Tips for camping with a baby

A lot of people thought I was nuts to try and go camping with a six month old. The idea of it made me nervous too. So much stuff! How will she sleep? But there are few things my husband enjoys more, and I know he reallllllly wants Avery to enjoy camping {unlike her mother} as she grows up. So I thought, why not?

Here are some helpful tips for camping with a baby...

1. Leave during nap time: Idyllwild is about 2.5 hours from us. We decided it would be best to leave when she was getting ready to go down for a nap any way so she'd sleep for most of the trip. Much more peaceful for baby...and parents.

2. Bring a Pack n' Play: We knew we needed to bring something we could set her down in. We went back and forth between her exersaucer, her rock n' play and her stroller. All of these things took up too much room. We busted out the Pack n' Play for the first time and we were so stoked on how small it is when it's all folded up. Avery LOVED hanging out in it, and it was nice for us to be able to set her down when we needed free hands. 
Plus this doubled as her bed, which we put in our tent at night.

3. Bring husband to put together said Pack n' Play: Just kidding, sort of. I almost always have Brandon put together Avery's various toys/swings/seats etc. but the Pack n' Play was so easy even I could do it ;-)

4. Bring easy foods! With all the stuff we had to bring, we wanted to limit the amount of ingredients we'd have to pack. We wanted to keep it simple. Hotdogs don't get any easier. We also brought pringles, stuff for breakfast burritos, sodas, water, cookies. Very nutritious meals ;-) You could always bring sliced fruit, veggies, string cheese, crackers, stuff for sandwiches, etc. Avery is still super simple as far as food is concerned. Our campground was private enough to nurse her whenever we wanted. We also brought along some baby food (peas) and Super Puffs which we give her when we eat so she feels like she's partaking.

5. Bring a baby carrier. We didn't have the space to pack her stroller, so we used her baby carrier to walk around the campground. If you want to go on any hikes, strolls, etc. a carrier can come in handy since it gets tiring holding a chubby baby :-)

6. Turn off phones and enjoy time together. Enough said.

7. Never underestimate the appeal of water bottles and pots and pans. I lugged a bunch of Avery's toys with me and she wanted nothing to do with them. We gave her an empty water bottle and a few pots and pans and she banged on them for over an hour.

8. Take a family picture. I almost always have the camera out, but very rarely remember to set up the self-timer and get a family shot. Great one for the baby book!

9. It's okay not to match :-) Polka dots and cheetah? Why not. No headbands and bows, this is camping after all.

**Most of all, be flexible. We brought a sound machine (ipod and speakers) to put in the tent while she slept. Since she goes down so early (7 pm) we wanted to drown out any noises from other campers. It worked like a dream for a few hours. Unfortunately, a pretty rowdy group in the campsite next to us got louder and louder as the night went on, and after the third time of Avery waking up crying, Brandon packed it all up and we headed home! It sounded like they were having a great time and we didn't want to rain on anyone's parade. But we also didn't want to ruin our daughter's night sleep (especially since she's sleeping 12 hours every night and I don't want to mess up a good thing!) **