Floor bed logistics

GMH1183

DS is 9 months old and hates his crib. He is currently full time bedsharing with DH and I. This is an okay arrangement, but we (DH and I) would like to get the little guy out of our bed eventually (read: sooner than later!). We had to move our mattress to the floor after DS started crawling all over the bed. We put his crib mattress next to ours and he will sometimes sleep there for a couple hours. So, I was thinking about a floor bed in his own room. Tell me your floor bed stories, especially about how it worked for your 9-ish month old and older. Do you use the crib mattress? A full size mattress? A futon type mattress? Also, if you care to share the logistics (and/or pictures) of your baby proofing in the room that would be great.

Jill+Dave

My daughter is almost 2 1/2 & we still bedshare about 50% of the time.  She sleeps in between us so no problems with her rolling off the sides but she has rolled off the end once or twice.  (Was never hurt or even crying either time) 

When she turned 2 we brought her crib mattress into our room.  It's about 5 feet away from my side of the bed.  She does fine there but tells me it's scary & that's why she doesn't like to sleep in it.  She has a nightlight & a little stuffed animal but that doesn't help - she just prefers to sleep with us like most kids.  Once she's asleep, she stays there most of the evening.  Sometimes she'll get up & sleep with me for about 1 more hr before we have to get up in the morning.  She does roll & hang off of the bed sometimes but not a big deal.  As soon as we notice it, we just pick her up & put her back in her bed.

 Not sure when we'll try to move her to her own room.  Honestly neither she nor I are ready for that.  It gives me peace of mind knowing that she's close & safe.

lovekissedmama

Around your LOs age we purchased a second mattress to put beside ours. Our queen mattress is on the box spring on the floor while DDs mattress (double) is by itself on the floor. Hers is pushed up to the wall while ours is pushed next to hers. This combined with the height difference makes it difficult for her to escape without me noticing. Most nights I sleep entirely with her but sneak away sometimes. H always sleeps on our mattress. This arrangment works beautifully for us! H and I still get some cuddle time (not as much as we would like but enough for now) and we all get the max amount of sleep possible. At 9 months I would not have done a floor bed in a separate room because DD was putting everything in her mouth. I wouldn't have been able to trust my babyproofing skills enough to sleep decently.

ncbelle

We did a full size futon mattress on the floor of Callum's room when we transitioned from bed sharing.  I wanted something big enough that would allow me to sleep with him as needed.  He was 15 months though so I didn't do much in the way of baby proofing.

Jena503

Mine moved to their own floor beds around 16 and 19mo, so not quite as young. At that age I would have a lot more worries about making sure the mattress is snug to the wall or completely away from it so there's no where to get trapped, etc.

We moved them to twin beds in their own rooms - for DS this meant moving him upstairs and across the house from us. It's not scary because there's a monitor in his room, and with a waterproof pad on his bed he can't turn over without waking us up - forget about getting out of bed without us knowing! We hear him on the monitor and we go up to him if he wakes up. It's not a big deal. (But yes, I was anxious about it before we did it!)

We used twin beds so that one of us could lay down with them and because our crib mattress is so freaking hard that I don't blame my kids for hating it.

All furniture in the room is strapped or bolted to the wall and the eletrical outlets are covered. There's nothing that looks fun to climb in the room. There's a gate at the top of the stairs. That's all we've done in their rooms as far as baby proofing.

laurapalmer

We transitioned to a floor bed about a month ago when DS was 10 months. 

My DH co-sleeps on a twin bed in DS's room. The twin bed is against a wall and we put the crib mattress right next to it.  We ended up buying a thinner crib mattress (Ikea) so he would be closer to the floor if he rolled off. Because this gave us two crib mattresses, we put the old (taller) one on the other side.

 I was planning on keeping this set up temporarily while DS got used to his new space but he likes crawling around all of the mattresses during the day while he plays. When he gets a bit older and starts walking I'll take the crib mattresses out and he'll sleep on the twin bed. 

We did baby proof his room by getting rid of the dresser, switching from a tall unstable bookshelf to two low short ones, and moving the lamp and cords behind the bookshelf out of reach. I also cleaned out his closet so he can crawl around in there and put a few toys in small baskets on the floor.  I tried to go for a more Montessori type environment so each square in the bookshelf has one toy that he can reach. 

 

annabwashere

I started my son on a floor bed when he was 12 months old, but I do wish I started him sooner.

He has a crib mattress on the floor (we had him in a crib before). The first few times he slept on it, he would roll off, but he wasn't hurt because the mattress is just 4 inches high anyway.

I rolled up a towel, stuck it under the bedsheets and lined it up with the edge of the open side of the bed (the side not pushed up against the wall, that is). It seems to keep him on the bed. Not so much that it's too high for him to roll over (it is not) but I think he feels the obstacle and just doesn't roll past it.

Anyway, you can see pics of many rooms with floor beds on Bedstart (bedstart.com).