We started camping with daughter at two months old in may of this year. It has been a continuous experiment since day one. We have been on nine camping trips total with her just turning 8 months old.
The first three trips were with our off road trailer and a maggiolina airland. Of those the first trip we had our daughter sleep in her car seat and bundled up like a burrito in between us at our feet. After that I fashioned up a mini bassonett that was perpendicular to our bodies theat went over our legs. It was like a little bridge. A standard bassonnett mattress fit inside it with enough room at her feet for diapers and wipes. That served us for two more trips in the off road camper. It worked very well. The key is the use of a Swaddle when they are young. The lowest temp was around upper 30's. She did fine, stayed very warm. Hardest part was unwrapping her to change the diaper.
After that worked started to get more stressful and I had to spend a lot more time than I would care to do. This decreased our overlanding and we have focused to forest camping closer to the house. So the wife and I decided for a little larger camper which we could keep packed and ready to go, but did not want something that big. We also wanted to be able to take it on FS unimproved trails since there are many near us. We settled on a fleetwood evolution E1.
The E1 is great for a pop up. Little more robust and good for mild off road. As for our little munchkin, she sleeps on the small bed without blankets. When she was swaddled it was very easy and she slept very well. As she is getting older and more mobile it is more challenging. We have not figured out a good way to keep her from rolling off the bed. She wears a fleece sleepsack and For now we use our two duffle bags with a body pillow as a bumper system. Trouble is that she is getting to a point where she can easily crawl over this barricade.
If you put her down for he night she has to be passed out, if not she wants to crawl out of bed. So it is back to the drawing board to see if we can make some screen to keep her from getting off the bed.
I am hoping next year we can get back to the off road trailer and do some more remote camping.
I thought it would be too hard to go camping with an infant. All of my friends stopped doing everything when they started having kids. I told my wife that having a kid would nit change what we do, just how we do it. What I found is camping is the absolute best way for me to spend a lot of time with my kid. There is no one to distract you, no chores around the house, no cell service (most of the time), no stores, nothing but nature and my family. I work a lot of hours and it's my way of catching up on dad time and I wouldn't do it any other way.
Sorry to digress, but all I can say about what works best - patience, and trust that you will find a way to do it. Swaddles and sleep sacks sure help. One thing that I started to do for her is create a geo-log for every place we camp with her so hopefully one day she can retrace her footsteps when she is older. Not sure if this helps at all, but hopefully some part may.
