The GroClock or the Gro"miracle"Clock as we call it, has to be one of the best purchases we have made! Little Owl has always been a bit of a rubbish sleeper, completely unable to self settle until she was nearly two and always much happier in our bed!
The first major break through with her sleep came when we took the side off of her cot. Over the space of a few short weeks we went from needing to lie with her until she fell into a deep sleep before transferring her to her cot, to letting her climb into her 'bed', tucking her up, giving her a kiss goodnight and leaving the room.
That was the first miracle. We were so delighted to have our evenings back that we didn't mind if Little Owl woke early. She would never resettle, so once awake was back in our bed but that was ok. It was huge progress. But eventually Little Owl got into a habit of waking at 5:45 and then wouldn't go back to sleep even in our bed.
Over time this took its toll so I decided it was time to try a GroClock. I did worry that at two and a quarter Little Owl was too young for this but anything was worth a go!
The clock was quite a bit smaller than I thought it would be, comes with a user guide, a plug and a small story book. It was easy to set up, we needed to tell the clock what the time was, and what time we wanted the sun to come up. We decided to set the sun for 6am on the first morning as that would give us an extra 15 minutes sleep but not push it too far with Little Owl.
We tucked Little Owl into bed with the sun still shining on her clock, she was very excited. I read her the story of Percy Pig, of how he was so boring because he got up before the sun. Part way through the story the book tells you to press the button on the clock to make the stars come out. The story continues to say how Percy Pig's friends bought him a GroClock and because he doesn't get up until the sun, he is now full of fun!
Little Owl woke us at 6:20am with the words "THE SUNS OUT!". Wow. That was over half an hour later than we had had in weeks! So the next morning we set it for 6:05am and Little Owl didn't wake until 6:50!!!
The third night we didn't get to bed until late as we had been to the
Bike Race so I set the clock for 7am full of hope. Little Owl woke us at 5:45. I was gutted. As I staggered into her room half asleep, I found Laural Cat in there looking shifty. Little Owl told me "the suns not out" and laid back down and didn't wake up again until after 7!
And so it has continued. When Papa Owl went away climbing for a week, I
set the clock for 8am and it works! We do that on the weekends too and
its great to get a little extra sleep. The GroClock has been a real
miracle!
After a few weeks, I felt brave enough to try the clock with day time naps too. Little Owl has never been convinced these are a good idea, and they have always involved me lying with her until she slept. I can't say that she is too over the moon at the idea but it has worked.
My only 'room for improvement' on the clock is that the naps also work on times, which means, if like me, you don't live your life by the clock, there's lots of fiddling to do at the time when your toddler is running around shouting "I dont wanna sleep". I would like to see the day time nap setting have the ability to set for a length of time for example an hour, rather than a specific time.
Actually, I do have one more suggestion - a remote control or the ability to make the sun rise via an app on your phone because sometimes you realise that you have messed up and if you wait for the sun to rise, there isn't time for breakfast before swimming!
