Montessori Floor Bed Update

Potamus has been sleeping in his floor bed for approximately two weeks. This means that mama monk-monk has been sleeping in Potamus’ floor bed for approximately 1.5 weeks. There are better nights than others, like two nights ago where he slept for 5 hours in a row there (but this was AFTER a 2 hour struggle of crying and moping around carrying his tambourine and banging it on the floor). Last night was rough, to say the least, with an almost 3 hour crying/whining jag from 3-5:45am. Sigh. Sometimes I end up sleeping next to him for blocks of time, and other times I’m able to creep away unnoticed and curl up in our luxurious king-size memory foam heaven. Because, lemme tell ya, a twin mattress from your parents’ old bunk bed, placed on hardwood floor, is…less than comfy.

But these moments, where he’s in dreamland by himself, or curled up next to me, seem SO worth it (the next day, because in the moment where he’s thrashing around crying, I do tend to want to pull my hair out).

From Co-Sleeping to Montessori Floor Bed

It’s like all in one day my baby has become a big boy. While we’ve been slowly weaning for awhile now (due to my working and Potamus REFUSING breastmilk from a bottle/sippy/regular cup. He’s been living off Greek yogurt and cereal and a little bit of water and nursing at night. But this week, despite his fever and and snotty nose, he has managed to begin drinking whole milk from a sippy cup (without the slow-flow prevention). While it’s still really assisted, he’s managed to drink several ounces and today even began to suck from the spout rather than chewing on it. While we’re not planning on fully weaning anytime soon, this sippy cup milk drinkin’ is gonna come in handy during daycare.

And, in other big boy news, Potamus is rejecting co-sleeping in our bed. We’ve been transitioning him to his big boy floor bed, ala the Montessori philosophy, but he hadn’t yet embraced SLEEPING in his bed. We’ve read stories and he’s played quietly in the bedroom while I’ve been resting on the bed, but two nights ago we slept for part of the night in bed with me next to him, and then last night he fell asleep in his bed and didn’t just sleep for the 2-3 hours he normally does, he slept for FOUR hours, AND THEN he woke for quick snack and slept for ALMOST FIVE HOURS STRAIGHT. Holy moly (though I wish that I could say that I got that much sleep in a row, since I was anxious without his breathing right next to me.)

My baby is growing up.

Sigh.

He then he also slept in his big boy bed for his nap today.

I honestly love co-sleeping. With Potamus at almost a year old, it got me thinking how he has been that close to me for the whole pregnancy and then almost an entire year post-pregnancy. No wonder it was hard for me to not hear his little breathing next to me! I’m trying to not second guess sleeping with him in our bed this long, since he clearly was ready right then to transition, and while I know we’ll have plenty more snuggle sessions and he’ll probably crawl into bed to co-sleep some nights or mornings, it just felt like a such a sign of his increasing independence.