Floor bed for 4 month old: twin mattress?

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glbpellum

New member
Hi all, I'm a FTM of a 3.5 month old who is rapidly out growing her bassinet. DH and I want to forgo the crib and try a Montessori floor bed for her, and like the idea of getting a twin. This would give us the option to cosleep/nurse to sleep as needed, but the hope is LO will mostly be sleeping independently in it. However I'm having a lot of trouble finding something that fits my criteria:
  • Firm/extra firm. Everything I read about bed safety says firmer is better for infants and "if it's comfortable for you it's not firm enough for baby", yet most regular mattreses seem to be in that medium-firm range. (DH and I actually prefer a firmer mattress, and had a hard time even finding something for ourselves).
  • Greenguard Gold certified. Memory foam seems to be everywhere these days, which is a hard no. Besides the above firmness issue, there are off-gassing concerns.
  • Low profile. 8" max, but preferably 6-7". We have a pretty thick carpet, but still wouldn't want LO to fall too far should she roll out.
The problem is I can only seem to find anything that fits 2 out of 3 criteria: e.g. it's low and Greenguard certified but not firm enough (Tuft and Needle), or firm and certified but 10+ inches high (Sleep on Latex).

I actually ordered the Naturpedic 2 in 1 kids mattress, but am a little underwhelmed by it. It was advertised as "on the firmer side" for growing kids but is not as firm as I thought it might be. It would probably be fine if she were older, but I'm worried she's still too young and needs something firmer. (She has pretty good head control and is on the verge of rolling over, but if she were to flip on her stomach, she probably couldn't get herself back over yet). I only have 30 days to return it, so need to decide sooner rather than later.

Any recommendations from those of you who have a floor bed for your infant? Am I over thinking this/are my criteria too stringent? Should we just get her a crib mattress instead and revisit the twin in a year or so?
 
@glbpellum Adult mattresses are not safe until 2, they are too soft and kids can end up at angles that inhibit breathing. A crib mattress on the ground works though and we used one for my oldest until he was 5 so it’s definitely an cost friendly option. I’d go crib mattress and upgrade to a twin after 2, but probably later when you decide to upgrade to a bed frame.
 
@glbpellum We just used a crib mattress on the floor until about 14 months and then we got the naturpedic 2 in 1 for her. I was really worried having a very firm mattress for SIDS prevention, which is why we waited to do it, but we also got a crib mattress for free from a friend, so it was easy for us.

We got a full size mattress because my daughter started getting really needy for a month or so and I needed to lie down beside her to get her back to sleep, and lying in the floor was killing my back. Since we got the new mattress, she needs me far less frequently at night, but she seems to love the new mattress since we can all read bedtime stories in it together.
 
@glbpellum I would 100% go crib mattress for both height and firmness. Also, my son is 3 and still very easily sleeps on a crib mattress (his crib converted). I anticipate him staying in the same bed until at least 4. I mention this just to say it's going to get good use as an investment.
 
@glbpellum We ended up putting one layer from our latex mattress on the floor when baby was around 6(?) months. It's very firm and the layers are pretty thin (2-3 inches?). The mattress was pretty spendy but it has a 20 year warranty so if you got a twin your kiddo could potentially use it until college. Since we were just pilfering from our guest mattress we didn't choose a size but I've found the full sized mattress to be very convenient for middle of the night feeding. We got our mattress from https://sleepez.com/; I don't know what their certifications are like but it seems like there are quite a few companies out there with similar products.
 
@glbpellum We also use our crib mattress and got a tri fold memory foam mattress for guests and ourselves to lay with kiddo when we needed to and we put it away when we don’t! It worked out well and now at almost 3 we hardly have night where we are needed
 
@glbpellum Our LO has been on the Naturepedic 2 in 1 trundle since she was 5 months old. We have a twin size in the Sprout frame. I liked the idea of not needing a crib and having LO keep the mattress for years. She is now 9 months and it’s been working great for us.

I hear you on the rolling to tummy concerns. It was scary for us. With close monitoring, I felt better. FWIW, she had been rolling from back to tummy for months without the ability to roll back. Months! So we got used to her sleeping on her tummy. We got used to her flipping over once we put her to bed and trusted that she was strong enough how to lift her head up. The one upside of a one way roller was that she got so much tummy time and got strong fast.
 
@glbpellum I just transitioned my 4mo to a floor bed. It was the firmest twin I could find at Ikea, isn't very thick, and almost certainly has no memory foam (too cheap for it, lol).
 
@prodigalredeemed We ended up going with a crib mattress! The twin was both too big/soft for her and too small/firm for me to sleep comfortably with her. I felt so much safer with her on a proper crib mattress, plus it left more space in her room to play.

I also got myself one of those trifold cushions so I could sleep comfortably next to her--I could scooch over onto her mattress to nurse, then scooch back over to mine when she was back asleep.

It's worked so well we actually have the same setup almost two years later (she still wakes up so much T_T). In retrospect I just wish I had gotten the dual sided crib/toddler mattress for when she got older instead of a regular crib mattress, but I cut an old latex topper down to size and it's perfect.
 
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