Hello! So I did something really fun when I was 32 weeks pregnant. I built a floor bed for my little girl. With help from my dad, we built the most adorable bed that Kate loves! And I'm super proud of us!
It was very exhausting. But that could have possibly been the pregnancy... haha! And I didn't take really any pictures of the process, just a couple of the end result. That could have been cause of the exhaustion! :)
I stumbled upon floor beds last summer while browsing pinterest. I knew we were planning to have kids close in age, so I started researching them more for then time came. I knew I didn't want to buy two cribs and from my research, babies are perfectly capable of making the switch at a year old. This slightly terrified me but I thought, oh well... I have plenty of time!
Flash forward to a couple months later when I found out I was pregnant. Operation floor bed was in full force. I had to build the bed, get Kate sleeping in the bed with zero issues before new baby comes AND make sure she continues to sleep through the night so I didn't have two babies up all night.
Finally-- March rolls around and I've got Kate's big girl room ready- we moved her out of the nursery and into a new room- but no floor bed. I started to freak out moving her room AND bed all in the same weekend. So we moved her old crib in the new room and let her sleep in it for a few weeks for a good transition. The last day of March, we moved the new bed in.
I used the plans from OH HAPPY PLAY and she has lots of great information on her blog about the benefits of these floor beds. I will say, the plans didn't help a whole lot. The cut list was good. That's about all. We had to wing a lot of this. Which is why it took a minute to finish! We did change one thing- we didn't put the front rail on the bed, we left it open. It's still sturdy. I wouldn't hang from the top of it but it's all good. My husband is so tall that I just figured he would be bumping his head every single day. And in the end, I think it looks just as good!
I've converted numerous friends into floor bed fans and I think these things are just so fun! I mean look how happy Kate was the day we moved her in.
She was so excited. She wouldn't allow anyone to get in her bed. I was slightly terrified of how the night would go. We moved her in on a Sunday afternoon so she had already napped. We were ready for nighttime sleep. And guess what-- she did fantastic! She went right to sleep, stayed asleep and waited for us to come get her out of bed the next morning. I was totally prepared to find her on the floor, up in the middle of the night playing or trying to get out of the room.
I thought surely we just got lucky. Night 2 comes and goes with no problems, night 3... 4...5...6... you get the picture. She didn't even roll out of the bed until probably the third week. And she's only done it three times since March. It literally doesn't phase her. Everything I hear a THUD on the monitor, I go in and she's curled up in a ball on the floor asleep. That's wild!
I wish I could give you some super awesome tips on how we did this. But I really can't! I think some of the things we did leading up to the change, helped us out a lot. I also think we did it while she was young enough to not really know the difference. She never tried to crawl out of her crib, she never even really stood up in it. So I'll take a stab at what we did and maybe it will help someone :)
1. Once Kate started sleeping through the night (AT 10 MONTHS!!!) we never let her sleep anywhere but her crib and she always slept alone. Before that she was rocked a lot but typically always in her crib and alone. Never in our bed.
2. I started putting Kate down awake in her crib. I KNOW, I know.. they tell you to do this from the get-go. But I didn't. Once I started to get a belly during pregnancy, I was waking her up when I laid her down. One night I just rocked her for about 2 minutes, told her I loved her and laid her in her crib. She didn't make a peep and was asleep a couple minutes later. It made my mama heart so sad because I love that time with my girl but I thought OMG how long has she been able to do this?! I really do credit daycare for the help on this one.
3. White noise. The while noise comes on and gf knows it's time to sleep. Also she sleeps with a paci, only at night. So when we hand her the paci, it's time to go to bed.
4. She moved to a cot on the floor at daycare about 6 months before we moved her. I think this helped! She doesn't get up and wander around at school, so why would she at home?
5. She's young! She didn't understand yet that she could get out of bed alone. Even if it was on the floor and she climbed in by herself. I'm guessing on all of this. But even to this day, she does not get out of her bed until we come in the room and say, "Good Morning!"
6. And routine. We do the same thing every night. She gives mom and dad and hug and kiss and then runs and jumps in bed.
OKAY-- that's all I can think of. It's really not that exciting but it worked for us. And I'm so glad... cause mama loves her sleep as much as Kate does. Let's just get this newborn sleeping now.... :)
I'll be back soon to blog every single detail of Kate's new big girl room! I love it! XOXO
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