Lessons Learned Camping with a Baby

Today we’re excited to share some lessons learned camping with a baby. Don’t mistake these as tips, if there is one thing I’ve learned about parenting it’s that styles and methods are as unique as each set of parents. If you want tips, here’s one: go camping with friends with kids. Watching some of our close friends parenting in this environment was inspirational. It allowed us to admire them, empathize with them, and enjoy the journey together.

When we started getting excited about having kids we convinced ourselves that our lives wouldn’t need to change that much. We could still travel, camp, and keep up our active lifestyle. I think there is a fear that as we become parents we will have to sacrifice everything for snot-nosed constantly complaining kids that aren’t even that cute. Luckily, as we actually become parents the word sacrifice takes on a whole new meaning. Additionally, your own kid is the smartest, cutest, most pleasant baby in the universe… when she’s not waking you up at 3am. So I have good news and better news. We can still travel, camp, and keep up our active lifestyle but our lives did change. Fully and completely. I now better understand every parent I have ever judged for any decision that they have ever made. I now fully understand “honor thy mother and father” and have a deeper respect for my parents, their sacrifices, and their love.

I haven’t even been a parent for a full year yet and what I’ve learned could fill a blog. Don’t worry, it won’t. However, I am now extremely excited for all of the lessons that parenting holds for me. Today I want to address one simple aspect of parenting that has become important to us. Camping. Not everyone cares about camping so for all the grief involved I can understand why giving it up would be an easy choice. For us, camping is a big part of our lifestyle. We love to travel around the beautiful places this country has to offer. One obvious solution would be hotels or airbnbs, which we’ll utilize on occasion. But there are some places we love going where there aren’t accommodations or the price of accommodations would limit the amount of time we could spend there. Plus, there’s something about the simplicity of sleeping outside that feels so right.

expect the plan to change

On our first camping trip we had the perfect plan. We were going to start driving around our daughters bedtime. We would make it to our destination in time for one of us to feed her while the other set up the tent so that we could put her back to bed. Waking up in a beautiful destination we would have time to hike and explore and then continue to Kathy and Drew’s Salt Lake City destination wedding. As we drove along I-70, our daughter starting screaming. Experience had taught us that she would cry for a moment and then fall soundly asleep. Marc turned the volume on the music up and I help my breath waiting for that moment of silence that meant Skyla was dreaming of board books and rubber duckies. That moment never came, instead it got worse. Eventually we broke down and pulled over checking her diaper and feeding her. As soon as we attempted to continue to drive, the screaming continued. She was squirming as if she was trying to roll over, as if sleeping in her carseat was an impossible task. Pulling over again we started searching for the closest campground and found one immediately adjacent to the freeway as if traffic was the perfect white noise. I held Skyla while Marc set up the tent and as soon as it was ready I set her down. She fell asleep before her head hit the pillow and was as peaceful as can be. Where had we gone wrong? What should we have done differently? Would we ever camp again?

if at first you don’t succeed

Fortunately for our resolve, the fact that we were road tripping to Salt Lake meant that we already had a plan for our next night of camping. After an amazing time at the wedding we set out on our way back home. My mom was with us so we had support for this attempt. We decided to try for the original campsite, which was actually less of a campsite and more just dispersed camping. A pre-bedtime sunset hike followed by snuggles in the tent and our second night of camping was successfully underway.

once you think you have it figured out

The third night of camping with a baby resulted in little to no sleep for anyone. Skyla thought it was playtime and simply crawled around our tent all night. That ended that road trip along our truck breaking down. It was a perfect storm of a failed trip. We had plans for a week of camping ahead of us. We were nervous that none of us were going to get any sleep. We borrowed a big tent with room for our daughter to have her own space, which we’ve learned is key to her knowing when it’s time to sleep. We did our best to keep to her nap schedule so that she wasn’t overtired at bedtime. She had her white noise and other things to comfort her. On top of that, maybe it was just luck. Regardless, we had a blast camping and felt like we had things figured out. But don’t worry, we know that the plan will change again and we just have to keep trying.

Cheers to failure and the lessons we learn as long as we don’t give up! We’ve been swamped but we’re planning to catch up on some non-wedding blogging. There’s bound to be some adventure photography as well as ways we’re building a life we love.

We are Marc and Brenda Bergreen, a husband and wife photography team specializing in outdoor weddings and other adventures. Capturing people in nature and the mountain lifestyle is a passion that became a dream that became a life.

Based in Evergreen, CO we travel throughout the state as Colorado mountain wedding photographers. We also frequently travel to California and other wedding destinations to document your love in a variety of memorable settings. Don’t hesitate to contact us and let us know how we can help! Be sure to follow us (weddings instagram & adventures instagram) and/or like us (facebook) to stay tuned.

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