Baby on Floor?

[desertgirl01]

This may be better suited in the Family Safety forum....

From birth, my just-turned 10-month old baby has co-slept with me and DH. When she became more mobile, around 3 months or so, we'd place her in her crib for the first part of the night until we were ready to sleep with her. That lasted all of a couple of weeks. Now, as soon as she feels she's being lowered into the crib, she wakes instantly and starts crying which quickly elevates into screaming. The easiest thing has been for me to nurse her in bed and then read until I'm also ready to fall asleep. Lately though, I've really been feeling trapped in bed.

I'm tired of fighting the crib issue, I'm tired of having no out-of-bed-evening time, well, I'm just plain tired, but that's a whole other issue. I love co-sleeping, but I'd like it to be on my terms, not 'prisoner' to my baby's needs. I know that sounds horrible, but, reading the threads here, I'm reassured that I'm not alone in that feeling.

What I really want to know is the safety of having my baby sleep on the floor of her room. I've set up a safe but cozy nest for her and her room is completely baby-proofed. I nurse her to sleep lying next to her, and have my own little nest that I crawl into when I'm worried about her all alone or for her first waking or two. Eventually, I'd like to move her crib mattress down to the floor.

We tried the setup this weekend, and I nursed her to sleep lying next to her, got up when she was sleeping, and had an awesome 1.5 hours to do whatever. She woke up once, I nursed back down, and then she slept from 10-4am...one of the longest stretches ever. I even came into her room and slept with her from 1.30am on... The other two nights were more normal, with her waking every couple of hours, but I did have those blissful evening hours to do whatever with! I slept with DH for a few hours, then worried about the baby all alone, so I slept with her for another couple hours till I was too uncomfortable to handle the floor anymore and we both move to the family bed. I do intend to continue to part-time cosleep, but like I said, I need the first couple of hours to myself (and dh too).

We also used the nest for a couple of naps this weekend too. I had a little baby freedom (almost finished planting my garden, yay), and she actually slept longer than normal in her room (usually she naps on me).

Does this sound like a doable situation? Are there pitfalls to sleeping on the floor that I'm not aware of--we really have made sure her nest and her room is totally safe (furniture bolted to the walls, nothing she can pull down, yadda yadda). Her room is just a few steps from the ours (oh, and we do shut her door so she doesn't wake and explore the house (not that she ever wakes silently, but there's always that off-chance). I'm sure baby girl would like to continue status quo, but as I'm working on 4-5 hours of broken sleep every single night, I've reached my endpoint, and need things to change, even if it's just a few hours at the beginning of the night.

[llwr]

Personally, I think that sounds great.

[ollyoxenfree]

I saw this in new posts.

An entire society traditionally sleeps on the floor (Japan). We didn't co-sleep past the first few months, but instead of moving from crib to bed, my dc moved from crib to futon and slept on the floor from about 1 year to 3 or 4 years' old. I think it makes a lot of sense for infants and young children to sleep on the floor. I tell lots of parents to invest in a futon.

I think if it works for you, and you have baby-proofed the area, then you've found a brilliant solution.

[~Charlie's~Angel~]

I have already been doing this with my now 15 month old since abou the same age. I dont see a thing wrong with it.

[Llyra]

DS slept on a closed-cell foam camping mat in the corner of my room for a few weeks, when he was crawling age, while I was saving the money to buy him a mattress to toss on the floor. It worked just fine. Be prepared of course to find baby in some odd locations, however. DS used to wake up and go exploring and then fall asleep clear across the room (which incidentally was the ONLY TIME he'd EVER fallen asleep without nursing, and the only time he'd ever woken up without screaming bloody murder for me.)

The crib mattress on the floor never worked for us, until they were much older, because it's too small and thus too easy for them to roll off in their sleep and go THUNK on the floor. If you have cushy carpeting this is of course a non-issue, but DH has a dust mite allergy so we don't have much carpeting. The mat on the floor was closer to the ground, so there was no awful thunk.

[desertgirl01]

Thank you all for your responses! I don't often need validation for my parenting choices, but I was really looking for others to say they've btdt and everything turned out okay! Plus, I wanted to make sure I wasn't overlooking some obvious pitfall--I do expect her to end up outside of her bed, somewhere in her room....which seems really sad and lonely to me, but since I check on her constantly it shouldn't be the end of the world for either of us.

Our floors are wood, so I'll keep her off the mattress for a while.

Thanks again!

