A couple of months ago I wrote a post about how early our days were starting. After enjoying the girls waking up at the glorious hour of 7:30 for about six months, potty training brought with it a much earlier get-up-and-go…such that 6:30 felt like a really good day.
There were a handful of days around the holidays (when this mama may have been staying up much past her bedtime) when Baby A was up well before 6am to use the potty…and was up for the day.
In my sleep-deprived pre-holiday haze, I recalled a couple of blogger friends who use some type of “OK to Wake” clock to signal their kiddos when it’s appropriate to start the day.
I ordered the “OK to Wake” Alarm Clock for the girls. It’s been in place for close to a month now, and I’m so T-H-A-N-K-F-U-L to report that mornings are a little sunnier at our house.
I set the clock to illuminate at 6:30am. While I would love to get back to the 7:30 wake-ups of old, I didn’t want to push my luck.
The girls know that, if they wake up before their clock is green, they “roll over and go back to sleep”. And when the clock turns green? They both shout, “Mommy, my clock is green! I slept well!”
I was worried that the clock would wake them up. It doesn’t glow brightly, but I wondered if they’d be so excited to see it flip to green that they would try to wake up. We’ve had a few days that they’ve slept through the 6:30 mark. The clock stays green for 30 minutes, so they were still able to shout their wake-up greetings at 6:49. (And boy, did this mama enjoy her extra 19 minutes of quiet time!)
Many days I hear the girls stir before 6:30. The majority of the time, I think they do try to “roll over and go back to sleep”. There have been a handful of days that someone has needed to use the potty, or just wanted to start the day early.
I’ve gone up, taken care of potty duty, if necessary, and then put the early riser back to bed. There have been a couple of times when that wasn’t well-received, but I was able to point to the clock as an “impartial party”, stating it was not time to get up. “It’s still sleep time. You need your rest. Call Mommy when your clock turns green, and we’ll start our day.”
I’m linking up with Julia at Pontifications of a Twin Mom for Mama Loves. This mama L-O-V-E-S having more predictability in the mornings, even if that “predictability” starts bright and early at 6:30.
Ticker
11 comments:
That clock sounds wonderful! Hooray for more sleep! :)
When I was little---even after I really didn't need a nap anymore---we had to have quiet time in our room. My mom would tell us we couldn't come out of our rooms until the Disney clock was on the 3 :)
It worked really well, so that we weren't constantly getting up and asking if it was time to get up yet :)
Mandy, sometimes I'm really slow!
I have a real clock (normal, nothing fancy) in their bedroom because they know they're not allowed milk til 6 (both pm and am) BUT why don't we just tell them they're not allowed UP til 6 too?!
Ta da da dum - tomorrow the games begin!
I LOVE the OK to Wake. It turned into a whole new world when those were brought into our house!! Glad it's working out for you guys too!
Ooooh - you are going to HATE me. I thought about getting one of those when the girls started rising earlier than 8. :)
Glad you are getting a bit more sleep!
I have another friend who has one of those clocks and loves it! J&S are now old enough to tell time on their digital clock and know that on the weekends, they have to stay in their room, quietly until 8am (heaven!). Adam is usually quiet until then, too. He did wake up earlier this weekend one day but I went in, told him we were all still sleeping and he settled back down. He was back up about 30 minutes later and I gave him some books and he was good until J&S were awake. Then the 3 of them go downstairs to play while we snooze a lil longer!! Love that we're finally to that point and can sleep in a bit on our weekends!!
so great! We do the same thing in our house. My kids know they have to stay in their rooms till 7. Makes everyone much happier for our day:>
I am hosting a Sunday Blog Hop and would love for you to link up your cute blog:>
http://blissfulanddomestic.blogspot.com/
Oh I would love a clock like that.
Genius!
I wonder if it would work for husbands who try to wake mommies up before nap time is over? haha
Great find! Thanks for sharing!
I am so going to order those...they will make a nice "compliment" for when we move to the toddler beds in a month or so...AWESOME! Thanks for sharing!
:)
I want this clock! Two of them actually. Hubby doesn't agree with it's usefulness and so we don't have them yet. Hubby is not the one who gets woken up by children calling or knocking on the door or general noise. Maybe I should get three....would it work with the dogs not waking me up at 5?
I'm so glad it's working! I've told several other people about them and they seem to be very popular and effective!
I love when the Crazies shout down "Mama, my owl's green!!!"
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