From the beginning of a child’s life it’s important to introduce adaptability. The ability to adapt to their surroundings and situations is something that is going to make your life much easier. Our kids are both May babies, so what that means is they were born right before camping season. A lot of moms would tell me to keep the infant home and to lay low the first couple months. However, with our love of camping and outdoors that really wasn’t a possibility. My oldest has slept in a bassinet near me , a pack n play set up between the dinette seats, and now a bunk. She is fully versatile and has the ability to sleep in any situation.
Now I’m not saying it’s always easy. Camping can make for some tired babies who get FOMO (fear of missing out). However, once we convince her it’s time for bed she will make herself comfortable in her surroundings which is what you need. This will take different amounts of times for different kids. My daughter Norah goes a mile a minute so it was a little easier to convince her it was time to take a nap in a new place. My son Easton likes to fight with every ounce of his being to stay awake so he doesn’t miss out.
Some suggestions I have are below:
#1) especially for the first couple trips, make sure to keep similar items that your child would have in their room , crib or bed at home in the area they will be sleeping in. This helps them understand that this, although different, has the same things happen as they do at home. This could come in the form of a sound machine, blanket, pillow, stuffed animal, etc.
When bringing these items in, it helps the child know whats expected of them in that room, even though it’s a different space.
#2) Do a trial run. This was something we didn’t do for our daughters first camping trip of the season when she graduated from the pack- n-play to the bunk, and we sure wish we had. We were assuming that she would have been comfortable enough in the camper, but that was not the case. My husband spent all night trying to get her to sleep in that bunk and ended up sleeping with her at one point as well.
#3) Don’t get stressed. Some parents will sit there and dwell on the fact that they didn’t do it sooner and it would have been easier if they would have started when their child was young. I am here to tell you, its all hard. Wether the kids is 1 or 5, its still going to be an obstacle you are going to have to overcome.
#4) Comfort comfort comfort. Making sure your kids can sleep and stay asleep in the camper will directly result in how comfortable they are most of the time. One of our recent purchases below was something that was a complete game changer. Both of our kids have now slept in the pack n play quite consistently on our little adventures. Unfortunately for my daughter, she always slept on the uncomfortable /thin pack n pay mattress. Knowing my son is a little more picky about sleep, I didn’t take the chance of not upgrading. We ended up buying this exact mattress and it was exactly what we needed. It fit right in the pack n play and was ready to use. Make sure to click the link below to check it out!
Dream On Me Mini Crib mattress
Overall, it does become a lot of trial and error or successes and failures, but once you get that adaptability in your little ones life , you will begin to have more relaxation in your camping trip!