The Princess and The Pee

There were three in the bed and the little one said "roll over." They all rolled over and one fell out ...

Today we bought our first piece of new furniture since moving into our home a year and a half ago. This means two things: we know a lot of very generous people who have gifted/handed down much of what fills our rooms and we love used/antique furniture.

We spent the afternoon shopping around and managed to piece together quite a good deal. We'll pick up our new queen mattress/box spring on Saturday and our bed arrives on Monday afternoon. We're pretty excited about it since we've both made do with various mattress-futon combos since leaving our childhood homes many moons ago. Car and house and baby and its this - a real bed - that makes us feel like we've finally crossed the adulthood threshold.

Frank helping us test mattress firmness

We'll probably move our current double bed into Frankie's room. With a little creative rearranging this should still leave lots of room for her and her accoutrements.

This looming rearranging did get us thinking about something we had read about before the wee one was here: the Montessori bed. According to the Montessori philosophy, infants and toddlers should be put to bed on a crib mattress on the floor - not in a crib. This encourages them to be more curious about their surroundings (which they have a better view of) and to get up and explore (their very baby proofed) room once they are crawling and walking. They don't have to cry for Mom or Dad when they're ready to get up and so it helps to instill an early sense of independence.

The more I think about this the more it makes sense in other regards as well - we wouldn't have to worry about crib accidents which seem to be an all too common occurrence today and which already make me really nervous (she's not in her crib yet). And although we've already bought one, the crib is probably the most expensive baby purchase most people will make. For those soon-to-be Mums and Dads struggling to pull together the resources to prepare for baby this could be a very viable and cost effective alternative.