Ruby Goes Camping: Part 1 - Camping

This post is a little late. Ruby is now 10 months old, but back when she was only 5 months old John and I decided to take her on her first camping trip. John and I are paleontologists, and recently my husband has been studying trilobites. For the past few years we have been traveling around the western US collecting these 520 million year old fossils. For the past three years we have been going to the Mojave Desert to collect in the Marble Mountains. As March approached we just figured we would go, as always. There was just the small detail of the 5 month old to think of. Being the rookie first time parents we are, we just figured we would pack Ruby up and just go for it like always. It was only a 12 hour drive after all. People have asked us about the trip, and how it went, so I will be posting a series on our adventures in first time camping with a baby: things we learned, things that worked for us, things that didn't, ect.....

Cushy camp

The Campsite: The campsite where we always stay is not really a campsite that most people would think of. It is a rock covered alluvial fan, with no electricity, no table, no shade, no water, no bathrooms, no trash service - what some people call "primitive." This does not phase us one bit. We did not even realize it was primitive camping until we got home and someone told us we were nuts. While we were technically "car camping" we still had to bring everything we would need. It was nice to not need to hike in, so we could have access to coolers, a larger camp stove, more food, ect... We were camping for 5 days in late March, early April.

Tent Camping: When we had collected in 2010 I was still in my first trimester of pregnancy and pretty tired for most of the trip. We had not even told anyone we were pregnant at that point. I wussed out and we took the air mattress and slept on it inside our tent. In 2011 I was too afraid to have Ruby sleep on an air mattress, so we went back to the Therm-a-Rest's. Since we brought so much extra gear (we had no idea what we might actually need) we went ahead and brought our extra tent to hold it all. It was a bit excessive, but since we had the ability with our "car camping" it worked for this trip.

our double tent

all zipped up in the tent

Another item I was worried about was how to keep Ruby warm. It can get very windy and cold at night. I was terrified to have her sleep in the sleeping bag with us (we have a dual/double bag), afraid the nylon with smother her in the middle of the night. I asked around and a friend suggested letting her sleep in a snowsuit. I thought that was a perfect idea. I bought a fluffy, warm, used snowsuit at our local consignment store and cut the hood off of it (I was worried she might get it wrapped around her face and, again, smother - a common fear of mine).  I sewed the raw edge down. It worked great! Sometimes too great! Ruby even got hot enough a few nights that I would unzip it half way down to keep her cool. I also would put her hat and gloves on her  (or just flip the snowsuit sleeves over) to sleep in. I made a little nest of a small baby blanket for her to sleep on next to me. I was again worried about the blanket smothering her, but she did not move enough for me to worry about it in the end. I could put my arm over her and make sure she was ok all night, which was great. We even had a battery powered night light we used so we could check on her at night (available at Target).

the way we ventilated on warmer nights

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