Date:         Mon, 17 Oct 2005 13:40:34 -0400
Reply-To:     BJ Feddish <bfeddish@NETREACH.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         BJ Feddish <bfeddish@NETREACH.NET>
Subject:      Re: Traveling/Camping With a Baby
In-Reply-To:  <WMBDFEF4B3BF924f5b94BB04B5F00EA558@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

>> my question is - would you plan on traveling/camping w/ a 4-month old
baby?  if so, please explain how you'd do it. <<

This quite often depends on the baby.  I know folks who have taken their
infant camping since they were very young with no problems. These are people
that have babies that will sleep anywhere. Our daughter was born 18 months
ago and beforehand we were still reserving our yearly camping sites with the
hopes of taking her. It turns out she was (and still is) a very poor
sleeper. For the first 8 months she slept for about 45 minutes every hour
and a half. Most of the other 45 minutes was spent crying unless she was
held, rocked, etc.  Needless to say there was no camping during that period.
She will still only sleep in her cradle and though she sleeps through the
night takes little or no nap during the day. Friends and relatives send us
pictures of themselves at the beach or somewhere and the baby is there
sleeping on a towel. We find that very humorous. The last thing our daughter
would do is lie down and fall asleep on a towel. She'll be over 2 next
summer so we are hoping to finally take her camping this year.

On the other hand I see young parents taking their babies to the Philly Folk
Fest and I can hear them crying late at night in their campers while their
parents are out front partying. It's really noisy there and I think if your
baby is not a good sleeper it is selfish to have them at a place like that.

While we are on this baby topic, I know I don't want to think about it but
what do the other list members do if they break down far from home? It was
not a problem the few times I have since my wife and I could jump in the tow
truck cab but how does that work if there are 3 of you? What did you end up
doing?  Making a long trip with the baby is going to make me nervous.

Thanks,
Bryan