The Gro company is much-loved amongst parents. They have some wonderful, beautifully-designed and innovative products including the gro-egg and the gro-bag to name their most popular.
In response to a recent rant posted here about Moo's sleeping habits, someone suggested the Gro-clock. This was something that I had looked at and considered in the past admittedly, but the price had put me off. I know it's not a lot of money, however, I hate to part with money unnecessarily and the fact that families have been settling their toddlers to sleep for thousands for years without the need of a light-up clock. So yes, I was sceptical.
My husband, however, was quite frankly sick of me not getting enough sleep whilst pregnant (and moaning about it) and when I suggested it to him, he went on Amazon and ordered it. Moo was very excited about her new nightlight/big girl clock and was enthral led as she watched me plug it in and set it up. It came with it's own storybook which is designed to help children understand why it's important to go to bed at the right time.
The basic idea is that you set the clock to the correct time and then you have two modes. Night mode and nap mode. I don't use the nap mode as Moo has out-grown hers, so we are only using 'night mode'. You don't need to set a bed time, you simply turn it to night mode when your child goes to bed (which is handy if your child's bed time fluctuates a little like mine does), it you do need to set the waking time.
At bed time, you follow the instructions to set it to night time, the yellow sun winks and goes 'to bed' then a blue star appears. The colour and character differences are designed to teach your child when to be in bed and when to get up. If they wake in the middle of. The night and see the screen is still blue, they will learn to stay in bed, however if they wake and the screen is yellow, they know it is now okay to get up.
I kept a diary of the first two weeks for you to see yourselves how it went. I'm not going to lie, it was trying and the heat wave didn't help in the slightest. Moo's bedtime is typically anywhere between 6 and 7pm as she's two-years-old but doesn't nap. If she has a nap, you'll be lucky if you get her in bed by 9pm (no matter how short of a nap). I set the clock to turn back to day at 7am.
As you can see it started slowly but I did notice an improvement over the fortnight. Moo now sleeps through the night without waking me (unless she has a bad dream or something else is wrong), whereas before she would get out of bed and come and get me every time she woke up. She's even sleeping through outside noise with her window open which is fantastic. I cannot express how nice it is not to have to worry about how long it'll be until she wakes me up again!!
She does still sometimes get up before 'Mr. Sun' does, but she slips into our bed and has a cuddle (which I don't mind). She's definitely sleeping better for it and for that I'm eternally grateful!!
Pros.
- Assists your child in managing their night-time sleep patterns.
- Assists your child in self-settling.
- Provides a nightlight for younger children.
- It works!
Cons.
- You can't turn it off, it's constantly on though does use very little electricity.
- £20 is still a lot to pay for a clock, but is £20 a lot for a good night's sleep? Well...it all depends on your financial circumstances and epwhether or not you have a spare £20 in your budget to spend on sleep-training your children. I would say if you can afford it, do it...it is a quick method of getting some well-deserved sleep back in your life!
Clare
Please note that we purchased this product with our own money and were not compensated in any way for this review.
Labels: gro clock, review, Sleep, toddler
