Tent camping with an 8 month old.

This weekend the stars aligned for a perfect weekend to go camping.  These stars included the "perfect weather for sleeping outside" star, the "missed my husband enough to follow him into the Sahara" star, the "baby has been pretty happy and healthy" star, and the "i can muster up the energy to do this" star.  I was nervous about tent camping with an infant . . . since I'm not really keen on tent camping anyway.  

It turned out alright.  The tent was roomy and we set it up a ways away from the group and the campfire.  I made her a little pallet in the corner of the tent, opened the vents, and patted her to sleep.  When I officially went to bed around midnight, she was still fast asleep.  I slept in the middle of the tent between Steven and Davie.  The next morning at 6am when I woke up (even before Davie), Steven said, "Well, I guess she slept alright last night.  She never even woke up." . . . Steven is obviously a VERY heavy sleeper.  She woke up 4 or 5 times actually.  One of the times as I was desperately trying to find her pacifier and get it in her mouth before she woke up the whole campground, Steven starts nudging me repeatedly, like "Fix her.  Fix her."  Geez!  Eventually I started sleeping (or slipping in and out of consciousness out of anxiety) with the pacifier in my hand ready to insert at the slightest fuss.  

Anyway, I suppose she did do alright - better than I did for sure.  The next day we went out to the climbing area and as soon as I started to getting extremely frustrated (I could feel the hives arising from my skin), Steven swept in and slapped on the baby sling and carried her around for awhile so I could have some social interaction and a break from baby duty.  It was a good day.  A good weekend.  However, it made Steven and I both tired at the same time which is always complicated when you are taking care of a baby.  But we did alright.  One point for the Charles family!