advice needed camping with 14 week old twins...!!!

[hippy3]

Hi everyone..we are going on a camping trip in 10 days for the first time with our twin boys.... they will be 14 weeks..... i need advice. !!

Usually they sleep in their own cot, and go to bed at 6.30/7.... obviously we wont be doing this, so am thinking that we will take the slings we have they can stay up with us and sleep on the mattress with us for one night (we are only going for one night, as we want to see how it goes) ....

They usually wake up in the night for a night feed once, so how would u make up the bottles, I was thinking of keeping hot water in a flask before bed so then we can make them up fresh.....??

What do I REALLY need to bring with me....

There is a huge group of us camping, 7 kids 20 adults and 4 dogs !!! hence why we are only going for a night, I think it might be a bit overwhelming for the boys!! although they are pretty good around people, but just want to test the water..we do have a travel cot, but its either in with us in the four man tent which is one room, or in their own section of the tent(we have two tenst the second one has two rooms...)..which I just wont do.... as I would be worried that they werent in with us....

so any tips for a first time mum with babies camping??? you see the thing is my DP and I ADORE camping and cant wait to take the boys to france and loads of other places, so we are using this trip as an experiment really...

all dvice greatly appreciated...Thank you !

Wow, good for you! Not much advice but I have been camping with my 7 old in the past and I made his bottles up when I needed to with a hot flask and then cooling the ready made bottles quickly with cool water in a bowl. Was quite stressful though, and that was doing it at 6am in the light with him squalling impatiently and waking everyone else up . That was a week long camp, mind.. If you're doing night feeds with a torch strapped to your head and two hungry little people, it could be a bit hard. So I'd advise using pre-made carton milk just for when you are away, as it's much easier. Does the brand you use come are pre-made formula too?
My baby is a creature of habit, so whatever worked for him at home I tried to replicate as much as I could while camping. It seemed to really help. Are yours used to co-sleeping with you at home? What kind of camping mattress do you have?

Sorry I don't have any advice, but I want to wish you luck.

(sorry, that was meant to say 7 month old, by the way )

You are utterly bonkers. No advice, apart from that, never been camping....never will...! Good luck you mad woman !

lol...... I will let you all know how it goes !!! Yep you arent the only ones to say that we are mad.....

and yes they have co slept with us before, although they are now used to going into their own bed....It ll be like a treat fro them to sleep in with us.... and I might just place our tent MILES away from my friends so that we dont wake them up !!!

ill keep u updated....

earliest we took DD2 camping was 10 weeks in high summer, worked fine but we did just cosleep at night. I took a small pram (mamas and papas umbrella one) for naps and early morning walks plus a sling for a change of scenery!

We have some fab photos of her sleeping in the pram alongside a huge baguette/bottle of wine - we were in France.

Can't think of anything we did particularly differently from home - I took some cotton knitted hats for nighttime in case she was cold.

A really good light/lantern is a godsend BTW. Formula in cartons sounds like an excellent idea. Don't forget the calpol/thermometer/etc - kids always develop something interesting when you're away (memories of chicken pox outbreak in ski resort and sickness bug/temps on summer hols = I just love French A&E). These days I just google the nearest Pead A&E just in case before we go (if in Britain).

Also for the same reason, if there's a closed barrier at night, I make DH prk the car on the external side of it. Not worth the extra hassle of trying to wake someone up if you're really worried about illness in small children.

Good luck, it's fun to take them when they're small, they just fit in with whatever you're doing.

We took our 12 week old camping for 5 nights. If you have access to electric hook up use it! A travel kettle Is so much easier/quicker than gas stove.

A cold water steriliser is a must and I second using pre-made cartons of milk- they can even be taken at room temp.

We took our Moses basket but she ended up sleeping in bed with me as she was REALLY cold (even in august) take a cotton hat and scratchmitts/gloves as these are the parts that get really cold. Take plenty blankets!

Have fun! It is lots of fun taking children camping, they love it at any age and at their age will easily adapt/go with the flow xxx

Have older twins but remember using disposable bottles with carton milk when we stayed in a b&b with them. Don't have to faff with sterilising then. Took them camping at 18 months. We slept with 1 twin each (2 bedroom tent). Think about extra blankets & plenty of spare dummies if they use them!!! Good luck!!!

dd was nearly 6 months when she first went, and has had a few trips since...she sleeps next to me on SIM. I can easily check she is warm in the night as she regularly pokes me in the eye. She didn't need a wooly hat last week, but still vest, babygro, wooly leggings, fleece sleepsuit and thick grobag.

We just camped with our 6 week old last weekend and it was great (for 2nights). We didn't really do anything differently to at home - he slept in a travel cot with a lot of layers on and slept really well. We did take disposable bottles with ready mix formula (advice from other MNs) which was different obviously, but I tried the bottles before we went and he had no issues using them. Our 2 older sons love camping (age2and4) which was why we went so soon after the birth, but it was great so would go again with no hesitations! Have fun!