As a
certified Montessori teacher, I have truly fallen in love with Montessori's philosophy and attitudes towards young children. Hubby went to a Montessori school when he was young, and I am convinced it is part of what made him the intelligent, amazing person he is. Thus, it is perhaps one of my biggest parenting goals to use a Montessori-based approach to childrearing.
Before even getting pregnant I started looking into books about using Montessori for infants. I knew lots about how it applied to 3-6 year olds, the age group I used to work with, but little about the younger years. One of the ideas that intrigued me the most was that of using a
floor bed instead of a crib.
The idea is that a low mattress on the floor provides the child with a better view of his room and surroundings and more freedom to move about, which in turn makes for a calmer and happier child. Often a rug or pillows will be placed around the edges of the mattress, so if the baby rolls off he won't be harmed. It is of course important that the entire room be completely safe for the child to crawl around in, essentially turning it into a giant playpen for him.
I was conflicted for a while about whether I wanted to make this leap-- I knew it would probably raise lots of eyebrows, as it's pretty far from the "standard" way of doing things with babies. But as I read and researched, I didn't need to read too many stories of babies whose arms or legs had gotten caught between the crib slats, or of climbing over the rail and falling several feet down onto the floor, to decide that I did not want to use a crib. This feeling was reinforced by talking to friends who had used a floor bed for their babies years ago, and had nothing but good things to say about their experiences.
For the most part his room is set up to be safe, but there's still some more baby-proofing we definitely need to do. He sleeps on a small mattress that's just 2-3 inches thick, but otherwise about the same measurements as a twin-sized mattress. I worried that he wouldn't sleep well there after being used to sleeping in his cozy moses basket for the first 3 months of life, but he adjusted just fine. I put some pictures up on the wall next to his bed that he can look at as he falls asleep or wakes up. And I love that when I go in to feed him in the middle of the night, I can just sit on his bed, resting my back against the wall, and nurse him, and when he's done and has drifted off to sleep I just have to gently move him barely a few feet away to lay him back down.
It's a working experiment. So far, so good. Maybe I'll change my mind when he starts crawling and getting into things, as I'm sure no matter how well I try to prepare his room he'll probably find something to get into that I hadn't thought of. And if at some point it becomes clear that it's not working anymore, then we'll figure out something new. But for now, I'm liking this set-up.
Doing tummy time on his bed after waking from a nap.
Comments (7)
We are in a small apartment, and while we have a crib, it's been useful only for holding laundry. All of my little ones slept next to me to nurse. It's one of those "don't tell the pediatrician" things. :)
That's a really neat idea. I love our crib though. It's been quite nice for our son to sleep in...but as he gets older...that is definately an idea to use. We'll need a bigger place than where we're at though...if he were to get into things, it would be our computer equipment as he shares his room with our office things.
How old is your little guy? He looks to be about he same age as my son!
@samiannie - He's 4.5 months. Yeah, that is one downside that you have to be so careful about what else is in the room. We wound up making one of our biggest bedrooms into his nursery, for a few different reasons, and before it held a bunch of our extra crap which is now shoved into a smaller room elsewhere....
Your son is adorable.
I've done that with my older two to a point. Around 11 months, I would put the crib mattress on the floor to give them more freedom without the worry of falling out of a toddler bed.
We were co sleeping up until recently so my baby has only been sleeping in a crib a few weeks and he's 7 1/2 months old. I wonder if he would wake up in a better mood if he was on the mattress on the floor rather then the crib. I may do a little experiment tonight.
I have been working this method hard, my baby has been sleeping on her child bed since 1 month of age. She is not 11 mos old. Im not sure what my options are, but since crawling just a month ago, bedtime has become quite the challenge.
Some days a flawless. Other nights, like tonight (yawn!) she wakes up and crawls out of her bed and gets into her work on the low shelf. The first night she crawled right out of her room, which hs since been remedied with a gate, but I was wondering if anyone has made it through this point and has any tips to share. Shes is never in harms way because her room is baby-proofed all the way around, but it has been quite exhausting some nights to repeatedly return her to her bed. At first she smiles and thinks its a game, but by the 3rd round shes pissy about it! lol, Advice, suggestions wecomed!@gigimom - The theory I've always read about this is that baby can go and play a bit in her room if she wants, and then falls back asleep when she feels like it... I assume without the parents needing to get involved? I don't know how that actually works in real life though. We're just now getting to the point where he's rolling himself off the mat, which is only 2 inches high so it's not a fall or anything, but then he'll be half on the rug and upset because he can't get himself back on! I'll go in and put him back on the mat and say "goodnight" again and then leave the room. Good luck, and let me know how things work out... we'll be in your shoes soon enough!
Hi! We put our daughter on to a floor mattress when she was 9 months old, for the mere reason that she kept on banging around in her crib, waking herself up even more often than before (she insisted on breast feeding till she was 13 months...). Our experience with it was, that taking her to bed took (and sometimes still takes - she is now one and three quarters) quite a bit longer. But her dad sometimes just doesn't want to wait for ever and leaves her awake in her room, playing away with the door closed. We listen on the baby phone and usually after around half an hour latest, she'll go to sleep. She has been able to take herself back to bed since she was a year old :). Even though it does take quite a lot of energy and trust to leave the little ones being alone in their room, I feel quite happy that ours can get up in the morning, have a play or just turn up and our bed to demand attention.