Monday 21 July 2014

Clock update

So how did we get on during the first week after implementing the clock (link)…?

Thursday (morning 1) - change set for 5.35am
4.40 awake, teething. Gave gel and drink. Settled back to sleep but remained a bit unsettled. 
5.15 awake and wanting to get up. Doing milk sign and all done sign. Did keep looking at rabbit (still sleeping). Put a book and toy in cot with him.
5.25 I sat in chair away from bed and he suddenly lay down (on top of all the toys and books! Oops) and went to sleep!
5.31 D started playing with wooden Noah's ark but didn't make a fuss to get up and stayed lying down
5.37 rabbit has changed but he's still lying down and hasn't noticed!

Friday (morning 2)
 Rabbit ‘woke up’ at 5.35. Doof called to get up at 5.37. Enough said :)

Saturday (morning 3) - now at grandparents house so new environment and in travel cot... Change set for 5.45am
4.50 D wakes up, signs that he wants to get out of bed. Show him rabbit sleeping and say too early
4.50-4.55 lots of fussing
4.55-5.05 hurrah quiet lying/sleeping
5.05-5.15 more fussing, signing he's hungry, signing for milk
5.15-5.25 hurrah quiet lying/sleeping
5.25 now he's very cross and crying even though I'm in the room with him. Put a book in bed with him and show him rabbit still sleeping
5.35-5.43 hurrah quiet lying/sleeping/book pages turning
5.43 bah he wakes up and rabbit still has 2 minutes of sleeping left... Manage to distract him with kisses through cot bars and then YAY the rabbit is awake and we can all get up!!!

This morning was really difficult. He kept looking over at the rabbit, understood rabbit was sleeping as he would say "sshhhhh" but he still wanted to get up. To be fair to him we were in a completely different environment. Anyway if we could cope with nearly an hour then hopefully can't get much worse than that...

Sunday (morning 4)
Pretty unsettled from 1.30 on and off. Awake at 5.15. Intermittently settled for few mins between 5.15-5.20. Cross between 5.20-5.35. Then at 5.35 fell asleep to 6.22!!!!! YAY!

Monday (morning 5)
Woke up at 3.50 for a drink. Then back to sleep until 5.55. Rabbit already awake - woohoo!

Tuesday (morning 6) - change set for 6am
Woke once in the night for a drink and then awake at 6.10

Wednesday (morning 7)
Woke once in the night for a drink and then awake at 6.15


Summary:

Whenever D wakes up now he looks at the clock to see what the rabbit is doing - and either says "sshhhhh" if the rabbit is sleeping or makes his noise for a rabbit if its awake. I think the clock has definitely helped (a) him understand when it's time to get up and (b) us to have an end-goal in site when he wakes up early. It also acts as a good wind-down tool when he's going to bed. 

Verdict:

So far we highly recommend it!!



PS this is completely unsponsored etc etc, we just bought the clock in a desperate bid to get some extra sleep :)

2 comments:

  1. Hey there, catching up with your blog after a while, although always enjoy reading Doofy's tweets! My nearly 2yo daughter wakes up way too early as well and this is very enlightening and inspiring - I've thought of getting a special clock but in my head I imagined setting it for 7am and I just couldn't imagine getting her to stay quiet & calm for that long. I hadn't thought of starting the wake up time on the clock to be around her natural waking up time and then slowly moving it later!! Genius! I may have to do this. Only prob is she shares a room with her older brother whose natural waking up time is much more reasonable (6.45) and I don't want her to be loud and wake him so I always whisk her out of the room as soon as she wakes. I think this may have something to do with her persistently waking at stupid-o-clock.

    Anyway, thanks for this, I think this may be the start of a solution. Also, I believe many upheavals have happened since you last updated your blog - didn't want to leave a chirpy comment without saying I was aware of these and wish you lots of strength and perseverance in an oddly sad and happy time at the same time.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you.

      I would definitely recommend this clock - rabbit now wakes up at 6.30 (tbh we could've stretched it more by now but other events have distracted us!) and Doof just stays quietly in his cot until the rabbit wakes up and we've even had a few mornings when he's slept through to 6.45/6.50 (unheard of previously...). I never thought it would be this successful! I'd guess it will be much trickier if your two share a room but it might be worth the short-term pain? We only had a few days of Doof getting cross - after that he just accepted it :)

      If you try it then let me know how you get on - will keep fingers crossed for you!

      Delete