In our Montessori home, we use a floor bed with our babies from a pretty young age. Immediately after birth, our babies sleep during the night in a smaller bassinet in our master bedroom, then take naps in their floor bed after a couple weeks. But, for both Gus and Teddy around 3 months we noticed that our close presence was starting to disrupt their sleep patterns. At this point we moved them both to their floor bed for night sleep as well.
*As always I am just sharing our sleep experience using Montessori. I am not offering medical or safety advice. Please do not feel any judgement if you choose to use a crib, cosleep, or room share. The only advice I want to give is for you to follow your child and your intuition when it comes to sleep. *
So while floor bed sleeping isn't new to us, we did have sort of a different challenge this time around with Teddy - winter. Because of where his birthday lands, Gus didn't move into his floor bed until the end of winter when days were getting warmer. Teddy, on the other hand, started sleeping in the floor bed at the start of winter. This presented a couple unique challenges.
Using a Montessori Floor Bed in the Winter
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(Typically Teddy has a floor bed frame from Sprout Kids but Henry is borrowing it until his bed frame arrives.)
Total honesty time, a floor bed is colder closer to the floor than a crib (Nora and Henry both used a crib as infants). This cold did cause Teddy to wake the first couple chilly nights. And since babies aren't confined, I'm not comfortable adding a heater to the room that could potential be played with by the baby. But, we figured out a system for keeping him warm, cozy and sleeping!
First, we added a fleece blanket to the mattress. Instead of placing around Teddy (which is not recommended based on SIDS guidelines) we wrapped the adult sized blanket around the mattress. This way it is snugly in place but provides a much warmer feel to the mattress than a standard crib sheet, but cannot be removed by the baby.
Next, we made sure we were dressing Teddy warmly. We went with two layers, a fleece or cotton sleeper (depending on just how cold it was) and a sleep sack. I know that sometimes people recommend against sleep sacks in Montessori environments because they can potentially restrict a baby's freedom of movement. Honestly, that has never been my experience. Gus used one and could roll, crawl and eventually stand in it. Nora learned to walk in one. So, we use one. I love that they can come in a variety of thicknesses and materials to fit your climate and preferences.
Finally, we continued to use a topponcino for sleep. I feel comfortable with using it for sleep as it is not loose like a blanket. It provides just a nice little layer of warmth.
