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Browsing Tag: Infant
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I used to think that when I had a baby, s/he would sleep in a crib, just like every other baby. But when I began working at a Montessori school, I learned about floor beds and never looked back. I have found so many benefits and it has been so easy to use, that I just had to talk about what a floor bed is.
So, here is a quick progression on how we got Mac into her floor bed. When Mac was a baby, she slept in a bedside bassinet. Once she was a bit older, she moved into a floor bed in our room. Eventually Mac and her floor bed moved into her own room. Now we bed share part time with her as a toddler.
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. That means if you buy through my link, I may receive compensation. For more information, see my disclosure page here.
When I found out I was pregnant with my first child, there were so many decisions to make. Many things I always assumed I would do, I wasn’t so sure about anymore. One of those things was having my baby sleep in a crib. There isn’t anything wrong with a crib, but after working at a Montessori school I was intrigued by the idea of a floor bed.
But before we started my daughter in a floor bed, I needed to figure out where to have her sleep until she was old enough. I knew that I wanted her nearby, but I had some anxiety about bed sharing with her. So after some research, I decided to try a co-sleeper bassinet. (We bought an Arm’s Reach Euro Mini Co-Sleeper Bassinet. That exact style is no longer available, but the Arm’s Reach Mini Ezee 2-in-1 seems like almost the same thing!)
(If you are more intrigued by the floor bed, you can read about what a floor bed is, how we shared a room with a floor bed, and how Mac has her own floor bed room now. We do bed share part-time now that she is a toddler.)
At first, I was going to try to make a sidecar crib. There are plenty of DIY instructions on Pinterest and Google to describe the process, but I just wasn’t certain we were handy enough to make it work. So instead, I found the Arm’s Reach Co-Sleeper Bedside Bassinet. We ended up using it for both of our children so far. (Make sure you check out this co-sleeper bassinet by the same company. It looks almost identical!) Here are a few reasons why we love it.
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. That means if you buy through my link, I may receive compensation at no extra cost to you. For more information, see my disclosure page here.
When Andrew and I decided to cloth diaper, we got a lot of push back. Don’t get me wrong, it was all well-meaning. People were concerned we didn’t think it through and they wanted to make sure we understood our decision, especially because cloth diapers are a big up-front cost. But we found that a lot of their concerns were unfounded. Andrew especially considers himself totally on the cloth diaper side, despite being on the fence before Mac was born. (Make sure you also check out cloth diapering 101 and my minimalist’s guide to cloth diaper accessories.)
Our main, everyday diapers are Grovia Hybrid. We like the 2 in 1 diapers because we don’t have to change the shell as often. You just have to change out the pad. This was especially nice during the newborn stage. At night we use pocket diapers. A lot of them we bought second-hand, but my favorite to buy are bumGenius. Not only are the bumGenius diapers adorable, but we have really put them through a lot and they still are looking great! There are so many great companies, but these are two that we have used extensively and love.
I will also put in a plug here for using a diaper service. If you are not sure about the laundry part of cloth diapering, look into diaper services. They are usually pretty fairly priced and you get the best of both worlds: cloth diapers and a few less loads of laundry a week!
So here’s the deal, I change disposable diapers all day long at work, so I have plenty of experience with them. Full disclosure, we also used disposables with Mac for the first few weeks until her umbilical cord stump fell off. Someone had given us a box of newborn diapers, so we didn’t have to buy any. But you can purchase cloth newborn diapers, which I am considering the next time a baby enters our lives. Either way, I have experience with both kinds of diapers and after everything, I recommend cloth diapers. Here are 5 reasons why:
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. That means if you buy through my link, I may receive compensation. For more information, see my disclosure page here.
It seems to be a natural scene: parents going out grocery shopping, lugging their baby in a bucket seat that they set in the basket of the cart, parents lugging their baby in a bucket seat into the school to pick up their preschooler, parents lugging their baby in a bucket seat into the clinic waiting room where the baby hangs our while mom or dad fills out paperwork.
So it might seem totally weird when I tell you that we didn’t use an infant bucket seat at all, not even when Mac was a newborn. Right from the beginning, we had her in a convertible seat that had a padded insert and could tilt back for newborns. (In case you are wondering, we use the Britax Marathon G4.1 Convertible Car Seat . We have never had any problems. It fits in both of our small cars and Mac has been comfortable in it from birth until now! In fact, she is still rear facing in it at the age of 2.5.)
You are probably curious about why and how I came to this decision. So here are the list of reasons I picked to skip the bucket seat and what I did instead.
While I was pregnant, I did some research on how to make a Montessori environment for an infant. I will be honest, I was a little intimidated because it sounded like a lot of work to take my already cluttered and messy living room and somehow also accommodate an infant who was supposed to have freedom of movement. We live in a 1,550 sq. ft. townhouse. I literally don’t have another room that I could revamp into a playroom. Mac even roomed in with us for almost a year, partly due to the fact that we had to go through the guest room and totally clean it out so she could sleep there. So the idea of dong Montessori at home in our living room was a little daunting.
Three Months Later: I made a few updates on things we have already changed.
I really suck at blogging apparently. In my defense, Mac only catnaps for maybe 30 minutes at a time. That’s usually enough time for me to use the bathroom, grab a snack and check Facebook before she is up and ready to eat again. I can’t complain though because overall she rocks.
So, because I haven’t been seen on here in a while, this may get long. Who knows until I get going, right? Mac will turn 6 months next week and I feel like time has absolutely flown by. I guess that tends to happen when my day is broken up into routinized two-hour chunks.
