skipping the crib? - Page 2

[tzs]

we just transitioned our 18 month to a twin-sized mattress on the floor (in a corner of the room). actually, it's a 4 inch foam matress topper which is comfy enough for her and lower to the ground. i love it so much i wish i had done it sooner. it took a couple nights of easing her into it (she slept in a crib previously and really did like it...i think the openness & newness was a little freaky for her) but it was way easier than i thought, took maybe 10 minutes of me sitting in the rocker while she got comfortable, and i got lucky and never had to deal with her constantly getting out. even if she had, it wouldn't have been a big deal, i just keep her door closed. it's so nice to be able to come in and cuddle with her when she wakes up. 

i had wanted to do it way younger, montessori-style like pp mentioned but i just kept putting it off. next kid might get one as soon as they move out of our bedroom.

i honestly now think a crib matress would be a little small. we just spent the week at SIL's house and i had her on a crib matress on the floor and she fell off so many times one night, waking up crying, that i moved her to a pack and play.

[Breezy88]

Just so you know...I had a railing and my dd fell out anyways. It was horrible!  It is best to put the mattress on the floor.

[MammaG]

Originally Posted by tzs 

i honestly now think a crib matress would be a little small. we just spent the week at SIL's house and i had her on a crib matress on the floor and she fell off so many times one night, waking up crying, that i moved her to a pack and play.

I guess everyone is different....my big boys are 6.5 and 5 years old. They both still sleep on the crib mattresses. It's small for my big guy, but he sleeps all balled up and if he needs more room, he sleeps with us a lot anyway.

We trasitioned the kids to the crib mattress on the floor beside our bed at around 2. Earlier would probably have worked just fine. At around 3, they were ready to be off the floor and we took the side off the crib, which is one of those convertible cribs intended to be a toddler bed. They still sleep in those when they are not in with us, and during the day they make comfy little sofas for the boys to read or have quiet time on. I'm kind of glad they managed to use the toddler bed function, because those cribs got a combined use (three kids now) of maybe ten minutes total.

Baby #3 is 17 months and showing no sign of night weaning, but I am thinking of setting up a crib mattress by my side of the bed because he is a restless sleeper and I think he may just want more room to himself without bumping into Mamma, Dadda or one of his brothers.

[goldenwillow]

No crib family here!  My Dad actually bought us one because when I was a babe, I fell out of the run down one.  We sold it on Craigslist. 

We sleep on a king futon with a frame my DH built.  Just bought DS a full mattress and built him his own frame too.  His bed is at the end of ours... our room is one awesomely huge bed!  Works great until he is ready for his room.  DS is 22 months. 

[shinford]

I agree with a lot of the previous posts...go for it!  As long as there's a rail on the bed your little one should be mostly protected from falling out.  And keeping it simple with a mattress/boxspring will keep the bed lower to the ground in the event of a fall.  

[bethanyclaire]

All of my kids have gone from our bed to their own twin, never used a crib. We succumbed to the buy-buy-buy mentality with our first and bought a crib with a whole matching furniture set. I put him in it once for 2 minutes to take a picture... that was it! LOL! We gave it way within a few months. 

DS1 had a twin with bed rails at 18 months, though he still mostly slept with us. Once DD was born he was in his twin most of the time.

DD slept next to me until about 6 months when I realized she really hated co-sleeping. I put a twin bed up next to our queen for a few months and she still wasn't really happy. By 12 months she was in her own twin bed in her room. We didn't use a bed rail because one side of her bed was against the wall and she was a very still sleeper.

DS2 is currently 15 months and is sleeping part of the night in his own room in his twin bed. He is also uncomfortable spending all night in our bed and he tosses and turns and kicks me all night. We don't use bed rails for him, either. I put his sheepskin in the center of his mattress and I think it helps "ground" him because he never falls out of bed. To be fair, his room is only one in the house with wall-to-wall carpet and a carpet pad, so I don't worry too much about him falling. I also put his pillows on the floor just in case. It's been 4 months and he has been fine so far.

For all of the kids I did a week or two with the mattress right on the floor, two or three week with the mattress and box spring on the floor and then put the bed onto the frame after they'd gone a month or so without falling out of bed.

So, yes, you aren't crazy and it can certainly be done! :)

[RVKF]

Lots of great suggestions here!

My daughter was somewhat older (2 1/2) by time we actually got her to spend any part of the night in her own bed (we also didn't night wean so that's a big difference too...). 

We made lots of false starts along the way including trying to use her crib mattress on the floor as well as buying a toddler bed for the crib mattress.   I was determined to try and use the crib mattress because we had spent a lot of money buying an organic one before she was born and I was frustrated to have *literally* never used it.  Using the mattress on the floor just never made it seem like a bed to her though and was more of a play spot.  So we next tried buying a cheap toddler bed.  That worked well for her but was awful for me.  I had to climb in to nurse her to sleep and would be horribly uncomfortable stuffed into the tiny bed.  Especially on the nights when I fell asleep too!

In the end, what worked for us was a twin bed pushed against the wall on one side.  I climb in with her at bedtime, nurse, rub her back, etc...   I bought rails but never even put them up.  I still leave a pillow on the outer edge of the bed but she never falls out or rolls around even though she's a wild sleeper in our bed.  Go figure!   In the end, I wish we had gone straight to the twin bed.  It might have made the transition easier and certainly would have saved me some neck pain!

Good luck!

[Fireflyx]

I'm glad to see this thread. Right now the Seedling is only 3 months old and I' plan to co-sleep until around a year, year and a half however I'd heard that it was impossible to get them into their own beds for years if they co-slept.  Glad to see that that isn't true. 

My mom is watching him at my house for a few months and is very pro-crib but he's my child and will co-sleep whether she agrees or not.  However, I don't mind having the crib set up for naps and for a safe place to put him when I need my hands free. 

Plus - what a great idea about the crib mattress on the floor - only problem is the cat and that his future tiny room has a very hot radiator right there.  Might be able to move or turn off radiator though.

[mt_gooseberry]

Our 15mo DD sleeps on a crib mattress on the floor in our bedroom.  We started trying to move her out of our bed at about a year, because she was not letting us get any sleep.  It has been a bit of a struggle to get her to want to sleep semi-separate from us, but we have been just kind of going with the flow as opposed to trying to force her out of our bed.  She has actually just spent her first week straight sleeping every night on the mattress, but last night ended up in our bed again.  It sure is nice to be able to get some sleep ourselves, and I figure that as long as we aren't making the switch traumatic for her (hence the 3 month transition period) we're not doing any harm by breaking up the family bed! 

[RVKF]

Fireflyx- we had a radiator next problem too.  We turned it off (one of two in the room so temp wasn't the problem) and I tied her crib bumper to it to make it soft in case she rolled. It worked for naps when she napped.  And, it looked cute as I loved her bedding even if we weren't using it much!  I don't know if that will work for you but thought I'd share.