Sam, an avid nurser, has slept in our bed next to me for most of his first year. We attempted the crib thing, but found it counter-intuitive and more of a hassle than simply letting him sleep curled up next to mom. He still wakes once or twice a night to roll over for a midnight snack, but this is much less intrusive to me than walking into the next room, fully roused from my slumber to feed him while sitting up and wide awake. And the extra snuggling time is well worth waking up to the occasional tiny foot slung across my face.
However, at some point he will need to, and will want to, transition to his own bed. He's already been establishing his own space in our bed. So, we got him a twin mattress and put it on the floor of his room with some blankets and plenty of pillows. When I was a kid it seemed we never had enough pillows. Whenever I had a friend stay the night we'd always raid my brother's bed or take a throw pillow off the couch and put it in a pillow case. I somehow equated plentiful pillows with wealth and luxury. We may not have either of the latter, but I've made sure there are always pillows to spare.
And so, Sam now takes his naps in his own baby bear bed and often starts out the night there, crawling in to our bed in the next room some time during the night and generally waking up there. Our mattress has also been temporarily moved to the floor to accommodate his rudimentary locomotive skills. It's not stylish, but it works for us.
I've had this quilt since college. Someone left it at a swim meet where I was lifeguarding. I've always wondered about the story behind the hand sewn stitches.
