I was contacted by The Gro Company to review their products. I’d been considering The Gro Clock for a while now so immediately knew that was the product that would best suit us. I was a little uncertain about how the Gro Clock would work for us given Arjun is only 17 months and the clock is designed for age 2 years plus but it’s definitely had some sort of impact although I’m sure we have many more benefits to reap as he grows and understands more!
What does it say on the packet?
The idea of the Gro Clock is that “you stay in bed until you see the sun”. Mr Sun is a bright yellow smiley sun which represents wake up time, and Mr Star signifies bedtime.
The clock comes with an illustrated book which you read at bedtime before saying night night to Mr Sun before he morphs in to Mr Star. There is a super cool stars to sun countdown which is basically 12 little stars surrounding Mr Star which disappear one at a time to signify the passing of time. This will be really educational as Arjun grows and understands a little better.
How did it work for us?
When we first set up the Gro Clock, Arjun was pretty oblivious to it. I made the mistake of setting it up just before bed without introducing him to it before the mayhem of bedtime started. In hindsight, I should have introduced him to Mr Sunshine during the day so he became familiar with him before bedtime.
We were having a few co-sleeping dilemmas (again) so I thought I’d introduce the Gro Clock inline with trying to get him back in to his own room.
Day one was an absolute nightmare but Preetam and I were both prepared for it. Arjun took 0 notice of Mr Sun as he was feeling pretty frustrated as he soon realised he’d have to fall asleep in his cot. We read him the story book and he was pretty engaged by it (but kept flipping the pages back to front!). The book also features Mr Sun and Mr Star too.
When it came to saying night night to Mr Sun, I did so by waving and placed Arjun in his cot. He wasn’t happy.
Two hours, a hysterical melt down, the attempt of using the lava lamp, Ewan and the nightlight slide show later, Preetam and I both found ourselves lying on the floor with Arjun in his bedroom to get him to fall asleep. My aim was to not leave that bedroom as I didn’t want him to think enough tears could get him out. He finally fell asleep and we moved him in to his cot.
As the days progressed, things have gotten a lot better. We passed the phase of having to sleep on the floor, passed the stage of wanting to kill Mr Sun (as it was another thing to throw during bedtime filled tantrums!), passed the stage of wanting to press every single button on Mr Sun (which prompted me to set the key lock function on!), and we’re now at the stage where Arjun and Mr Sun are friends!
I introduced giving big kisses to Mr Sun and now Arjun is in the habit of kissing and waving goodnight to Mr Sun too. Sometimes Mr Sun is inundated with kisses! What Arjun doesn’t quite get is that it’s his bedtime too. Haha! He’s definitely getting better at it but we do still have some nights that are a little more challenging than others. I’m hoping as he gets older, he’ll understand more.
I feel like the introduction of The Gro Clock has made Arjun feel a lot more comforted by having “someone” in his room with him during the night. Arjun has started sleeping through the night since after a few days of us introducing Mr Sun. Another thing I’ve noticed is that Arjun no longer cries when he wakes in the mornings, he’ll happily babble away in his cot – something that’s very different to before we introduced the Gro Clock. I’m not sure if it’s sheer coincidence or if it is that he’s built some sort of trust with this new animated character. Either way I’ll take it!
He hasn’t quite grasped the wake up routine part with the Gro Clock yet but it’s definitely helped a lot at bed times. He’s been sleeping through the night and on a Monday – Wednesday is still fast asleep when it’s time for us to take him to nursery and I’m always filled with guilt when we have to wake him. The rest of the week, he’s waking anytime between 8-9am. This morning we got an extra lie in till 10am as he went to bed very late last night! You’re able to set two different wake up times with the Gro Clock which I’ve not done yet as Arjun seems to be sleeping through for now. This is something I will be setting soon though in anticipation that the sleep through nights won’t be lasting long as experience dictates!
We haven’t used the Gro Clock for nap times as Arjun generally falls asleep himself at nap times and is happy to pull down a cushion when he’s feeling tired during the day.
The Gro Clock has several features in addition to the ones mentioned above. We have never had a nightlight for Arjun, but this acts as just that and as mentioned it seems to form some sort of comfort for him. You can set the brightness to your preference – we’ve gone for the lowest so it doesn’t disturb his sleep. It also has a built in energy saving mode running on minimal electricity which is great.
You can purchase the Gro Clock from the Gro Company for £29.99.
Disclosure: this is a sponsored post either in the form of remuneration or a free product being sent to us for review however all thoughts and opinions are our own.
