Gro Clock

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.

Day 1 - Bed 6:15pm. Woke 12:20am. Woke 6am. Up 6:50am.
Day 2 - Bed 6:45pm. Woke 7:45pm (bad dream). Up at 7:35.
Day 3 - Bed 6pm. Woke 11pm. Woke 12:10pm. Up 6:40am.
Day 4 - Bed 7pm. Up 6:40am.
Day 5 - Bed 6:15pm. Woke 12:30am. Up 6:30am.
Day 6 - Bed 5:50pm due to long, hot day. Woke 10pm (bad dream). Woke 3am. Up 7:15am.
Day 7 - Bed 7pm. Woke 2am. Up 7:30am.
Day 8 - Bed 8:30pm. Awoke 1:30am. Awoke 6:30am. Up 7:30am.
Day 9 - Bed 6:10.pm Awoke 7:10pm (too hot). Awoke 11:45pm (nappy leak). Up 7am.
Day 10 - Bed 6:40pm. Awoke 9:55pm. Awoke 3:05am. Awoke at 4:30am. Up 8am.
Day 11 - Bed 8pm. Up 7:50am.
Day 12 - Bed 9pm. Up 7:10am.
Day 12 - Bed 7:45om. Up 7:45am.
Day 13 - Bed 6:40pm. Awoke 9:30pm (bad dream). Up 7:20am.
Day 14 - Bed 6:40. Awoke at 8:45 (hot). Up 7:20am.
Day 15 - Bed 6:10pm. Awoke 7:30am.

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.

Toddler Sleeping; a Rant?

'I miss you Mummy when I'm in my bed.' - Moo, 2013

The above statement was said by my two-year-old when I was putting her to bed. You see, the previous night she had slept 6:15pm-7am without waking and calling for me once. Very occasionally we have these evenings, but they are rare and to be honest, right now, it's starting to take its affect on me...

Let me start from the beginning. Once upon a time, I gave birth and was the smuggest mare going. I had heard horror stories all through my life about how bad babies were for sleeping. I am one of those disgusting people that needs a LOT of sleep (unfortunately so is my husband so you can only imagine how much gets done in our house first thing), were talking optimum nine hours. Throughout my pregnancy I would often sleep ten or eleven hours in the night and have a nap in the day also. But I was smug because at five weeks my angel of a daughter who hardly ever cried started sleeping through the night. People told me how perfect she was, how lucky I was and I just nodded along and said 'thank you, I know'.

It was not to last.

At nine months separation anxiety hit. Big time. I had just started a new job in retail management and was out of the house a lot on week days, not just at work but the travel was around forty minutes each way. This is when problems started to hit. Moo is now two years and nine months and her sleep problems seem to go from one thing to another.

Her most recent thing? Getting up in the middle of the night and popping up in our bed. She has never co-sleeped, it is not something we've ever practised or encouraged except when she has been horrifically poorly and she has slept in our bed with just me.

I am an incredibly heavy sleeper and so often don't notice when she's appeared until I've awoken for whatever reason (usually to pee) and discovered her hogging my pillow with her blonde curls and dribble. I'd be so much more inclined to do something about it upon discovery if I wasn't pregnant. Unfortunately it's teamed with her reverting back to not settling herself, also so some evenings I won't get any down time until nine, go to bed around ten and then she's in my bed by one!

This week my SPD has ramped up about ten notches on the pain scale (just in time for our holiday to Paris, yay) and I'm struggling to move around, roll over in bed even. Please somebody tell me that it gets better/easier/that there's something I can do!!

I know that toddler sleep problems are common and that I'm not alone...I personally think that this might be karma getting me back for being a snobby cow when she was born...damn it.

Clare