I’ve been trying this out the past few days. Yep, my room as become one giant bed. Naps have been getting a little better…. &night time… well… not so much. I ended up on the floor bed last night with a baby that was up for most of the night. The two nights prior it went pretty well. It’s easy to get her down to sleep… it is just that once she wakes up I have to decide to make the difficult effort to keep her on the floor bed or bring her in my bed. And after a very long day by myself, with zero breaks, it seems near impossible to fight the solo bed battle. I always lose and end up with a baby on top of my arm tucked under my chin. I’m doing what I can to stick with no more night feedings and only allow feedings after 5:30 AM (or preferably once the sun is up), but again, sometimes I just don’t have the energy.
I’m finding that besides my lack of energy, the main problem with keeping her asleep in her own bed is her constant amount of moving and sitting up in her sleep. Every few minutes to every hour she sits up in a daze and falls back over. This is fine… until she falls over against the wall…. or off the mattress. This floor bed is practically a queen size mattress and she still manages to roll on the floor. I am the most still sleeper I’ve ever met, so to see this much movement is quite ridiculous to me… but she is a baby… and she is ridiculous.
My main goal here is to get her accustomed to her mattress… and not mine. To have her feel secure enough to sleep in her own bed, knowing: I’m right here if she needs me. &Eventually… (hopefully sooner rather than later) move her into her own space (again).
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Great post and lovely pics!
Had to share: http://minipiccolini.com/2012/05/cosy-montessori-style-floor-beds/
oh my goodness. I feel like I posted so many times about where the bedding is from…. but I realized I haven't really. It's from Anthropologie… clearance! A house-warming gift from my amazing mom 🙂
still dying to know where the bedding came from. not sure if i missed it in a post somewhere, but i want it. i need it. i gotta have it.
can we just talk about the bedding for a sec?! it's completely amazing!!!!!!!!!!!! Where is it from?!
PS – i feel for you on cutting off night feedings…it's so so so hard…we stopped around 1 year with my son and it took about 2-3 weeks for him to settle at night…he still nurses when he wakes up and before bed and he's 20 months!
firstly, i have said it before but it bears repeating: i love your style!
secondly (and more the meat of this comment): i still nurse my 11month old at night but have managed to cut it down to 2 feedings (usually…though not lately…thanks top two teeth!). that being said, quinn is a restless sleeper and demands entirely too much of the bed. he has actually been sleeping in his own crib or else in the co-sleeper in our room (on those crazy teething nights especially). so i get where you are coming from!
i have read some of "The No Cry Sleep Method" book that talks about trying to cut back on nighttime feedings. i'll let you know if it works 🙂
in the meantime, i love reading about what a great mama you are and so much enjoy the little peaks into your life.
I have always lived in fear of letting any of my girls sleep or cuddle in my bed for exactly this reason. I know if they put up a fuss I would just be too tired to say no and put them back in their own bed.
Good luck.
can i just have your room? i love it. the white and the bright colors… i am dying for them.
We're going through the same thing! Brees just started waking up in the middle of the night, wide awake, wanting to play and hang out! And recently she actually rolled out of bed and I almost died. So, when she wakes up for that 2 am feeding/play session, we've started putting her back in her bed right next to ours. She has NOT been happy about it but each night gets a little better. I just did a post about these bumpers we bought, they are small and compact yet keep these crazy kids from rolling out and onto the floor: http://soulsingingliv.blogspot.com/2011/08/thank-you-and-solutions.html
Good luck!!!
How adorable!
I know I'm going to have a horrible time trying to get my little one to let go of night feedings. Luckily that's a ways away (He's only seven weeks old) but still, I'm not looking forward to it. 🙁 It HAS to be hard to tell them no, especially when we know they don't understand why. Ugh!
xo, Ashley
we're co-sleepin with p-man right now and while, at the moment i want to co sleep with him until he's like 36 years old, i will probably fight the battle you're fighting at some point! hang in there drea!!!
also, if you find something that helps her stop the sitting up at night, please please share! JL does pushups all night in his sleep, each time banging against my face. it sucks.
