18mth old in tent - sleeping

[abenstille]

Hi, I'm dying to get out and about in our tent this year but have never doe camping with children. Think we'll do a trial trip somewhere local at the end of april. Am wondering:
Will she need a proper camping sleeping bag, or just normal grobag and blankets?
Should I try to fix her travel cot (nomad) in the awning bit of our tent or put her in the main compartment without the travel cot on a thermarest next to me? Wouldnt she just wriggle off the thermarest?
Should I use one of those readybeds?
Any other tips more than welcome. She's a light sleeper so im worried about noise at night from other campers. Im worried I'll get no sleep at all! Thank you

We have taken our DD camping since she was about 5 months.

We just used her normal grobag and blankets, in a travel cot inside the tent with us. I am too paranoid to have her in a separate compartment or the awning. She probably would wriggle off the thermarest, so even now she's in the travel cot at 2. Having said that, she has also slept on a sheepskin rug next to me, which is less slidy than a thermarest, so she tends to stay on.

You'll be amazed at how well she sleeps in the fresh air!

Having said that, it's often a good idea to have your first "trial camp" within striking distance of home (maybe a site very local to where you live) so that if it all goes wrong, you can pack up and go home really easily, rather than having to grit your teeth and bear it "because we have come all this way"...

Good luck and have fun!

Thanks so much pookamoo. Think we might need a bigger tent as Im sure her travel cot wouldnt fit in the main compartment
Any more tips gratefully recieved...

Give it a go without the travel cot, lots of warm blankets / sheepskin rug / foam sleeping mat, just for one night in the garden - see how it goes! She will think it's great fun and if it doesn't work out, you can just dash back indoors!

We just used a not-fully-inflated airbed (hadn't discovered readybeds then!), grobag and blankets for ds1's first camping trip. He was also 18 months. We've done it every year since, and last year ds2 had his first camping trip at 9 months, so it can't have been that bad

Fleece sleepsuits over regular pjs and under the grobag seemed to help too.

we bought our ds a vango nitestar baby sleeping bag and he loves it,last yr he was 16m,and was in his travel cot,but this yr (2.4yo) he will be on an air bed.
you can get junior airbeds with higher sides than normal on ebay (think they are sunncamp make) which are about £15.