Camping with Babies, Part 2

Sleep is such an important part of camping and baby life that it deserves its own post! In Part 1, we cover things like hygiene, bugs and planning. Part 2 is all about getting some z’s. My hope is that these two posts can give you the info you need to get out camping! This is the info I wish I had before embarking on our first trip.

Baby sleep when camping depends very much on what you do for baby sleep at home. Similar to at home, there is no one way to do it. For this reason, I’ve written some general guidelines but have also included quotes from other camping parents.  Just like all parts of parenting, we do our best as we go, remembering that things are constantly changing. Trust yourself and remember that babies are adaptable.

Start Here: How do you sleep at home?

There seems to be two general approaches to sleep; although, if you’re like my family, it’s often a mix of both.

The first option is co-sleeping. This is sleeping on the same surface as your baby (following the Safe 7) and this works very well when camping.  You can monitor your babies temperature, you can nurse them and no extra equipment is needed and it takes less space. However, sometimes this can mean getting a horrible sleep because everyone is wiggling all night, waking each other up.

The second option is where the baby has their own sleep surface. This could be a travel crib, pea pod or sleeping pad. This option can allow for times for the baby to be sleeping in the tent without you and it can mean a better sleep if your baby is used to having their own space. However, it requires bringing extra stuff and takes up more room in the tent.

Here you can see our baby, fast asleep in the pea pod.

I have used both these approaches and like them both. I like to co-sleep when our babies are young or if I’m backpacking and can’t carry extra gear. However, once the babies are older and sleeping on their own surface at home, and we’re car camping, I like to bring something extra for them to sleep in, like a pea pod or travel crib. But, I still will pull them beside me for snuggles when they wake up in the early dawn hours.

I love a good snuggle.

If the baby is nursing at night, the easiest option is to side-lie nurse. This is the most comfortable for the mama and keeps the heat in. If mama or baby need to be upright, I recommend a chair like this. On one trip, we put the cooler against the side of the tent so I had something to lean against.

If you’re used to white noise at home, and even if you aren’t, I recommend these portable white noise machines that help drown out the noises of other people at camp or loud birds. Bring a battery bank to charge it.

Whatever you choose, try to introduce your baby to it at home. Set up the tent and let the baby familiarize with the mattress or pea pod or whatever you’ll be using. I found this really helpful (when I remembered to do it).

What does baby wear?

Similar to camping, the key is layers. When you put the baby to sleep, it’s good to layer them up a bit, but not so much that they will sweat. You can always add a layer if they get cold in the night. If you are co-sleeping, you can skip the sleep sac and possibly the fleece, too.

During the summer (depending on temperature), I put my baby in a wool baselayer, a fleece onesie and then a wool sleepsac. I also have a Morrison sleeping bag for cooler temperatures.  These bags are great for a safe and cozy sleep option. (For a discount, use WONDEROUTDOOR). A bunting can work great, too.

Our older son (no longer a baby) in his Morrison Outdoor sleeping bag.

What about naps?

I’ve had good success with my baby napping in a pea pod, once they understand that it’s a place they sleep. But, if that doesn’t work or I want to be on the move or away from camp, carriers, backpacks or chariots/strollers are great options.

What’s the key?  

In my mind, the key is flexibility and expectation. Bring some items for familiarity, but remember that babies are so adaptable and you can settle right back into your routine when you get home. Try not to fixate on sleep and expect it to NOT BE GOOD. Then you will be pleasantly surprised when it goes better than you expect. Also, it WILL get better; babies learn fast. As you can see from the excerpts below, while the strategies are all a bit different, all the parents are problem solving to meet everyone’s needs.

My first backpacking trip with a baby. A friend and I hiked our babies and all our gear to this beautiful spot to sleep for the night. Not the best sleep but totally worth it for moments like these.