[~Charlie's~Angel~]

Originally Posted by desertgirl01

I do expect her to end up outside of her bed, somewhere in her room....which seems really sad and lonely to me, but since I check on her constantly it shouldn't be the end of the world for either of us.

I thought the same thing, until I woke up one night to him exploring in the room. Having me right there seemed to be enough security for him that he knew he wasnt alone. It was actually kind of funny to wake up to him playing with one of his toys five feet away.

[balancedmama]

We've done this with both kids, and I think it has worked as well for us as crib-sleeping would have.

[liza-s]

I did this too with my son, although he slept nights on the flor in my room - starting at about 10 months. Once he stopped moving around in his sleep, we moved him to a twin bed in his own room. (DHs snoring was waking him).

For safety - just make sure she can't get stuck any furniture, cords are secured, etc.

For us, this was a good transition step. I also couldn't move DS ater he fell asleep. Up until 4 months ago I went to his room to nurse him during the night as needed (1-2X). A bit awkward, but we all slept better.

[craft_media_hero]

My daughter became a confirmed nest-sleeper and nest-maker about that same age. She is six and still sleeps in a nest on the floor of our room sometimes (heck, about half the time). We keep a feather mattress and sleeping bag rolled up at the foot of our bed in case she comes in at night. No safety issues so far! And this is five years later.

I woudn't feel guilty about it at all. As long as there are no cold drafts and she's out of harm's way, it can be a great transitional solution to getting her to sleep independently.

Plus it's so cute when they're a little older and start building their own nests to sleep in. Getting a little choked up here thinking about my little cutie and how dp and I would wake up in the morning and find that she had dragged her pillow and blanket next to our bed and curled up snug as a bug!

[desertgirl01]

It's been 4 nights with the nest, and she really seems to like it. Just before bedtime we go in there to settle down, read some stories, and she loves playing "baby so sleepy," where she flops face-first into her bed, my pillow and sleeping bag, anywhere soft, and pretends to be sleeping for a couple of seconds. I wouldn't be surprised if she puts herself to sleep one of these nights.

The past 3 nights have been fairly consistent: she sleeps alone until about 12:30, wakes and I go in, nurse and sleep with her, and then we move into the big bed after her second waking, usually around 2:30ish.

c_m_h--your post reminds me that I was a nester too! I used to take all my pillows and blankets and sleep on the closet floor of my room. I still cocoon myself during tv/movie time.

[noobmom]

The nest sounds cozy. I will point out two things for you to keep an eye out for:

1) I would check the floor every day before she goes to sleep to make sure there aren't any small, chokable objects laying around. Although I'm sure you keep things things out of her room as a rule, things could get dropped/kicked into there. Something like a penny or a dried bean, etc.

2) If you close the door, make sure to be careful when you open it. One day she may decide to migrate to right behind the door. You don't want to accidentally bang the door into her!

[wembles]

We co-slept with our son in our bed until he was 11 months old, then moved hi to a twin mattress on the floor in his own room. We love it! He sleeps soooo much better, there. Now, I admit, we do still co-sleep at least a portion of each night with him in his room, but we are getting much better sleep all around. If he wakes up, either myself or DH will go to him and lay with him until he falls back asleep. At that point, if we are still awake-ha!-we return to our own bed. Most nights we will just end up sleeping there, though

We haven't had any safety issues arise. He has woken up and walked out to the living room a couple times, but we always hear him and can go get him, so it isn't a problem. We had a monitor in our bedroom just because it makes me feel better. He is able to get in and out of the bed with ease, and has been since the beginning. He did fall off once, but we keep a lambskin rug near the edge to cushion the fall. No problem!

Good luck! I hope it works out for you!

[dachshund mom]

You might want to try a twin mattress on the floor for your own comfort. We do that for naps and DD has been able to crawl off it for a while now, and she comes to find me. We practiced for maybe a month and she learned to go feet first. I put a couple pillows on the floor just in case she rolls off. She's also able to get off of the big bed most of the time now. I have the opposite problem because DD goes to bed with us late and I'm trapped in bed in the morning. It'll be nice when she can safely get out of our bed in the am.

[desertgirl01]

Yeah, I really do need to change the sleeping arrangement for my own comfort! For me, I'm using an old foam camping pad (I really should pull out the thermarests we have) on top of a playmat (which doesn't seem any more soft than the wood floor), on top of a yoga mat! Still not very comfortable. Twin mattress or twin sized futon would be great.