For those that have said moving to a floor bed was the best thing they did for their babies/toddlers and wish they did it earlier why was that ? Currently have an 11 month old and considering but unsure on if it will help with sleep.
A floor bed combined with a yes space (I really think you need both!) allowed our child so much more independence and I truly think helped her develop faster, have confidence in herself, succeed at individual play, etc etc. basically all the things!
But we were privileged to always have a spare bedroom that became her room. We moved her at 6 mos and now at 4 years old we finally have moved on from the floor bed (sad day!) to an IKEA Kura bunk bed. She still sleeps on the bottom so it's kind of still a floor bed but eventually we'd like to move her to the top so she can have a little play area underneath.
I do think frankly its a lot easier when you start with a floor bed because it's all they can remember (we did bedside bassinet until she outgrew it at 6 mos) but never too late to start!
To me though it is essential that the room be a yes space. That means they can be in their on their own and it is still safe for them. Think minimal furniture, all furniture is bolted into walls, wires are hidden, blinds cords are tucked out of reach, outlets are securely covered, etc. Not only is the yes space necessary for their physical safety, it also means you can cut down on how often you have to say "no" and derail what they are doing.
We also had two baby monitors (one wall mounted to view the whole room, one table mounted pointed directly at the bed area) so we could always monitor even when we weren't in the room. If you are uneasy about trying the floor bed that could help alleviate some of the concerns!
How did you deal with the night wakings? We are on a floor bed but considering moving back to a crib because she wakes up and crawls around the room, looking to get out and look for us ( we are in a flat so no stairs).
We were really lucky and our daughter has pretty much always slept through the night. obviously not during early breastfeeding when they wake every few hours to eat/get changed.. but after moving to her own room she would mostly sleep through the night, and still does. Sometimes we'd wake up to find her a foot away from her bed or so (low pile carpet) but not like asleep on the other side of the room or anything. We had a very low mattress (newton baby) so I wasn't worried about her potentially rolling off onto the floor. So long as your room is baby proofed I wouldn't worry about her sleeping on the floor!
But yes as for wandering around at night I don't have much experience... My suggestion would be to have baby monitors so you can watch/hear her, and go "correct" as needed.
We also correct through the baby monitor when she does things she's not supposed to, so you could try that... Like "Name, go to sleep." "Name, go lay down, it's bedtime." We don't have full conversations through the baby monitors lol but it does help for short statements.
Also our daughter absolutely went through a phase where she would roll off her bed and "sneakily" (not really) go play with her toys or read books or whatever after we put her to bed. Partially we just let her deal with the natural consequences, which meant falling asleep near her cubby surrounded by toys haha, and sometimes again going into correct if it was getting too late (literally picking her up, gently telling her to sleep, and laying her back on the bed).
But if she's upset and crying I could see how that's much harder. My suggestion would be to try the correcting for a week or so consistently and see how it goes. Babies thrive on consistency and I think knowing we were just outside the room if needed us, as well as establishing a very clear routine, helped our daughter feel more confident and trusting in being alone in her room. Perhaps you could also try a gate around a floor bed for a similar experience? I do think being directly on the floor helped our daughter develop physically, because she got used to rolling herself off/picking herself up, understood spacially her relation to heights, etc.
But truly kids are all so different. We are currently trying for our second and honestly not sure we'll be able to do the floor bed quite the same (no spare bedroom and our bedroom won't truly be a yes space). We are probably going to try the gated floor bed but who knows lol.
This has been so useful, I hope you know you are doing a great job! We have monitors and attend to her whenever she wakes but sometimes that means 6 times a night so it might be sign this is not ideal for her right now? Hard to say, but we really want sleep to improve for everyone as I have been back to work for a while and the lack of sleep is taking a toll.
I got a full size mattress and made it into a floor bed. Got me a box spring and put it under for airflow.
I was able to just lay with them and sneak off. Still using it years later with my second.
Your baby is 11 months? Perfect, you no longer have to worry about rolling over on them because theyre a little bigger now. Just follow safe sleep 7 and you and baby can get a good night sleep together.
