The other morning I walked into Juniper’s room to find this:
A true Montessori moment.
If you google for images of floor beds, you come across a lot of
pictures like this, so I was expecting it, but it was a little weird. Juniper
has been rolling over in her sleep a lot lately. Usually she cries, and I go in to find her
playing superman on her belly, unable to turn back over to go to sleep. I guess since she’s always slept on her back,
and played on her tummy, she doesn’t realize that sleep can happen on her belly
too. Until two days ago.
This wasn’t the first time I’ve found her in a strange place, but
it was the first time that she’d still been asleep. My first instinct was to go in and turn her
back over (or at the very least re-position her so that all of her body was on
the mattress), and probably if had been the middle of the night I would
have. But since it was 6am, and I knew
she’d be up for the day in the next hour, I left her. About a half hour later she started squirming
around so I moved her back onto the bed on her back and she slept for a little
longer that way.
It probably seems a little weird to leave a baby in an awkward
position, but I do think that is all part of using a floor bed. You’re letting the child figure out how to
move around, and also letting them feel that they have power over their own
body. She was sleeping peacefully in her
awkward position, so why move her? Once
she wasn’t happy anymore, and she wasn’t able to get to a comfortable position
on her own, I stepped in and helped her out.
As with all the Montessori works, it’s all about finding that fine
balance between letting the child work independently (and possibly struggle)
without letting her get too frustrated.
If frustration (as opposed to a little struggle to accomplish something)
sets in, then learning stops.
So, I guess you could say that the floor bed is working out for
us. Juniper seems to prefer it to her
crib, and I prefer it to her crib (I can still lay down to nurse her in the
night and pretend that I am still asleep).
Granted, she isn’t crawling yet, so that may throw a wrench in things,
but we’ll see. I’m actually looking
forward to her being able to crawl to her sleep space when she is tired (this
is the floor bed in practice ideal, but I realize that it may not happen). We haven’t gotten rid the crib yet, it’s just
in the basement in case we decide we need it in a few months, but for now I’m
sold.
