. While we watched the neighborhood fireworks from the hot tub in our backyard, Max slept peacefully in the tent all night, both nights.

We set out by purchasing a new tent that would be big enough for us, the dog, and a bed for Max. It’s an 8-person tent! Whenever our friends remark on how huge our tent is Steve loves to say “I’m a family man now, I have a family tent!”

We didn’t just sleep in the tent at night, we did everything in the backyard - diaper changes, eating, and also napping. We used his stroller with the bassinet attachment, it was like a little bed for him. It was pretty warm during the day too, so that was our first experience of trying to figure out what he should wear when napping in the elements. 

At the time he was still being swaddled and that could be too hot for him in the warm weather. So we tried keeping him swaddled but naked and running a fan on him. He definitely napped less, and that trend of shorter naps when he’s outdoors has continued. But it doesn’t seem to be a big problem for him. 

At that first camping trip we took with friends we would bring the stroller down to the water with us and he’d nap while we all hung out, played music, and talked. Except one day I had him nap in a baby carrier on my chest, and I had to keep walking for him to stay asleep --so I just walked in circles in the shade. 

Things are easier now for him to nap, except when we’re somewhere really hot. We just know to expect that naps will be tricky and at worst we take a long drive with him.

All great trips start in the car

Long road trips with a toddler are not the most fun. Max is such a wiggle worm, he hardly is still, even for a minute! Being in a car for longer than 40 minutes can be really hard for him  - and for us, because he starts to cry.

"Oh well, may as well stay home then," you might think.... but NO!

We time our departure with his naps or, if we can, with night time sleep. We can get a lot of miles down with a sleeping baby. He usually sleeps for about an hour, a maximum of 1.5 hour, during the day in the car. It helps if he has spent a lot of time walking around outside before we leave; any activity that tires him out. When we go to Cosmic Honey, it’s only about 3 hours away, so we can get most of the way there before he wakes up. 

Sometimes he wakes up before the end of the journey, in that case one of us jumps in the back seat to provide him snacks and entertainment. Easy snacks, like bananas, baby crackers, fruit & veg pouches help distract him from the torture that is not being able to roam around the car. Steve is the expert at slowly delivering tiny bite size pieces to make a quick snack last a good 20 minutes. 

While on the East Coast in July we did a lot of car trips seeing family and friends. We discovered which toys were great at holding his attention. Trust me, every baby should have this, also a box of individually wrapped tea bags was a big winner (any brand). 

If we’re able to, driving at night is the best option, but harder when camping because setting up a tent in the dark is not fun. When we’re staying at an airbnb or hotel, we’ll leave right around 7pm, Max’s usual bedtime and he will sleep all the way in the car. When we transfer him into his bed he wakes up a little but usually falls back asleep very quickly. 

Location, Location, Location

When we arrive at our campsite, we need to figure out the best place to set up our tent based on the movement of the sun. It is important to get the right shade in the afternoon to keep the tent a little cooler for Max’s afternoon nap and his bedtime. At Cosmic Honey, there’s not a lot of shade so we try to find whatever we can!

As we set up camp and unload the car, we usually sit Max down on a picnic blanket in the shade. The first few times we camped, he just sat watching us and looking around, content to be still in a new place. Max wasn’t walking independently at that time, and he learned quickly that the ground was hard and full of prickly things. Instead of crawling off, he preferred to wait until we had a hand to walk him around.

Now that he walks, it’s a little harder. Sometimes one parent, or a friend who is with us, can watch Max while the other sets up. One time we put up his pack ‘n’ play outside and stuck him in there with toys and a few books. He was happy enough to watch us set up from there!

Getting Sleep Right

Any parent could talk at length about their baby’s nap schedule and sleeping habits. It can be really tricky for some kids to learn to fall asleep independently, or to learn to go back to sleep after a sleep cycle. 

At home, Max's room is so small it doesn't fit a full-size crib, or really even a mini crib. Instead he sleeps in a pack n’ play, a collapsible playpen that can also be used as a bed. It’s great that the bed we travel with is the same as the one he sleeps in at home, it makes it more familiar and easier for him to feel comfortable. 

A critical thing to think about was how to make it comfortable and shady enough that Max could fall asleep for his morning and afternoon naps. At most of the campsites we’ve gone to in California the mornings are still cool enough for him to nap. But by the afternoon most places warm up enough that it can be too hot in a tent for him. 

On our latest trip to Cosmic Honey it was just way too hot in the tent for him to take his afternoon nap. We ended up putting him in a room in the house, which was perfect. Steve and Henry (the property owner) have talked about building a structure for shaded nap space somewhere on the property. This would be for both the kids and adults to enjoy! 

We have tried two other shade solutions. One was to purchase an aluminum shade. We didn’t have time to plan out how to hang it over the tent, but just draping it over seemed to help cut some of the heat. 

The second was to purchase a tent with blackout technology. These tents are designed to block sunlight and reduce heat on the inside. We haven’t used it at Cosmic Honey, so I don’t know yet how good it will be at keeping out the heat. But, we did use it at Mount Tam, a more shady and much cooler place. I can say that it is SUPER dark in there. So dark it’s actually hard to do things like, get dressed. Luckily there’s a window to let in light during the day, but even then it’s still pretty dim in there.