Here’s more from other mamas…

From Katie… “Our first two camping trips with our little one, River, were when he was 7 and 8 months old. Sleeping in the tent together has probably been the biggest challenge for us as a camping family, but then again adjusting to sleep with a baby is generally a challenge! Before kids, we used two therm-a-rests, and for our trips that summer, we kept using those for the grownups, and brought a foam pad for River. We bundled him in jammies, a fleece snowsuit, and a sleep sack for sleeping. These nights were pretty rough. He's still not an amazing sleeper to this day, (now two years old) and was quite wakeful on both of these trips. When he'd wake up to nurse in the night, I'd bring him onto my sleeping pad, and eventually, when he was finished eating or when I'd fall back asleep, he'd roll off my inflatable pad onto his (much lower) foam pad and wake up. So ahead of last summer, we purchased a double inflatable mattress, so River and I could sleep and snuggle on the same level. When he was 18 months old last summer, we just tucked him under my open sleeping bag in his regular jammies, and would pack a cotton fitted sheet to cover the mattress. A few tips I've learned: pack a favourite stuffy or two and extra pacifiers if you use them, and remember books! We had to buy kids' magazines at a general store before one trip when we forgot them.” @katiejoyfindlay

From Emily… “When our baby was 3 months old, we just brought his baby box (from Baby Box Co.) in the tent because we were car camping. Then at 4 months we did our first 5 day hike (the Juan de Fuca) and he slept in his Pea Pod inside our big tent with us. He wasn’t used to it yet, so I often lay beside him until he was asleep or had the door unzipped, and my arm in the pea pod with him. We were still swaddling him at this point and that familiarity helped. Since then, we’ve been being his Pea Pod on all our camping trips  Now, at 20 months, he loves his pea pod and he knows we are going camping or on an adventure whenever we bring it out. He easily falls asleep in it, and we often cover it with a lightweight black sheet until he falls asleep, or if the weather is cold (making sure he still has enough ventilation!). The Pea Pod is slightly wider than a sleeping pad, so our three-person tent does feel a little small, I think we will upgrade to a four-person tent this summer.” @emilyonanadventure

From Krista… “Around the time that Jo turned three, I counted how many nights she had spent camping, and came up with something like 60 nights between frontcountry tent, backcountry tent, truck camper and camper van. For the vast majority of those nights, my primary concern has been keeping her warm. Which, I know, is not relatable to all parents, depending on location, but it's definitely the thing I put the most thought and effort into so it will comprise the majority of my advice/strategies below. 

Jo's first night camping was when she was five weeks old. She was born five weeks early, so gestationally, it was like she was brand-spanking new, and she still only weighed seven pounds. It was early May in the Colorado mountains, and we were in our old truck camper with no heater, and it was around 30-32 degrees at night. She slept on a dock-a-tot next to me. I had plenty of warm clothes for her, but she was way too small for most of them. Even at home, I was worried about her suffocating, but even more so when I was trying to bundle her up in warm clothes and blankets that were way too big for her. I got through the two nights by basically not sleeping at all, so that I could make sure she was breathing. 0/10, do not recommend taking a 7-pound infant camping on a 30-degree night. But I do still recommend taking kids camping early! Like maybe two or three months old :) 

I've heard stories from multiple friends who had similarly awful/sleepless nights outdoors with their babies or toddlers, and some of them threw in the towel -- getting a hotel room, packing up and driving home, and/or not camping again for a long, long time afterward. If I can offer any advice, it's not to do this! Stick it out. Be prepared to not get much sleep for the first night or two. But kids are SUPER adaptable and if you keep camping it will become normal to them and they'll be totally fine with it. If you give up and don't camp again until they're five, they may have an even harder time adapting then. 

For her first year, we kept Jo warm while sleeping with a synthetic or wool base layer,  then a fleece layer, then a hand-me-down Patagonia down bunting (this discontinued model, which I like so much more than the modern model, because the legs zip together to make it sorta sleeping-bag-like), and a wool hat and wool socks on both her hands and feet. She used the dock-a-tot until about six months, and then we put her on a very old, very well-used Thermarest that we folded in half to make it more her size.  I still woke up constantly to check if she was warm and to breastfeed her. I made sure to wear shirts that were breastfeeding compatible so that I didn't have to have too much exposed skin at night.

Other than that, we've found that Jo doesn't require much in the way of specialized gear. She's never been a super deep sleeper, but just like Jesse and I, she seems to sleep best when outdoors, especially if we're near a stream or river and it's just a little bit chilly :)” @krista_lee_langlois

If you’ve made it this far, don’t delay!  Make a list, pick a trip (even if it’s your backyard!) and give it a go. Before you know it, you’ll be giving other parents advice about how you made it work.