I dream of sleep...

Before I begin, I should say that this was never intended as a stand alone post but as I was merrily typing away in Tara Cain's comment box after reading about her own little madams sleep issues, I realised that I had in fact produced an essay on my own plight! So to spare all of her readers the agony of a page long comment - I thought that I would inflict it on you all instead... because you are supposed to be interested in what I have to say... right? (this is where you leave a comment to say...."I love reading about your life / loves / disasters / traumas etc.." do add or delete there as necessary.

Right... for you to fully understand what it is I am going on about I suggest that you read Tara's post here, but don't forget to come back!

Now I have the same problem as Tara but in reverse! FunnyGirl (now 6) has some weird kind of sleep 'issue' that the doctor said she would grow out of when she started full time school. She hasn't.... and not only has it continued but she now holds the enviable title of "Most reliable child to fall asleep during assembly".
At one point we were talking six assemblies in a row.It got so bad that they have to put her on the end of a row to catch her as she naps. And if that wasn't bad enough, she even fell asleep during their big Easter assembly..... in church!

She goes to bed early (always by 7pm, or earlier) but when she wakes it generally has a 5 in front of it. Yes FunnyGirl is not so funny - she is a true morning person. I on the other hand, am a night owl.

We have tried keeping her up later in the evening but there is no stopping her. When she wants to sleep - she sleeps. In fact you can be having a conversation with her, turn away for a minute and then she is sparko! One of ModelGirl and TotallySonny's favourite family tales is of the time that she fell asleep whilst having lunch at a pizza restaurant. I was wedged between the girls and turned to one side to help ModelGirl cut something on her plate, when I turned back a moment later there she was head first in her hot pizza, out like a light!

Six years of early mornings really do take their toll. We've tried all kinds of things - but nothing's worked. We gave her a Gro-Clock and a strict set of instructions on acceptable parental waking times. 

She thought this amusing and we realised for the first time that it wasn't her fault that she wakes early - as before Gro-Clock she hadn't been aware of what time it was. It was simply the time that her internal clock said GO FORTH AND WAKE THE WORLD in big bold capital letters with bells and whistles attached.

Then we decided on a damage limitation policy. We let her have a TV in her room. Yes I know TV is evil but so am I after five years of having to get up when I should quite frankly just be going to bed. Her TV only has DVD playing capabilities and she, being a child of the modern age could teach any adult how it all works with ease.

Only that didn't really work either because she liked to turn it up loud enough to not only wake us - but also everyone in the house next door (we are detached).

Next we tried an assigned box of toys but she was falling asleep before she got to choose which box she wanted and I always got it wrong.....

She recently turned six and is now in her second year at primary school. She's a bright, active child - who despite what our GP assured me has not grown out of falling asleep anywhere and everywhere or waking at are-you-kidding-me O'Clock.

I would love to know your thoughts on this. 

Do you think that it's better to get your kids off to bed early, and for them to wake early - but giving you an evening to yourself? or

To let them stay up later (giving you little or no, me / us time), so that you don't have to get up so early in the mornings?

I know that there isn't an answer for us, other than accepting that those random pre-dawn one to one, single child conversations can actually be all you need to get you through the day.

Thanks to Tara Cain for being the inspiration for this post... don't you know that pink hair is in?

The Saturday Review - The Gro-Clock

Now this Gro-Clock review is a tricky for me. I have to say that when I saw it in a mag recently that I truly wanted it to be the answer to our five and a half year old early rising problem that is FunnyGirl.

I have a very strong affinity with the guys at Grobag as I (yes little old me) was the PR who successfully launched their sleeping bag to the global masses.

When they came to me they had already had two unsuccessful PR's and they said to me...

"I don't think that you can get press on a baby sleeping bag."

That night I went home armed with the said Grobag. ModelGirl was our mini bambino of the time, she slept OK, woke early, went to bed late. Liked too much boobie action in the middle of the night (a bit like her dad).

