It Woiks Poifectly!

That’s me imitating 4 year old me on a home video selling some product in a infomercial-my siblings medium of choice. I had troubles with R. But its all to say that our 7 month old loves his floor bed and is really rockin it. He wakes up every morning happy and talking and promptly begins exploring. The only trouble is, we are in transitional housing of sorts (read: staying at my mothers two bed condo) and so Gael, the giant baby, gets relegated to the living room after his 11 p.m. feeding each night. So the living room is only 97% baby safe. But for that-him not having a whole baby-proofed bedroom-I would be able to sleep at least a half hour more every day while he amused himself. As it is, I generally want to make sure he isn’t accessing the 3%.



That’s him on the child aerobed, which he has no trouble getting out of due to his advanced size. It wouldn’t be a good bed for the average baby. Too high. But Gael? I usually return him to his bed at least once after finding him crawling about and playing.

Now-my million dollar floor bed question-how do I get him to stop waking up between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m.? I think the answer is not floor bed related but more about the boobs. More on that soon.

Have you contributed to bedstart.com yet?

Announcing: BedStart.Com

Go check it out.

It’s a baby site too, in the “it just started up” sense, and it happens to be about baby floor beds.  It is what I imagined needed to be done for floor beds when I started this blog, only it looks like they have more time and energy to pull off a sexy site about it.  Great minds think alike!

YAY!

I will probably continue this blog if only just for fun – but I don’t feel the need to duplicate floor bedding communities.  We are all one with our crazy non-cribbing parenting approach and need to unite!

The 7 Month Montessori Mess



It’s here. Crawling. Every montessori floor bedders nightmare of an accomplishment. In my opinion, its the only struggle of the whole set-up.

How do we get them to sleep in their beds? TELL US ALREADY!

Here, Gael has given up on escaping. He wriggled around, yelled at the door from his perch at the edge of the bed, then gave up. My areobed set up makes it a little intimidating to escape. If he were not such a giant baby the aerobed would be a horrible short term solution but for us, it’s still working.



But really, I mean really, what have people done to preserve sleep for their little crawlers? Sleep training? Modified swaddling? Closed door and let them figure it out?

I imagine the last one is the true Montessorian approach but we will see. Tell us what you did/do and why!

Florvags are Forever

Infancy is temporary at best. A montessori child bedroom can be forever. The whole concept is that on both a physical and psychological level you are creating a supportive environment for your child to grow into an adult. I encourage everyone to set up your child’s bedroom for teenage years now. Whimsy, ease, space to learn.

That should then set you up on a psychological level to guide and teach them with appreciation for their full potential at the forefront of your mind and action.  You won’t be babying them more than necessary. They won’t be trapped by the confines of traditional nurseries. Both of you can grow freely and safely in that space.

As for me, I underestimated Baby Two and his development in my quest for a quick fix to our sleeping arrangements. I bought the child areobed, which I love, but he is already trying to sneak out of it and it is high enough to cause him a faceplant if he crawls over. I should have just bought the florvag already. I know he’d be wriggling in and out with ease by now.

With Son One I prepared a beautiful space for him to grow, and even while I couldn’t wait for him to reach each next stage, I think I didn’t fully accept how strong and independent he could be. Baby Two makes it so clear. Funny, by the time we learn the lessons we need, we less and less will need them. I think we will have more some day, and then I will really get to use these.

Pinteresting

I’m starting to track fun floor beds on pinterest.  Here’s the link.

Temporary/Travel Floor Bed – Aerobed for Kids

We’re living in what I hope to be transitional circumstances and, as such, I haven’t felt enabled to really set up the Montessori floor bed in our current room.  I’m getting creative but haven’t pulled it all out yet.Of course number Two has nothing like our first had as pictured in the header of this blog.

So – to answer another question of floor bedders – What to do with our non-cribbed kids while traveling?

I reviewed some options and came out with the Aerobed for Kids.  This was picked over the toddler cot, a different brand of mattress, and buying a florvag from IKEA already.

I’m glad I bought this bed and here’s why:

It’s not a great Montessori Bed because it doesn’t allow for your baby to get off the bed by themselves.  But, in that regard, it’s a great alternative to a crib while traveling because, in unknown surroundings, your baby won’t be getting off and into trouble. The mattress blows up firm and solid but has a raised edge all the way around (with a darling fitted fleece sheet) that keeps baby in a safe place that’s not a crib.  That and the whole deal comes in a 11 lb. bag with a pump.  It blows up in less than a minute.  It’s easy to move around the house even when blown up.  It supports a nursing mother or a curious toddler sibling who want to get down there too.

Cons are that it won’t function as a Montessori Floor Bed – if they can’t get on and off themselves from an early age (i.e. whenever they start moving) then it’s not a Montessori style bed.  It does them no good, serves no empowering function.  But, if you need to travel with your little kids and obviously don’t want to suddenly subject them to a pack and play’s high webbed walls, this is the best item to buy to suit your temporary needs. It is also flexible in that it can suit your other kids, other peoples kids, or even you in a pinch! All around, great quality and flexible options make for a good investment here.

Now that I have a temporary set-up in place, I can go back to planning our future, two-bed montessori child room.  I cannot wait!

Floor Bedding in Tight Quarters

We’re currently four people to one bedroom, which makes fitting a floor bed in kind of complicated.  But, the five month old Man-Baby (he’s so big!) is ready for his own space, and that bassinet, which I did have to resort to using again, is like really, really tiny for him.

I’ve been lusting after the Florvag on Ikea again but not sure where I will or would put it.

Any ideas on floor bedding in close quarters?

Maybe I could break down the toddler boat bed and put both boys on one twin size floor bed.  Maybe I just squeeze in the florvag alongside our bed. We’ll see – its  going to have to happen soon!