Life With Our New Toddler Alarm Clock
Our daughter Alice was always a sound sleeper when she was a baby, by the age of 3 months she was sleeping through the night. We thought we had the perfect child and were the envy of our friends whose children would wake throughout the night giving them a disturbed nights sleep and leaving them looking like zombies. It was true that we had always had a good bedroom routine ensuring a wind down period at the end of the day and a strict bedtime but I'd be naive to think Alice wasn't in part responsible for our good nights sleep.
This all however changed when Alice reached the grand old age of 2. The onset of the terrible two's seemed to destroy her body clock and she was waking up earlier and earlier and consequently waking us up too! Before we knew it she was wanting to rise and shine at 5am and wouldn't take no for an answer. We needed a solution fast and a friend suggested using a toddler alarm clock. We'd never heard of these before but eventually found the Kidsleep Toddler Alarm Clock and transformed our daughter's sleeping habits!
The Kidsleep clock is very simple and consists of an illuminated circular panel featuring two images; one of a rabbit tucked up in bed at the top and an image of the same rabbit running through the park on the lower half of the panel. At the side of this large panel is a small digital clock with programmable alarm at the side. The parent is able to programme which image is illuminated at what time so either the sleeping bunny is illuminated or the image of him bouncing through the park.
When the child goes to bed the parent flicks the switch and hey presto the bunny is put to bed. This image then remains illuminated until the preprogrammed time at which point the image of the rabbit in the park is illuminated instead. When you first use the clock you explain to your child that when the rabbit is sleeping they should sleep and when the bunny gets up they should rise and shine too. You then programme the clock for a time 10 minutes after your child's natural wake up time. The first few days were a little difficult and required a lot of patience and explanation of the 'bunny system' but within a few days Alice had got the hang of the new system and wasn't waking us until the programmed time, usually by crashing through our bedroom door excitedly to tell us that 'the bunny is awake daddy!'. We would give Alice lot's of praise telling her what a clever girl she had been and that the bunny was very proud of her. This reinforcement was essential and helped to establish that in following the pictorial instruction she was behaving in a 'grown up' manner. This praise and gentle reinforcement allows you to slowly train your toddlers body clock
Once this landmark was achieved we then set about moving the alarm time forward. This was done very slowly moving the clock forward by 5 or 10 minutes every day or so. If Alice started to wake consistently earlier than the alarm time then we'd stop and allow her body clock to 'catch up'. Eventually with a systematic approach we achieved the impossible dream and had Alice sleeping through the night without giving us the early morning alarm call. She would still burst through the door proclaiming that the 'bunny was awake daddy!' but now it was at 7.30am not 5am!
As time went on the Kidsleep alarm clock proved invaluable, easing the time jumps between British summer time and GMT, helping to reassure her that although dawn may be at 3am in the summer she could still sleep in and being a constant 'friend' should she wake suddenly in the night.
Since buying the Kidsleep we have seen other toddler alarm clocks but none that featured the brilliant illuminated panels that works so great in the dark or by day. The other benefit of the Kidsleep is it's silent operation this means that unlike other toddler alarm clocks it doesn't make a noise when switching from night mode to day mode which means every now and again you even get a lie in!
Finally if all this wasn't enough the clock even has a night light feature that utilises the whole of the illuminated panel providing reassurance in the dark which is great for very young children.
So to sum up are we happy with our Kidsleep Toddler Alarm Clock? Absolutely! We are having good quality undisturbed sleep and just as important so is Alice making us all happier, less stresses and able to face the day ahead.
So why not help your toddler to sleep better and maybe improve your life at the same time.
