Mother’s Day Weekend Part Une: Camping

My first Mother’s Day! I’m a mom! I still can’t believe it sometimes.

Mother’s Day has never been a big deal in our family, but I’ve started acknowledging it now in order to get to decide how we spend the weekend. Moahahaha. This year, I wanted to go camping.

Problem one: We hit the first snafu pretty early on in the planning process when we realized there was no way we were going to be able to fit our dogs in the car along with Nora and all our camping crap. Luckily a friend agreed to watch Wellie and Basil, but for next time, we’re probably going to have to get one of those rooftop ski boxes or something so we have enough room to bring the boys. They love camping too!

Problem two: Sleep. Sleep sleep sleep. Since Nora is used to sleeping in her own room, we decided to bring some sort of enclosure for her to snooze in. We settled on a Peapod portable bed (henceforth to be known as Podrick) that would let her have her own space but still fit between us in our little backpacking tent. It would also keep her from getting into any sort of mischief in the tent when she’s there alone, since she goes to bed before us, and when we do bring the dogs along, Podrick will protect Nora from being trampled by pointy Italian Greyhound legs.

Bringing Podrick along paid off right away – Nora had a safe, bug-free place to hang out and play while we were busy setting up camp. She even played by herself in there while we grabbed lunch and got some reading done! I highly recommend getting one of these for camping or beach trips with small humans.

Unfortunately, Nora wouldn’t nap in Podrick. Before we had a baby, I thought night sleep was the thing to worry about – I had no idea what a pain in the ass naps can be. Decent naps make the difference between Happiest Baby in the Universe and Cranky Gremlin. Nora won’t nap in the car, either (it’s happened like, say, three times), so driving inevitably turns into an overtired screamfest.

This drive was no exception, and by the time we made it to our campsite along the Teanaway River, she was overdue for a nap. I think the campsite was just too full of new, exciting things for her to fall asleep, so we went to the nearest trailhead and hiked for a while so she could sleep in the Ergo.

She’s a very light sleeper (the one thing this little JK-clone definitely inherited from me), so her naps in the carrier are nowhere as good as her crib naps – she wakes up the second I stop moving – but they’re definitely better than nothing. Of course the DeRoux Trail was full of downed trees that I had to climb over without waking Nora up, for which I surely deserve some sort of hurdling medal.

Once Nora woke up, we looked for morels (we found four tiny ones, which JK unfortunately incinerated in the campfire while cooking dinner) and stumbled across a rubber boa – very cool!

Back in camp, life was good. We had storytime, I showed Nora the creek, the river, and the thick, fragrant ponderosa bark, and kept her from eating all the different woodland things.

Then it was time for Nora’s first campfire. Maybe she’ll get s’mores next year. And stick bread!

After the failed nap attempts, I was worried that Nora wouldn’t be able to sleep at night, either. Luckily, she has such a strong biological urge to fall asleep for the night between 6 and 7 that it was not a problem. We bundled her up in a wool base layer, fleece pajamas, and a thick fleece snowsuit, then put her in the same sleep sack she usually wears at home. It stayed warmer than usual (even though this was a month before our normal Teanaway camping trip!) and the snowsuit hood was nice and cozy, so we skipped the hat.

With lil’ Norbert fast asnooze, JK and I proceeded to just veg out by the campfire, eating and reading. I’m obsessively plowing through Carrot Quinn’s Thru-Hiking Will Break Your Heart right now, reading whenever I find the time. It is so, so good. And now the book smells like campfire, which seems appropriate.

We went to bed early – I think we both expected Nora to wake up a bajillion times that night – and I slept like a rock until 1 AM, when I woke up and made sure my little camper wasn’t too cold. Or too warm. And that she was still breathing. It was like being the parent of a newborn again.

Nora usually sleeps until 5-6, eats a little bit, then goes back to sleep until 7 or so, but this time she woke up at 4. I fed her, then decided to snuggle with her the rest of the night. I should have thought about what a light sleeper she is (cosleeping has never worked for us), because she woke up at 5:30 when I made the slightest little movement, and there was just no getting her back to sleep. Yawn. I think we would have gotten at least another hour if I had just put her back in the pod…but then I would have missed out on those cuddles, so it was worth it. Mostly.

The morning was crisp and cool until the sun climbed over the ridge to warm us, so we hung out in the tent for a while before making hot soup and coffee (and a whole banana for Nora). We ate breakfast all snuggled up under my sleeping bag, and then Nora amused herself by banging a titanium cup against the chair while we relaxed. Aaahh.

I’ll admit I came into this weekend expecting the worst, but we really did have a wonderful time. When it comes to babies, pretty much everything you do involves more work and less sleep, but also more fun.