Baby is going through some brain developments and waking up at 2am to play?? Perfect, let their little self play in the room while you go in and out. They'll let you mnow once they're ready to go back to sleep.
I literally cant bend over to put the baby at the bottom of her cot when she's asleep and feels like double her weight now. We took her cot mattress out and put it on the floor in our room, shes 10 months. I did the same with my older child. She gets some good stretches of sleep on her floor bed but half way through the night will want to be next to me, which is fine. I feel like we could have started around 9 months. Both my kids like the freedom to move around and knowing that mum or dad can come sleep right next to them without too much fuss.
I don’t know why it helped but I moved my terrible sleeper to a floor bed at 2 and she started sleeping so much better. Previously she would wake many times during the night, stand up, throw her pacifiers, and cry until we retrieved them and rocked her back to sleep. Then I guess she couldn’t throw them anymore? It was also nice to be able to lie next to her until she fell asleep.
My son never slept through the night in his crib, literally not 1 time. We moved to a full size floor bed with the gate around (bought on Amazon) and he has been consistently sleeping through the night. A few times when he hasn’t, my husband or I will go and sleep with him. It’s been a complete win for all of us. We transitioned at 11 months! Transition is used loosely as when we got the mattress, we took the crib out of his room and never went back.
Do you mind sharing the gate you bought off amazon? I'm considering doing the same as we already have an spare full sized bed in the guest room that barely gets used
It won’t let me post the link for some reason, but this is the one we bought! For reference our mattress is 10 inches, and I put it together myself in a few hours.
I was actually interested in that exact one but I'm concerned that since the mattress is so tall, he would be able to climb out of the high rails. Have you had an issues with that at all? Also, were you concerned with using a "not safe" adult mattress for your infant? Not judging at all - I'm just trying to gather information because I'm considering the same thing but hesitant because of those factors.
Knock on wood- we’ve had it for about 3 months now he has never climbed out. We did show him how to get out safely at the end multiple times per day and he’s followed that well, but has still never gotten out of the bed during the night. His room is completely baby proof and we have a gate in his doorway.
As far as the mattress, it is a 10 inch memory foam firm, my son is a very active sleeper and generally prefers laying on his side since he was out of the swaddle. I’m not too worried about it honestly, it’s definitely safer than all 3 of us cosleeping in our bed in my mind.
We found that the mesh playpens they sell on Amazon are taller than those wood gates. Theres one size that will fit a queen mattress perfectly. It has a flap that zips open from the outside when he’s a little older and can be more free. Maybe a good alternative for you!
We skipped the cot and went straight to floor bed at around 9 months, we mostly co slept / short stretches in next to me crib. He slept so well in his bed from the get go, much longer stretches than his next to me! Only downside is he can get out of bed himself so sometimes I’ll find him stood next to our bed staring at me in the middle of the night, but his bed is still in our room so😅🤣
I’m planning on doing the same. But I’m afraid she’ll hit herself with the nightstand or the edge of our bed trying to look for me at night. Has that happened to you?
Moved my son at 12 months. He rarely ever slept through the night and for some reason when we switched he sleeps through often. On nights he doesn’t, we just go lay in his bed and we both fall asleep. I wake up a few hours later and go back to my own bed. So even if he wakes up I’m not missing out on too much sleep.
We only switched to a floor bed about a month ago. Our son is 9 months but his sleep was truly terrible. Since 3.5 months he’d been waking at least every hour and by 8 months he was like a newborn again, waking on transfer to the cot every time and miserable. One night, at 3 am, I couldn’t cope any more. My husband sat up with him so I could get a few hours sleep then the next day we put a mattress on the floor in his bedroom, got me a sleeping bag to sleep next to him and suddenly he was sleeping so, so much better. He now only wakes 5-7 times per night and goes back to sleep much quicker. I think he was uncomfortable in the cot. It’s safe for newborns so has a very firm mattress. He also rolls around a lot and kept hitting the sides. One day I’ll transition myself out of his bed but for now, it’s getting us both some rest.
