Last camping trip

We're back from another weekend camping trip. I took Friday afternoon off so that we could beat the Friday evening rush up to the mountains. We were hoping to get a spot at our favorite campground but once again Friday turned into competitive camping night. When we didn't get a spot at the campground, we started trying all the nearby campsites to find a spot. R gets really competitive about finding campsites- as we're driving to the other sites she stresses out if a car that is loaded up with camping gear passes us. After checking out several campgrounds that were full, we finally settled in one for the night. The camp is an a beautiful area but it happens to be right next to the highway. Our tent was about 30 feet from the highway just down an embankment. All night long I feared that a truck would roll down the hill and crush us in our sleep. It felt like we had set up our tent in the middle of the highway.

Needless to say by 8:00am the next morning we were packed up and on our way back to our favorite campsite. This time we lucked out and found a great spot. The other bonus is that unlike last weekend in which we camped by a bunch of rednecks, there were several lesbian couples at this campsite, including at the site right next to ours. Much better than the boys with bad country music and a chainsaw from last weekend. Saturday was a great mix of our favorite camping activities - lounging around in hammocks, fishing, yummy campfire food (R made chipotle chicken with onions and bell peppers, rosemary potatoes and corn on the cob) and our nightly campfire and star gazing.

The misery started when we went to bed. First off it was pretty cold - we were at about 9000 ft elevation and I would guess it was in the 40's. I slept in long john's and sweats and we had plenty of blankets but my nose was cold. I was also super gassy and no matter how hard I tried to burp or fart, nothing came out. I'm totally blaming this on pregnancy - I'm not normally gassy. I swear I looked 8 months pregnant due to all the bloating which made sleeping on an air mattress on the floor all the more fun. I had terrible gas pains in the middle of the night that made me freak out and worry about early labor. I then had major leg cramps. I've been getting these lately while at home and usually stand up to bear weight on my leg which helps. Unfortunately when sleeping on an air mattress while 22 wks pregnant and having major gas pains standing up isn't so easy to do. So needless to say, I think this may be our last camping trip of the season. I love camping but I'm not sure I can do it again while pregnant.

The other issue about camping is that I end up worrying about the baby. I must admit, after 3 years of infertility treatments, I know how to get people pregnant (or at least what steps to do). I'm confident I could make a pretty good RE (minus the technical aspects of doing laps and ER). As a pediatrician, I know I can take care of a baby. However the 36 weeks between getting the 2 pink lines and the baby actually coming out are a big mystery to me. Sure I did do an OB/GYN rotation in med school but a large part of that was spent in the OR doing things like hysterectomies, in the clinic doing routine gyn care and in L&D. I can do pap smears and in a pinch I could probably deliver a child (as long as there were no major complications) but again there's a black hole of 36 weeks worth of knowledge. So I find myself wondering if the altitude affects the baby - it makes my saline solution bottle squish up and my lotion spill out so what does it do to the fluid sac that the baby lives in? These are the random things (very non-doctor things) that I think about. I think I'll stay closer to sea level from now on.