success story - keeping 2.5 yo in room until time to get up

[brenda2]

hi
thought i'd share what we've done with our 2.5 yo.  she is a great sleeper and is in a BGB but was getting up out of bed and coming into our room in the morning before we wanted her to - usually at 6:30 am.  she wouldn't stay in bed any later and if we brought her back into her room she would cry and just come back out.  so we bought a timer and put it on the lamp on her dresser.  it is set for 6:50 am and we told her she has to stay in her room until the light comes on.  when the light comes on it's morning and time to get up.  it has been working great!  it's been a week and she's only gotten up once before the light came on.  most mornings she comes running into our room saying "the light is on, time to get up, good morning!"  in such a great mood. such a difference!

[becky1969]

Congratulations!

We recently did something similar with our son.  I actually bought a clock that is a lit up moon when you're supposed to be sleeping, a sun when you wake up.  Has worked a charm!  Is especially nice now that sun is rising earlier and earlier and earlier and...

[brenda2]

oh we saw that online and it was our inspiration actually.  we were going to buy it but the reviews weren't great.  how do you like it?  does it work very well?

[anna*]

Congrats Brenda and Becky! We've had GREAT success with the light too. Like Becky, we've got a light that shows moon and sun. Crazily enough, Stan at 28 months is having more sleep in 24 hours than he did at 18 months! He has NEVER (consistently) slept 12 hours overnight - I feel like this clock gives him 'permission' to roll over and go back to sleep when he wakes up still tired at 6am!

[becky1969]

anna -- that's our experience too! I think they have a natural light sleep phase at 10 hours, and as toddlers they just wake up then b/c sun outside is shining! But with the clock, they say 'oh, not time to wake up yet' and then sleep another 1-2 hours.  Brilliant!

[londonmama]

Come on, someone tell me the absolute earliest they think this will work?!  15.5 months old DS.  [Tapping fingers impatiently waiting to buy the fancy sun/moon clock]

[brenda2]

sometime after 2...i think i could have done it a bit earlier but it was not an issue since she couldn't/didn't get out of her bed.  i only did it when she started getting out of her bed in the morning before it was "time".  before this if she woke up too early we just went in and told her to go back to sleep and she would.

[nona]

we have the tot clock and it works well for my DS as well. he really likes it. you can also use it for time-outs and nap time too. it wasn't cheap but it was worth it for us.

[anna*]

We got the clock around 20 months i think but we had some other issues going on too so I wouldn't say it was consistently successful until 24 months. Lucysol (Daisys mum) is having good results at 20 months

[twinmum1]

Hi my dd is 15 months and I have been using a lamp with a timer switch for about a month now.  So far I am seeing a real improvement with her EWs and she does seem to understand that the light means morning.  I make a MASSIVE fuss of her everytime she waits for the light to come on before calling for me and talk loads about the 'morning light' at bedtime and when I get her out of her cot. I was expecting it to take much longer than this before it had an effect, as she is only young, but I would say that we are having an 80% success rate at the moment and I can't tell you how much better I feel for a bit more sleep.  So londonmama give it a go and you might be surprised!

[my3girlsjde]

I'm using a timer on the lamp in my girls' room and things are starting to finally get on track. I'm talking like 4am EW's when one would jump on the others' head to wake her up. The unfortunate thing is that when one regresses, they are so loud in their protest that they both end up regressing, so I think that this may take some time.

[londonmama]

Wow, twinmum1, that sounds very promising!  I'm off to pre-order the new 2010 Gro-Clock!

[anna*]

I was thinking about this and I guess the earliest you could start it with any reasonable hope of it working is once they understand 'when this happens, we do this.'

[londonmama]

Anna, I have a feeling that DDs may be a bit quicker on the uptake than DSs, bless them.  Girls seem to have comprehension and words earlier than boys, if I can generalise that much.  But it won't stop me trying!

[becky1969]

LOL, LOndonmama!!! I was going to suggest something similar re difference between boys and girls, but didn't want to sound mean! I'm a boy mama, and my gosh it took him AGES to understand the things that my friend's DDs understood at like 9 months!    He's 4 now and bright as heck, so it's not that they're dumb, they just don't have those language skills.  On the otherhand, he could physically do stuff at 2 that most girls twice his age had trouble with.  Go figure.