I'll be the annoying mom and recommend a book when you didn't ask for recommendations. Dr. Sears's The Baby Sleep book is really awesome! It doesn't have "rules" on how to help baby sleep, since each child and parent is different, but it gives really great tips on how to deal with different sleeping issues with children of different temperments. Co-sleeping and night nursing is great if it works, but if it's making you more tired than rested, it's no good for you! I'm using the book with JL right now, since the kid is crazy violent and a mover in his sleep. He's sort of cosleeping right now, but the other night I found him asleep with one leg dangling off our bed. I'm hoping to find a sort of "plan" that will work to make night nursing less and less so we can all get more sleep. Maybe it would be worth a read?
xo
Hahaha..We're trying to transition from co-sleeping to..I'm going through the same thing with my daughter..currently we've been sleeping on an air mattress on the floor of her her room..She'll sleep in her crib until midnight or so giving me some free mommy time and then won't be able to sleep without being held..Drives me nuts! She totally does the sit straight up all dazed and then sleep crawls straight into the wall..She does it in her crib too which wakes her up, it almost makes me think her crib is too small.
I'd HAPPILY come to Florida to build things for M (for you, really!) Can ya send me a plane ticket? Chicago to FL isn't so far!
Hey girl! Story of my life! A reader suggested a good article about night weaning attachment parenting style. I'll look it up for you if you haven't already seen it.
Xoxo.
Mar
Oh and like Emily said, you could use a crib bumper or a few thin chair cushions for the wall and then a toddler bed guard rail for the other side.
the one thing i've learned with parenting is that each.child.is.different. and you gotta do what you gotta do.
i nursed all three of my kids and each for a different period of time. i co slept with one and it didn't work out with the other. by the time jess arrived it was a little more of tough love of life in the crib, but my hands are full. turns out after a few nights of that tough love she digs her crib. who would have thought. that would have NEVER worked with jonas. he still sneaks in our bed and every morning is there!
i agree with ya, you make adjustments to your lifestyle. it's what we do. it's in our nature. she'll get it eventually and eventually you'll get the sleep 🙂
I have the very same problem only my little gal is older, 2.5, it's incredible how much she moves in the night, it's mind boggling. She sits up, crawls all over the bed and then plonks herself down, I've woken to find her legs dangling off the side. Energetic in the day, energetic at night.good luck. X
Oh, I feel you!! We have been co-sleeping with our almost 11 month old since he was 2 weeks. It was great until recently and man, does that kid flip and kick all over the bed. We too will be trying to transition to a floor bed. Kudos to you, mama, I am exhausted and I have a husband who takes the little flounder every morning so I can get an hour of sleep. You must be so tired!
Oh my goddness! I feel for you. Good luck with the new arrangement. xo, rv
http://aneclecticheap.blogspot.com/
Ahhh I feel your pain. My 10 month old boy would stay practically (and has) attached to me at night. Sleeping with him has now become painful for me with all the kicks to the bladder and such. Im working on the crib sleeping now. He'll fall asleep at 8 and wake up a handful of times mostly sitting or standing in his crib while crying with his eyes closed. I swear every night its a test to see if I'll cave and plop him down next to me in bed. And if I'm honest most nights I do.
@pol and Samantha— I totally get what you're saying, I really really do.. and I wish that worked for us. I am a co-sleeping supporter– and very obviously a breast-feeding, nursing supporter— these two things together make sense and should create the perfect combination for easy sleeping… unfortunately for M and I it doesnt (I REALLY wish it did). Even with just the two of us in the bed it is chaos. I've thought about filimg her sleep before so people could understand what its like to share a bed with this child. I plan on breastfeeding for a while longer, I don't have a set date or plan, I'm just trying to wean some of the night feedings so she can sleep in her own bed, mostly through the night so maybe I can get some more sleep, cause co-sleeping with this monster isn't working. I love her, but my god she is the worst bed-sharer.
@marjorie- He's gotta be at least half JRT, but probably at least 80%. He was a stray I picked up form the shelter so they don't know how much of what he is. 🙂
@em- come make me some. thanks 🙂
I agree with the first commenter, allowing my son to nurse at night and sleep with me was pretty much the only way we got any sleep. He nursed for 3.5 years total when he finally weaned while I was pregnant. When he did finally wean it was pretty easy and painless for everyone involved as well, which to me means he was ready and I am all for easy and painless.
that floor bed needs some low padded sides (walls) to keep that baby from rolling out!
So cute! What kind of dog do you have? It looks similar to our dog, a Jack Russell Terrier.
Do you think that giving up night feeding will help you get more sleep? Are you planning on weaning altogether in the near future? I found that keeping on with allowing night time suckling meant more sleep for me – just a roll over, quick suckle, baby/toddler back off and those super sleepy hormones meaning I dozed back off too. Of course night feeding at this point may well mean you are in it for the long term – I was still nursing 3 yo daughter at night when son arrived – then both nursed at night for several years usntil they both gave up at the same time. For me it was about maximising sleep – and night nursing worked for us.