How We Switched Aluna to a Montessori “Big Girl Bed” at Only 13 Months Old
We bought a house and moved, and in that move, we decided to get rid of some stuff, including Aluna’s crib! I really wanted to get a Montessori bed for her because I loved the look and loved the idea of switching her over to one, and Nic insisted on building it from scratch. So he and his dad planned it out, and even got a little help from little Aluna! Nic finished the bed, then I was like…wait, you didn’t put any railings on it! At first I was really worried! We both decided we would give it a shot, making sure to put pillows and padding on the floor, and I even rolled up some blankets and put them under the sheet to serve as a bumper.
What is and Why a Montessori Bed?
When you search “Montessori Bed” on the internet, you’ll find a variety of beautifully crafted natural wood framed beds that are on the floor. Funny enough, there isn’t really such thing as an actual “Montessori Bed”, and it’s more like “Montessori Inspired".” If you aren’t familiar with the Montessori Method, it’s a method of education that is “child centered'“ and fosters independence in the child by emphasizing hands-on learning and developing “real world” skills. So the idea of the Montessori inspired bed is to have a bed that is on the floor so that you’re allowing the child to have freedom to choose when to go to bed and wake up, and also to have the independence to move freely through their room (safely, of course). And yep, we built Aluna’s as a twin sized big girl bed!
The first time she got in her bed!
This is when she fell asleep with her book! lol!
How we prepared for her first night:
Her first night went exactly as I expected. She cried as soon as we put her down, got up, walked to the door, cried for maybe 3 minutes, then we watched her on the camera walk back to her bed and fall asleep. We were in complete shock. I will be honest though, she DID roll off in the middle of the night, but the great thing about it being a floor bed, is that it isn’t very far off the ground, so she rolled off and onto the pillow. She cried for a few seconds, then crawled back in her bed and fell asleep. She did the same for her nap the next day, but the following night and every day after, she has just fallen right asleep in her bed! One day she actually fell asleep with a book in her hands!!!
When she wakes up in the morning, she may cry for a little bit and walk to the door, but most of the time she will wake up and start playing with her animals or a book!
Before then, we made sure to baby proof the crap out of her room! Here are some of the things we had to have:
Twin Door Outlet Cover : Aluna LOVES to plug and unplug stuff, and this has been soooo clutch around our house in addition to the regular outlet plug covers
Outlet Covers: We have so many of these…and even bought the black ones for parts of our house with black walls
Cord Concealer Kit: It’s nearly impossible to NOT have anything plugged in the house, but you gotta make sure the cables are secured so baby can’t get tangled in them!
Door Knob Cover: Aluna isn’t able to turn doorknobs yet, but wanted to get ahead of the game on this one because she’s getting close!
This is how she fell asleep during her first nap in it! She first cried, walked to the door, then walked back and passed out like this! haha! We ended up adding a second cushion, but we haven’t needed it
How did we know she was ready?
Honestly, we didn’t! But we were confident because of how good of a sleeper she was. Here are some of the things that we have used as our “tool kit” when prepping for Aluna for sleep.
A Regular Routine: This is something we started as soon as she was born! We’ve always been consistent with a bath, some playtime in her room, PJs, brush teeth, read bedtime book (we have been reading Guess How Much I Love You every day since she was born!), turn on the Hatch Rest, then lay down for bed.
Hatch Rest Sleep: I loveeeeee this thing. You can connect it via bluetooth on your phone. I know you might be asking why this would be helpful…but I remember controlling it from my phone, making it a little louder, when I knew we had visitors coming. I wanted to drown out the dogs barking, then I turned it back down once they calmed down. It also has a nightlight, and I changed it to Red, since red light is better for night time :)
Taking Cara Babies Course: I really loved her course and her tips! It helped us sleep train Aluna when she was ready, and we always get compliments on how great of a sleeper she is from anyone who watches her. The only issue we have had was at daycare for nap time, because she is so used to the sound machine and darkness. Once we started leaving the window shades open for her naps, it changed the daycare nap situation significantly!
A Camera that can see the whole room! We have the owlet camera wide lens over her whole room, and then we use the Infant Optics Camera so we don’t have to have the Owlet on our phone the whole time.
I’ve since received tons of messages about it, and I’m hoping this entry will help!