I had no hopes - no dreams. Simply zipped her up and off she went.

That night there was no last feed at 11pm and I had the first full nights sleep that I had had since she was born.

I woke, startled and ran into her room fearing tragedy. I stopped listened. Not too hard mind you she was snoring her head off. I looked at the clock - it was 10am. She has been asleep for 13 and a half hours......

So to cut a long story short... How many people do you think that I told about that? From that night on ModelGirl went down to sleep at the same time as DinoBoy (or TotallySonny as he is now know) at around 6.30pm and didn't stir till at least 8 - or 9am the following day.

Whizz forward. ModelGirl is now seven, not far off eight. Funny girl will be turning six before the year is out. She is a morning person. No one else in this house is.....

This causes lots of grumpiness and unhappiness (mostly mine I have to say). It wouldn't be so bad if FunnyGirl didn't have a habit of falling asleep at inopportune moments like...school assembly...in her pizza... at her schools church service....

You get the picture. It drives us all crazy that she makes us get up before 6am and then she sleeps for England at her leisure.

There will be some of you out there saying, well don't let her have a sleep.

Yes... OK, you try and stop her. She has been known to fall asleep mid conversation or even once in a restaurant when I simply turned to the other side of me to pick up a napkin from the floor. I turned back to cut her food...... Gone.

So. You get the picture....... We neeeeeeeeed FunnyGirl to stay in bed. Just for one day, just till it's normal O'Clock. Six would be good. Seven would be nirvana.

I saw the Gro-Clock in a mag and so I called the Gro MD (name dropping if you like) and asked him to send me one. He kindly obliged.

It arrived the next day. "Look" I said to FunnyGirl, "How exciting a special clock for you - that is going to tell you when it's time for you to get up in the morning."

"But I know when to get up mum." she said

"When's that?" I tentatively asked

"Cuddle time!".....

Ahh yes, I knew that well. It was cuddle past darkness in the not time to get up past scale.

But now I had a plan....

Set the time wrong I pleaded to hubby, but he being the more honest (not in PR one of our partnership) said NO. "She's not stupid."

And he was right. So we set the clock. At night time it shows the moon and you set it to whatever time you want it to show the sun. Plenty of opportunities to make them sleep in till lunch time if you so choose but not on hubby's watch!

Off we went to bed.

Day 1 - Funny girl stormed in at 5 something... we had had a later than usual night wrongly thinking that we may actually get to stay in bed till 6... Wishful thinking.

She was so excited that she woke early to wait for the moon picture to change to the sun and after at least an hour of waiting she had to rush in to tell us that her stupid new clock didn't work.

You can't pull the wool over her eyes!

Day 2. By this point I was starting to feel like the wolf in the three little pigs, continually out smarted by those pesky little blighters.

Again, she pounced on us earlier than usual. Fine I thought. This calls for a plan.

So I said to her.... "Tomorrow morning I will meet you at 5am at farmer Giles field where we will pick apples..."....eeeekkkkk Ok so I read too many Ladybird books. She wasn't going to be that easy to out smart and as it happened we kind of settled on a mid ground.

We agreed to a wake up time of 6.30am. That if she wakes before then - that she has to play in her room.

A couple of weeks have passed and the one thing that having the Gro-Clock has taught me is that FunnyGirl had no idea of what time it really was when she woke up.

So to come in to our room to be met by two grumpy parents, really wasn't her fault.

Wake up time - is just like bed time and play time. It's set by boundaries and whilst most five year olds could probably tell you what time they go to bed - how many of them could tell you what time they're supposed to get up?

Gro-Clock taught me a lesson. It taught me that I shouldn't expect my wonderful daughter to live by rules that I don't tell her even exist?

All that aside - it is a pretty cool nursery clock - and I like it.

Gro-Clock RRP £39.99 is MummyTips Must Buy for any young child. I just wish that I had tried it sooner - I may have had a few extra hours sleep in my life! Well done Rob and Ouv, another fab product.