Category: Life

Having a baby in a camper?! 

We are two months into this and we are doing a-okay! I figured we’d have to move things around constantly because of the minimal space and that would get annoying, but there actually hasn’t been much of that. The boys don’t wake up to the nightly nursing calls and I thought that might be an issue as well. So honestly it’s been better than I was expecting!

She has a rock-n-play she sleeps in. We can fold it up when she’s not using it. 

By day the changing area is on our bed, by night it’s on the couch. 

The rocker stays out most the time, if someone is coming over we’ll fold it up and get it out of the way. The rocker has been nice for the nightly nursing sessions. And a relaxing spot to rest and snuggle during the day. I have a little book light that I turn on and that’s enough light at night for a diaper change and nursing.

Her first bath went just dandy. We have a collapsible laundry basket that does the trick. And once she can sit up it’ll be her little bath tub too!

We started cloth diapers a couple weeks ago. I wash them in the shower in a bucket with a plunger. We have a drying rack we put up over a heater vent at night to dry them. Whatever isn’t all the way dry in the morning we toss in the dryer to finish them up. So far this little routine has worked out just fine! 

She tolerates my big bows! 😉 Figure I’ve had babies without bows and now that I have one that can wear them we might as well!!

She’s eating, sleeping and growing like a weed already. The boys love her and want her to be apart of things!! Couldn’t have imagined a sweeter addition to our little family.

No, we are not going to go live on a sailboat for a year. 

No, we are not buying our own bison herd. 

No, we are not going to visit all 50 states in 50 days…. 

But we are…..….. Having a BABY! 

Last fall Chase and I separately felt like our family was not complete and God was saying we should add another kiddo to our fam bam….

So without further ado we would like to share that we are having a little 🎀GIRL🎀 in September!!!! 

Mac is over the moon excited about a baby….like carries my childhood doll around and gets upset when you don’t treat it like a real baby. Merrick is indifferent but is sweet with babies when we see them, talking in the squeakiest little voice! 

We don’t know exactly what we’ve gotten ourselves into being out numbered and all but here we go!! We are eager to meet this little lady in the fall! 

So what was it really like…..living in a camper….in the winter……in the midwest?!?!

Well the foam board skirting honestly helped. We put a thermometer under the camper and it was a minimum 20 degrees warmer under there than it was outside. There were maybe three nights when it was getting down into the single digits for that we dripped our lines (let the kitchen water faucet drip through the night) so that our lines wouldn’t freeze.

Our heater runs on propane (that we get for free, nice perk of the job!) and we have two space heaters so we were always warm and cozy. I honestly didn’t know how the camper would hold up, if it would be super drafty and we would struggle to stay warm. There was definitely mornings when the single pane windows were frosted up, but the camper was cozy. Thankfully we had no issues staying warm!

What did we do with all the snow clothes?! Why we hung them in the shower! No mud room. No place to put wet snow bibs, coats, boots, mittens etc…..so they went in the shower to dry.

What did we do?! We didn’t kill each other! I didn’t think we would but this was definitely the first time we were pressed to be together. We had a real routine with school and the boys. Chase and I flip flopped working or doing school with the boys, which took care of the mornings. Most afternoons our boys do quiet time, once Mac stopped napping (at 2.5 years when Merrick was just 2 months old!) this came into our lives and is still going strong. One hour after lunch where they are not together and they must be quiet. Later in the afternoons if it wasn’t snow play and sledding; baking, board games, puzzles, painting and reading were always big hits.

Game wise right now the boys love- Goblet Gobblers….a form of tic-tac-toe where you can eat each other. Ticket to Ride the kiddo version. And a mom favorite….Eye found it…an I spy type card game….where they sit and are quietly concentrating on finding a random object. One night we may have have introduced poker, the value of numbers with some cards and m&ms!

We brought back an old basketball goal from Tribune and rehabbed it. It is now hanging up in the barn. There were a few cold days that we went up to the barn, started a fire and played and the boys got to shoot some hoops.

There were days when time was what we had so we used it up. It didn’t matter if it took an hour for the dishes to get done. And didn’t matter if it took 30 mins for snack just to be prepared. The boys got to do grown up things. They got to do the dishes. They got to cut and cut and cut. Those “real” plastic knives have been great for them to really “help.”

They both learned how to do a few new things. Merrick has kind of started to “read,” that was a fun winter day. (Thank you goes to Bob Books and to the library on that one!) This winter Mac learned how to sew. He has sown a 4×4 quilt, mended a few things, made a pillow and 3 bean bags. He is attempting to learn to juggle with said bean bags. He picked up crocheting a couple of weeks ago. It was just stuff like this that helped pass the inside winter time. Winter was fine and all but we are excited for the spring and all the green to start popping out!

Or do we calling it Falling because it’s technically not even winter yet. Any who….living in a camper in the Midwest when it is cold out. How are we doing this?!

Normally underneath of our camper is open and airy. A space we use to store items, tuck them under to get out of the rain. That type of a thing. But not any more.

There is some lingo we have learned and this is what one ought to do when you are going to try to live in a camper where it gets cold…. its called “skirting”….what is skirting you ask? It is wrapping the bottom of the camper with something so that cold air just doesn’t blow under the camper making the floor inside the camper the same as the outside temp. This too helps to keep pipes from freezing! A nice warm little air bubble under the camper if you will.

There are different types of/ ways to do skirting:

Vinyl: that can be custom fit to your exact camper. Perk- it can be taken on and off via snap buttons and re-used. Con- those snaps don’t hold up well in the wind. And it’s about $2,000 for said product.

DIY vinyl: same perks, its usually made with old billboard material and cheaper than store bought custom. Con- you have to cut and piece it together and it still doesn’t hold up well in the wind. Estimated cost was $1,000.

Insulation boards: 1-3 inch thick insulation boards that you cut and piece around the bottom of the camper. Perk- more sturdy, no tarp like noises from the wind and vinyl. Estimated cost was $300. Con- you have to cut and piece it together, not reusable.

We choose the insulation board route. After a little measuring I got 11 one inch 4ft x 8ft insulation boards, duck tape, foil tape, expanding spray foam, and some spray paint. After a few trips to the store (for more paint and spray foam) our total was around $260 for this project.

I cut the boards with a serrated knife and pieced them around the camper. Next I taped them to each other via duck tape. Then I taped the top of the boards to the camper via foil tape…this should not leave any type of residue on the camper when removed and can tolerate varying temps! When there were gaps along the bottom I used expanding foam to fill in the gaps. I made “trap” doors if you will, so we could access the handles for tank disposal and a storage space under the camper. Then I spray painted all of it black so that it did’t look quite so awful 😉. It was a labor of love, all way easier said than done but doable none the less. So glad it is done!

We put an indoor/outside thermometer under the camper. It’s usually 15-20 degrees warmer under the camper than the outside temps so the insulation is doing it’s job and we are very thankful for that!

We also got a heated water hose. When the temp gets to 40* outside it turns itself on so the water in the hose doesn’t freeze. Each of the water spigots at this campground are wrapped with heat tape and insulation. We can plug this in to the electric panel outside so that the actual water spigot itself does not freeze. So with both of those tools our water shouldn’t freeze!

With the water being theoretically freeze proof and our insulation bubble being complete we are feeling great about spending the winter in our camper! Earlier this week when all that crazy wind came through….this all held up 🙌🏼, a great test for it….but I’m hopeful there won’t be another windy test like that for it!