Did Max like it? Hard to tell. The first night we arrived he went to bed later than usual and cried a lot. He also woke up at 11pm crying, which is very unusual. I wondered if he was getting too cold, or if he woke up from a sleep cycle and was scared by how dark it was in there. He also took over an hour to fall asleep the second night. After a full day in the sunshine and being active outdoors, he usually passes out easily. We wondered if it was the new tent that he was having issues with. 

The great sleeping bag shuffle

Young babies are not meant to have a blanket in bed with them until they’re over one year old. This is to reduce the risk of the baby getting caught up in the blanket and potentially suffocating. From birth we swaddled Max for his sleep, his arms were tight against him. By four or five months he could turn himself over so his arms needed to be free. At that time we switched to a sleep sack. It’s a wearable blanket, so they don’t get caught up in it.

A major struggle I’ve always had, whether inside the house or outdoors camping, is knowing whether I’ve over or under dressed him for sleep. For many reasons I won't get into, our baby monitor displays the temperature, but it’s inaccurate and cannot be trusted! The amount of times I’ve crawled into his bedroom in the middle of the night with his duck-shaped bath thermometer (works with water or air) to see what the temperature was… sigh. 

Annoyingly, in most of the places we’ve camped, the weather often drops 10 degrees or more during the night. We had to buy two baby sleeping bags. When he goes to bed we put him in pajamas and his first sleeping bag, which works for 57-69F. Then, by the time I’m going to bed a few hours later I pick him up and gently switch him into his heavier sleeping bag, which works for 20F-60F. 

“Gently switch him” involves trying to lie him down on something soft, not the cold hard floor.   Then I try to quietly unzip the sleeping bag, pull and push his legs & arms around, place him on top of the heavier bag and zip him back up without waking him up too much. All, by the way, without much light. I have to skillfully place the headlamp in a position to help me see what I’m doing but not blind the poor child. 

If I’m lucky, he wakes up enough to look at me but falls right back to sleep again.  If I’m not lucky, he just sits up when he’s back in the pack n’ play, maybe whines a little, and at worst cries until I cuddle him back to sleep. It’s rarely the latter. More often than not, he goes back to sleep easily.

I always worry about Max’s head when we’re camping. All the blogs and articles I’ve read recommend they wear a hat. But every time I put one on his head it comes right off. He’s a sleep wriggler, like his dad! I wake up throughout the night and touch his head and cheeks. He’s always comfortable. 

 

To make myself feel like I’m helping, we place a curtain over the pack n’ play, imagining it reduces the wind coming into the sides and gives him a little roof to keep some warmth in. It doesn’t fit the whole pack n’ play, and Max always seems to sleep on the open side of the bed! But he always wakes up bright and happy and well rested the next morning.

Fueling our little camper

A key thing to camping with a baby is having well thought out, easy and quick meals that they love and will definitely eat. I created a spreadsheet that has a menu for our camping trips, we eat the same thing each time we go. Max eats the same thing every day, Steve and I usually mix up our dinners and breakfasts. We take a cooler with us, and have our own camping stove.

Here’s Max’s camping menu:

Breakfast: Yogurt mixed with oat-based baby cereal and blueberries 

Lunch: cream cheese and salmon on bread, cut up cherry tomatoes, clementines.

Dinner: Veggie Mac & Cheese (it’s mac & cheese with carrots, peas, mushrooms mixed in) 

For snacks we have cucumber, yogurt, raspberries, squeeze pouches of various fruit & veg combinations, and special crackers I make, similar to Goldfish but with pumpkin puree. 

We don't have a highchair at home, we use a Bumbo seat, which attaches to any chair. At home Max eats at the table, like the rest of us. The Bumbo seat is easy to take with us when we go camping, so we can sit Max down and use the attached tray for his table. He knows that it's his eating chair, which I think helps makes the unusual outside trip a little more normal. It also helps him sit still and not touch the dirty ground after cleaning his hands! Side Note - bring plenty of wipes and baby hand sanitizer (like this).

Steve and I recently reorganized all our camping equipment into a “ready to go” state. We put all our staple dry foods into one bin, and all of our general kitchen equipment into another. Except, we make sure we have everything we need for breakfast in one bin. It’s important to Steve that he can wake up, grab one bin, make coffee and Max’s breakfast plus our breakfast (yogurt and granola) without having to search around for everything.

It works great and when we’ve been camping with our roommates they’ve been extremely impressed by how organized we are and how we have everything one could need while camping!

For any parent interested in camping with your baby or toddler, I definitely recommend practicing at home first if you can! Or at least a campsite not far from home, so you can leave if you really need to. 

Things you might need:

• Tent with blackout technology.

• Pack ‘n’ play for bed.

• Layers for night time! (These two sleeping bags)

• Easy meals & snacks (the stuff they love!)

• Wipes & sanitizer

• Shade to play/eat under (could even be a popup carport)

• Bin bag for dirty diapers (if you don't have east access to trash facilities)