Montessori Floor Bed

Walk into a Montessori nursery and the first thing you will probably notice is the lack of a crib. Friends thought I was crazy not to have a crib in our nursery. Honestly, when I first read about Montessori floor beds, I was quite surprised. A Montessori floor bed is pretty much what it sounds like: a bed directly on the floor. Ours is just a mattress on the floor, but there are plenty of cute floor bed frames for a more finished look. But what is the point of putting a baby on the floor instead of in a crib like normal people?

A floor bed promotes independence. Once a child is crawling, he can choose when to get out of bed and do so independently instead of waiting for an adult to let him out.

A floor bed encourages free movement. We are so excited for our baby to crawl for the first time or take her first steps, and placing the child in a crib inhibits her ability to do so.

In my opinion, a floor bed is more respectful of the child than a crib is. I have heard friends refer to cribs as “baby cages”, and although I think it is supposed to be a joke, it makes my heart sink a little bit. Yes, there are times when we need our child in a confined space, but I want to limit this as much as possible.

An added bonus: I love that if Calvin is having trouble sleeping (often if he is sick or teething) I can lay right next to him on his twin mattress or even nurse him in his bed.

The most common questions I have heard about floor beds:

Isn’t it unsafe for a baby not to sleep in a crib?

Actually, as long as the floor bed is within a fully baby-proofed space, a floor bed can actually be safer than a crib! Babies can get stuck between the bars of the crib, and many older babies figure out how to climb out of the crib, which is a much bigger fall than off of a mattress on the floor.

But won’t the baby fall off the bed?!

Well, for the first several months before the baby is rolling over, this isn’t an issue. But I’ll be honest, I was concerned about this when Calvin first started rolling over. We have a rug next to the floor bed, but during that time we also placed a thin foam mat in the event that he should fall out of bed. He eventually did roll out, and...he was perfectly fine. He rolled out maybe two or three times, and he never hurt himself. It is a really short drop. After a few weeks we stopped putting the mat next to the bed. He has fallen out two or three times onto the rug since, and again has been perfectly fine.

What if my baby gets out of bed in the middle of the night?

When Calvin wants us, he does crawl out of his bed, usually to the gate at his doorway and yells for us there. Other times he will get out of bed and play with a toy or look at a book. This is part of the independence piece. We might like to dictate when a child sleeps, but in the long run, the child needs to sleep when he is tired, not when someone else decides he needs to sleep. We are still in the learning part of this process. Sometimes a baby thinks 2 a.m. is party time, but eventually (hopefully?) he will learn that he needs to sleep at night.

From birth, Calvin slept in a Moses basket in our room. We began daytime naps on the floor bed (usually with Jameson napping beside him) when Calvin was a few weeks old. Because he was a big baby (9 lbs 1 oz at birth), Calvin quickly outgrew his Moses basket and moved to the floor bed in his own room at seven weeks old.

Another bonus: sometimes we peek into Calvin’s room and see him in some pretty funny sleep positions.

I am far from an expert on this.  It is still a work in progress for us, but so far we love the floor bed! Of course, we are first time parents, so we don’t know any different. I understand that it might still sound crazy to most people, but I wanted to shed a little light on why we made such a seemingly strange decision for our nursery. Please feel free to ask questions!