Experiences with Tot Clock ?

So naps have been pretty much eliminated except when the kids were sick two days last week, but they are still waking up at 5:15am most days. My mom wants to get the twins a Tot Clock like this

LINK TO TOT CLOCK

It seems like a lot of money, but if it works it would be worth every penny. DD could sleep until 7:30am, but DS is up at the crack of dawn screaming "I'm awake" which of course wakes up everyone. We have tried explaining to him that everyone is still sleeping and he needs lay down to sleep or play with stuffed animals, but it doesn't work. They go to sleep between 7:30-8:00pm and we can't get them to stay up any later. Then they are both very cranky all day because they are tired because of DS's crack of dawn wake up call and that takes its toll on us.

We are starting to get very tired, irritable, and wondering if this will help. Thoughts? Experiences?

 

We have the exact same clock, it never worked for us (well the clock works fine, but it hasn't changed anything with my kids). But I ordered it because so many people I knew had good results with it, so maybe it is just my kids. They completely ignore it & get up anyway. They did, for quite awhile, enjoy the storytelling feature, though!

 

We have the same clock too. I think it really depends on the kids. My kids like to change the colors on the clock and they are fascinated by time but it did not encourage them to stay in bed longer. Nor, if I set the clock as an alarm for them, that they wake up for it (just like their dad, ha-ha). But they like it for a nightlight in their room and they like to change the colors on it.

 

We've been using the Tot Clock since around January before my boys turned 3, so about a year and a half. It has worked wonders for us, but I do believe it depends on the children. There have been times when they ignored it, but for the most part, I'd say it was well worth the money. Up until recently, they were going to bed by 7:00 and waking up at 7-7:30. When they were in the process of dropping their nap (around age three), they would wake up super early-like 5:00am. I started putting them to be earlier during that phase and it seemed to help. Anytime we have sleep disruptions, I really hate it because I've gotten so used to them being good sleepers-they are four now!...but whatever phase they are going through usually only lasts about a month. Hang in there!! Maybe try moving up their bedtime in small increments to an earlier time and see if it helps them start sleeping later. I'm a true believer in "sleep begets sleep". Good luck!!

 

I love our Tot Clock! It hasn't necessarily gotten them to sleep any later, but they've stopped the waking everyone else up in the house. And I was able to get them to sleep a *little* later, but I certainly don't have 7:30/8am sleepers like other people do.

What we did when we got it, they were starting to yell for us at 5/5:30am (not okay in my book, half the time I'm up until 1am...) was to initially set the changing color to when they were already waking up. Telling them they needed to wait for the clock to turn yellow before they could call for us. We then slowly backed up the wake up time by 15 minute incriments, until I got to the tolerable time of 6:45a (and that's mainly because of preschool, or I *might* have continued to push it). We still have occasional early risings, but I'm able to ask them if the clock is yellow and if it's not, they need to go rest quietly in their bed until it is.

Oh, and I think if your mom signs up for their email list, they may send her a discount code. I think I was able to get 20% off.