Has anyone had success with a groclock and a toddler who is still in a cot?

[42andcounting]

Our DD is 2.3, and after many battles is now pretty good at going to bed. I know how lucky we are in this, and am very grateful for it after no sleep until she was 18 months! The problem is mornings and naps, she's up between 5 & 6 am (usually nearer to 5. I think its usually a wet nappy or hunger waking her, but sometimes she clearly just wants to get up and play. We've bought a groclock on the advice of friends but I really can't see how it will work. I think she'll just stand in the cot and scream just as she would if we left her now. And I can see why really, I'd be bored too just lying awake in the cot .

As for naps, well those are strictly for only when I trick her into it by driving in the car! She is very indignant when she wakes too, despite clearly needing the sleep. I'm hoping this will just resolve itself as she grows out if the need for a nap.

Has anyone had any success with this? Is the answer to put books or toys in the cot with her at the same time as the groclock?

Any experiences would be helpful. Many thanks

At 2 years old my child wouldn't have understood the values of the numbers up to 12. He may have been able to count parrot fashion up to 10, but hasn't learnt the values to know there are 9 stars there.

Neither would my child at 3 years old to reliably understand more than and less than. Children do not inherently understand that 1 star is smaller than 5 starts.

All children are different so maybe this isn't the case for your child?

Personally, I can see no value in the glo clock at all. By the age a child has the mathematical concepts to understand the passage of time to be able to use it, they are at an age when a digital clock would work.

I got a groclock but it didn't work very well (we use it as a night light now). I used stickers and a reward which was successful eventually. I made a big deal of giving lots of praise and 1 sticker for staying in their own bed and 1 sticker for not waking anyone at night (unless necessary). If the majority of sticker rewards were achieved during the week, the big reward was a 'big' treat (ice-cream from the local ice-cream shop in town) on Sundays.

I wouldn't get a clock for that age

But I would do some other things:

1. make sure she has her evening meal no earlier than 6pm, so she isn't waking at 5am from hunger

2. get rid of cot, she's not a baby. Put a single mattress on floor for now so she can get on and off easily. Add stair gate to bedroom door. Then when she wakes she can get up and play in room a bit. Put most toys out of reach so she just has a small selection of quiet things like a few board books, some teddies, a small interactive toy like something with some figure ie small dolls house

DS waking up early was a sign that we needed to push the nap back a bit. So if he was sleeping from 1-2, we'd go to 2-3 and he'd start waking up a bit later on again.

I had big success with getting DS to nap on the sofa. I'd give him the option of napping on the sofa, in his bed or in my bed with me and he'd usually go for the sofa or in my bed.

Gro clock worked very well for us but Dd is a little older, at 2 1/2. We set the sun to come up at 7 and she will wait for it before she calls for us (we have a gate on her door). Guess it depends on the child though?

Ps my Dd dropped her nap before 2. If she has ever had one since then she bounces off the walls

For my DC when they were young, we had a clock where the face of the clock was like a sleeping rabbit with sleeping eyes and pop-up ears which were in the downward position when it was time to sleep, then when the rabbit woke up, it was okay for child to get up too.

Hard to explain - I'll see if I can find a link, but it really worked a treat. DD was a nightmare sleeper!

daddytypes.com/2006/06/23/bunny_clock_is_the_master_of_time_and_space.php

Hope link works!