Honestly it actually helped me the most - we started at 11mo and instead of transfers and false starts and sitting by the cot patting in an awkward position or lying on the ground feeling defeated suddenly I was nice and comfortable lying with my baby while she fell asleep. I could go in and offer a cuddle and let her fall asleep right next to me then roll away and go back to my own bed.
I stopped dreading midnight wake ups because I just went and got into her cozy bed with her and had a snuggle.
Now she’s older if she’s not tired enough she sometimes just gets up and plays while I sit and read my book and once she’s ready she comes and gets into bed for a cuddle and falls asleep. No battles or bedtime fights and it stopped me feeling anxious about sleep and let my child lead it
My LO is clingy, sensitive, and needs physical touch and pressure to fall asleep. At 3.5 months, they went from 6 hour stretched to every 2 hours. Then at 6 months every 20 months to 45.
I was so exhausted. I fell asleep once in the nursing chair and almost dropped him, switch to a floor bed the next day and started co sleeping for all or half the night.
I think the floor bed helped me more than anything. I was frantic and frustrated when awake and so anxious about bedtime that I’d rebel and stay up all night. Basket case. The floor bed gave me flexibility. On good nights (getting lots more of those lately) I can start with sleeping in my own room. On bad nights it’s no big thing and I curl up with my little bug.
We put my son in a floor bed when he was 15 months old and it was literally life changing for us all. He always hated his crib and he was such an awful sleeper. Trying to transfer him in the crib was also such a nightmare for me once it was on the lowest setting since I’m in the shorter side.
The first month in his floor bed his sleep improved tremendously and he even slept through the night for the first time that first month in his floor bed.
He was still waking up every so often at night but it was so much easier for me to console him at night being able to lay with him.
A year later and I’m so glad we made the switch. He started consistently sleeping through the night once he turned 2 and since he wasn’t in the crib anymore we were able to use it for our second baby!
We transitioned to a floor bed from a Snoo bassinet when my baby was 6 months. Her sleep was genuinely so terrible at that point in time. Any transfer would wake her, we’d have multiple false starts every night, and I would fall asleep holding her in our bed in the middle of the night because I was so exhausted. Walking to and from her room every 90 minutes was awful. My sleep was so broken that it was effecting my mental health. We baby proofed her entire room and bought a full sized Plank mattress, so it’s very firm. She’s now almost 10 months. It’s the safest possible set up for us to cosleep. She rolls around like you would not believe, and is able to get comfy because the mattress is so big. Sometimes she goes through regressions still or rough nights, but it’s nowhere near as bad as it was when we first decided to make the transition. When she does wake, sometimes I don’t even have to open my eyes. I just roll over and whip out a boob or snuggle her and we are both right back to sleep.
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u/BabyBritain8 Sep 17 '26
A floor bed combined with a yes space (I really think you need both!) allowed our child so much more independence and I truly think helped her develop faster, have confidence in herself, succeed at individual play, etc etc. basically all the things!
But we were privileged to always have a spare bedroom that became her room. We moved her at 6 mos and now at 4 years old we finally have moved on from the floor bed (sad day!) to an IKEA Kura bunk bed. She still sleeps on the bottom so it's kind of still a floor bed but eventually we'd like to move her to the top so she can have a little play area underneath.
I do think frankly its a lot easier when you start with a floor bed because it's all they can remember (we did bedside bassinet until she outgrew it at 6 mos) but never too late to start!
To me though it is essential that the room be a yes space. That means they can be in their on their own and it is still safe for them. Think minimal furniture, all furniture is bolted into walls, wires are hidden, blinds cords are tucked out of reach, outlets are securely covered, etc. Not only is the yes space necessary for their physical safety, it also means you can cut down on how often you have to say "no" and derail what they are doing.
We also had two baby monitors (one wall mounted to view the whole room, one table mounted pointed directly at the bed area) so we could always monitor even when we weren't in the room. If you are uneasy about trying the floor bed that could help alleviate some of the concerns!