With the clocks rolling forward an hour in the early hours of Sunday morning, we’ve been trying to implement a gradual change to Toby’s routine using the Gro Clock. I’ve been keeping a diary over the last two weeks to show you how we’ve been getting on and how effective the clock is, or isn’t.
The Gro Clock itself is actually pretty easy to use once you’ve gotten the hang of it, but if you’re struggling with the instructions, there’s a really fab instruction infographic that you can look at here.
So we started implementing the change a couple of weeks ago and this is how it’s gone. Baring in mind Toby has for the most part been a 7pm til 7am+ plus kinda kid.
Day/Night One
I sat and explained to Toby how the Gro Clock was going to work and I’m rewarded with a blank face that basically says it all; “what the hell are you talking about, Mum?” He goes down to bed at 7pm, which is his usual bedtime, and one we are almost strict about as this has been his bedtime since he was 11 weeks old. It’s going well and Toby doesn’t wake all night, which is nothing usual. Except he’s up at 6.30am. Sorry, what? What are you doing child? I am due at least another 30 minutes of sleep. He starts crying at his bedroom door and so I go and try to explain that the moon is still out and that the sun isn’t ready to wake up yet. He’s adamant he’s ready for the day, so we’re up!
Day/Night Three
Toby wakes up crying at around 3am because the covers have fallen off his bed. Initially I was quite concerned that, actually, the brightness of the clock was a tad too high and would lead to him waking up completely. He went back to sleep with no fuss, though rose again at 6.30am. Ugh. I wouldn’t feel so rubbish about this if his little brother slept through the night, but restless nights coupled with an early start are killing me!
Day/Night Five
I sat and read the book that comes with the Gro Clock to Toby today hoping that it might sink it. He is getting really tired, grumpy and being generally a horrible child throughout the day because he’s so tired. He’s not getting the message that these early starts aren’t great. We need to resort to more measures. Out comes the Gro Blind which totally blacks his room out, hurray! That’s definitely going to solve it, right? A 6am wake up call tells me otherwise.
Day/Night Seven
We’re a week in and I’ve not really seen much difference. We’re meant to be setting the Gro Clock ahead 10 minutes or so every other day to get in line with the clocks going forward, but he’s not grasping the concept of not waking the whole house up until the sun’s out. Wondering what could be waking him up so early? Have decided it’s the neighbours slamming their gate after letting their dogs out so will take measures to reduce that noise.
Day/Night Nine
What’s going on with my child? Toby wakes up at 3.45am crying and will not go back to bed for love, nor money. I end up putting him in bed with us, despite him being the most fidgety child I’ve ever known in my life. His restlessness is doing my head in and so I put him back into bed at around 4.30am. He goes back in there fine, but I can hear him rustling around until 5am. I doze off and then he’s awake. I check the time and it’s 5.30am. Ted then wakes at 6am so decide we might as well get out of bed and start the day. Send help.. and tea.
Day/Night Ten
Woops. Toby fell asleep during the day today due to his utter lack of sleep. The question is whether to wake him up or to let him sleep because sleep promotes sleep, right? Nah. He didn’t wake up in the night, but was up at 6.45am. To be fair it’s a relatively good improvement on his 4/5/6am wake ups and so I’ll take it. Small victories, let’s hope it continues.
Day/Night 11
Toby fell asleep again yesterday, but I cut it out today. He had nursery and I thought that it might make him super tired so that he’d sleep. He was the grumpiest child ever right up until bed time, but went all the way through the night til 6.30am. Tried explaining the clock for the 5,672,329 time but I still got the blank face. Starting to think it’s never going to work!
Day/Night 14
HURRAY! We have a bit of success. But whether that’s down to an accumulation of tired-ness or that he’s starting to get the Gro Clock, Toby slept in until about 8.30am. The last two mornings hadn’t been so bad, even though he was up in the night last night for an hour.
All I can really hopeis that the clocks going forward will mean we’re back to a normal, and much more reasonable, time of waking up in the morning.
Despite Toby not responding well to the clock initially, we continued to change the time in 10 minute increments because sticking until he got the first one would be a bit pointless and would probably have even more of an effect on his sleep. Towards the end of these two weeks I think he’s starting to grasp what it actually means, but without continued use we won’t know, so it’s just a case of sticking to it so that the Gro Clock too becomes routine.
By no means is the Gro Clock an immediate fix for early risers, or for when the clocks go forward or back, but it is something that can help depending on the child, their understanding and consistent use. You can’t expect a child to adjust so easily, that would be too boring wouldn’t it! Fingers crossed that Toby continues with the 8am wake up calls, but I’d still be happy with 7am to be fair. It’s just his baby brother we need to sort out now! Where’s Gro Clock number 2?
*I was sent a Gro Clock for the purposes of this post. However, all views, opinions and thoughts are my own.