Now that Baby Bun is about 2 years old, I thought I’d do a quick update on sleeping on this minimalist futon as a family.
P.S. You can buy an all-cotton futon made in the U.S.! It’s somewhat local if you’re in the U.S., at least it isn’t shipped across the ocean, and they’re an excellent company.
We do co-sleeping after 2 weeks of sleepless nights of Baby Bun running out of his room crying at night to cuddle in my arms, and we now finally sleep a solid 6-8 hours without much of a peep.
It’s not for everyone has I have neighbours who are ADAMANT they will not allow their kids to sleep with them, and have even put up baby gates to ‘lock’ them into their rooms at night, whilst an older generation grandmother at the park the other day called it cruel to force kids sleep alone.
(Not me. I loved sleeping alone, but this was not to be and I have made peace with the family bed.)
From Day One – 5 months
From Day One, Baby Bun was a newborn on the futon bed. I would lay him there, he wouldn’t move or squiggle much and he pretty much stayed where he was when I left him.
He slept fine, he wasn’t smothered or suffocated by the futon bed (they say you need a hard bed, but I just made a nest for him and made sure he couldn’t suffocate accidentally).
Since it’s also on the floor, and he slept on his back, I was even less worried.
6 months – 18 months
Once he started moving however, I began to stack things around his bed, namely cardboard boxes with books inside to keep him contained.
I was still able to step in and take care of him easily (no need to reach into a crib and break any backs), and I loved that he ended up using the boxes to learn how to stand and to bang on them for entertainment.
Why I love futon sleeping on the floor so much
When he slept alone…
When he slept alone, it was nice because sometimes for his naps, I’d conk out beside him. PLENTY OF ROOM to sleep beside a baby, and he even enjoyed it because he’d wake up and then I’d get this gummy, drooling grin saying:
Oh hai Mommy!
There you are!
No need to call for you.
I’d also be able to lie down beside him and half doze off while patting his bum to sleep (I still have to do this and he’s past 2 years), trust me, I almost fell asleep a few times when he slept alone, and I’d have to wake myself up to go to sleep in my own bed.
Now that he sleeps with us…
We sleep on the floor, ancient Japanese-style and I love sleeping with Baby Bun in between us now because I can just reach over when I am half asleep and re-adjust him back onto his pillow or fix his blanket.
All the other times before, I’d have to get up and go to see what’s happening because he’d be sobbing in his bed crying for something, and if you get out of your warm bedcovers, you’re immediately awake and even crankier than before.
As he gets older…
He will want to sleep alone eventually, and he’ll be on the floor too. I will never worry about him falling off, never need to buy a toddler bed rail and will be happy to still read books with him in bed.
When we’re not sleeping…
It is AWESOME TO PLAY ON. It is like having a bed mat on the floor where we can run the truck over the pillows and blankets, make a fort, make a tent, read books cuddled up with a blanket and play tickle games.
He. Loves. It.
He even runs and throws himself on the bed, and I never worry about him hurting himself (unless he miscalculates and smashes into the wall) because it’s on the floor, super padded and soft.
Kids LOVE being on the floor, and I love being at eye level with him, sometimes even lying on my back pretending to be a mountain while he plays around me with his truck (and I get to half snooze as well).
We hang out, we spend the whole day in bed, and it’s so much easier on me to be on a soft bed on the floor rather than trying to worry about him falling off and smashing his head (he did that on a friend’s bed the other day).
Where we buy our 100% all cotton authentic futons
You can buy an all-cotton futon made in the U.S.!
Nicole
I want to make this transition, but my worry is about my 2 year old running around the room if she wakes and causing trouble since I am a heavy sleeper. Opinions? I feel like she needs to be caged up lol. Or just babyproof better?
Sherry of Save. Spend. Splurge.
LOL! CAGED UP. All toddlers need to be caged up! Oh my goodness.
Umm… well, that does happen. I can’t tell you that it doesn’t. My boy wakes up and it is mayhem (read my Week of Money Posts as a sample of what I endure). The only thing I can say is babyproof better and be okay with letting her be alone while you doze off
Maria
Hi! I have a practical question 🙂 Do you have bedwetting accidents? My LO is almost 3, we are about to buy a new bed and are considering a futon. He has an occasional accident with bedwetting. In your experience, will this ruin the futon or is it even a better solution than the regular mattress because I can take it dry cleaning??
Futons are pretty expensive and hard to get a hold on in comparison to decent mattresses so I’d rather not have to buy a new one in a year or so.
Thanks!!!
Maria
Sherry of Save. Spend. Splurge.
This is the PERFECT solution (a futon) because you cannot take it to dry cleaning but you can buy these AWESOME bedwetting sheet cover/protectors and use it on the futon. That’s what we’ve done on the twin, and if he pees (which he has done a couple of times playing on there), we take it off and wash it, until about the age of 7, I expect to do this a lot.
Mattresses can’t be washed or even aired out at all, so I’d say if you do manage to get SOME pee on the futon (without a cover), you can try and wash it out by hand with some water and then try and put it over table or a balcony outside, and let the sun dry it out and disinfect it (it truly works).
Stephanie Knol
Just to add…we are another futon-sleeping family-bed family, and we did not protect our futon from bedwetting as well we might have (I just used crib protectors, and sometimes they were in the wrong place, LOL!) BUT, because it was a futon, at one point, when it seemed like we had passed the bedwetting/diaper-leaking stage (or so we thought) we actually were able to take it apart!!! Yes, we actually clipped the places where it was sewed together (top to bottom), pulled out the sheets of cotton, and put them out in the sun to sanitize, then put the whole thing back together.
I totally recommend using bedwetting covers and avoiding that, but if you already didn’t, there are still options!!
Sherry of Save. Spend. Splurge.
Wow, how creative!! Thank you
Lindsay
We use a sleeping mat on a tatami platform bed (it was my husbands compromise for me when I thought he was out of his mind making the suggestion to move to the floor/futon) https://www.haikudesigns.com/tatami-bed.htm
After the first night of “what special hell is that?!” by the end of the week I’d never slept better! Pretty much everyone I know kept telling us I wouldn’t be able to make it through my pregnancy without more padding. Month 9 and due next week and we are still plugging along. I actually think it’s what has helped me keep a solid core that my midwives are amazed by.
I poked around some in the archives but couldn’t find a size for the futon you bought for your son? We are planning to start our little in a cosleeper, we got it for free so why not. We were thinking the sleeping mat size might be nice since it would fit nicely under the bed when not in use. Any feedback on what worked your family before moving into the family bed?
sherry@savespendsplurge.com
Oh yes!!! Everyone told me I was nuts for sleeping on the floor with a huge belly but I made it and I felt quite comfortable, even though I knew I’d be uncomfortable whether I was on a bed or not.
The size of futon we bought was a twin-sized. 🙂 That was for him to sleep alone, but we ourselves sleep in a Queen and he sleeps in between us.
What worked was getting him into a twin-sized futon and then putting huge heavy boxes with books inside (not easy for them to tip over or for the boxes to tip on them), to box him in.