Does This Make Me a Bad Mom?

This weekend we went camping again with the kids. Unlike our last camping trip, the weather was quite cool, especially in the evenings. I put Jacob to bed in the tent wearing a cozy sleeper with his favourite blanket and then a warm, fleecy blanket as well. He struggled a bit to get to sleep, par for the course when camping. Eventually, he fell asleep and the rest of us huddled around the fire for warmth. By the time we crawled into our tent it was really cold. In fact, I slept in my pants and socks under 2 sleeping bags and still felt a bit chilled. Hannah was next to me and I kept checking to make sure she was still under the sleeping bags; however, I guess because he was sleeping, I didn't worry about poor Jacob. I knew that Scott, who is normally a furnace at night, was cold and you would think that alone would have set off an alarm bell - but no.

So back to poor Jacob. At one point, he woke up crying and when Scott picked him up to comfort him he realized he had peed through his sleeper (incidentally, Hannah had also peed through her pajamas at the same time). It was only then that we realized how cold Jacob was. He was actually shivering and his little hands were ice cubes. He had long ago wiggled out from his blanket (which probably wasn't warm enough anyway) so while we were shivering under our heavy layers of sleeping bags, Jacob was lying in his cold Pack-n-Play wearing nothing but a sleeper. Pretty much exposed to the elements. Suffering quietly. I think he might have peed just for the warmth.

Needless to say, he spent the rest of the night tucked up against me where he slept quite peacefully. My guilt forced me to accommodate his preferred snuggling positions, which resulted in almost falling off the mattress, with my back exposed to the cold (I deserved that), and my head cocked at an unnatural and extremely uncomfortable angle. I deserved that, too.

Jacob, for his part, appears no worse for wear. And we're done with camping for this year. By next summer, he'll be old enough to sleep in his own sleeping bag. All tucked in nice and warm. And by then, I will have done something else to earn the mother-of-the-year award!