The Montessori floor bed

 I’m no expert in Montessori, but I’m extremely interested and have been trying to put forth some principles in to the way we are raising Henry.  I just bought this book and am eager to learn more!  So, why a floor bed?  According to the theory, a Montessori infant should be able to get in and out of bed on his own power.  A crib hampers a child from making their own decisions.  Essentially, you’ve made all the decisions for them – you put them in the crib and you take them out.  With a floor bed, they are empowered.  A double edge sword, you might say.  Nonetheless, a floor bed allows your child to begin to understand their power.

We put a double bed mattress on the floor and placed it in the corner of the room, up against 2 walls.  Yes, it’s a little college for an infant, but this is much easier than using a crib.  I can easily nurse him and then tip-toe out without waking him.  He's going to have to sleep in a real bed at some point, so why not start now?  He's never even come close to rolling off of it and if he did, there are soft pillows on the floor next to it.  Henry sleeps in a Sleeping Bag right in the middle of the bed.  All of that heavy bedding you see in the photo remains at the bottom of the bed unless I sleep in there with him, I use it for myself!

His floor bed is not actually in his bedroom, it's in the spare room, which has basically nothing else in it.  Once he starts crawling around, I imagine we will close the door.  You could, I guess, call the whole room his crib but that is getting way too technical for this mum and there are way more qualified Montessori gurus out there.  I offer this just as a real world implementation of the Montessori floor bed.  Our family couldn’t be happier with this sleep solution!