Sleep

Our ideas about sleep: 

It’s really important. 

I need my sleep to be a good person and my son needs his sleep to be able to learn everything that comes his way. From the start we have had the rule that once in bed he stays in the room until the morning. We didn’t bring him downstairs even as a newborn but dealt with him quietly and in dim light throughout the night. We have a relaxed bedtime routine and we don’t go out with him after 5pm (if we can help it) as we know this is when he needs his routine to begin and he can stay calm and relaxed. We are not fussed about the sleeping through the night issue and know we will get there after he is a year old. We have a relaxed approach to tending to him at night and follow his changing needs.

We have decided to follow the Montessori idea of a mattress on the floor instead of a cot. We had a moses basket until he was 5 months and rolling over then we moved him to his mattress. I began his day sleeps on his mattress from 10 weeks so that he could gradually get used to it. The mattress is in his room which is covered with soft foam flooring. It is a cot mattress and fully baby safe. We moved him to his own bedroom at night when he was 5 months old as we could see that we were disturbing his sleep when we went to bed or moved or snored! The benefits of the mattress on the floor are to do with gross motor skills and spatial awareness. He will independently learn to move off the mattress without falling and will eventually be able to get back onto it when he decides to go off to sleep. We have a stair gate on his door and limited furniture to avoid any mishaps. We are prepared to take out any furniture and leave the room bare if this becomes an issue in the future.