Good Morning, Sunshine!

KIDS'Sleep Classic Toddler Sleep Wake Training Clock

"Mommy! Cow's awake!" I hear this every morning through the baby monitor...my two year old knows that her "cow" is her key to freedom. When my older child would wake up well before the sun came up I searched for solutions to keep her in her bed. I stumbled across this clock and thought I would give it a try; it solved our problems...MOST of the time :) There are still those days when no matter what a silly little cartoon cow may think, our girls want to come downstairs and they do. But, most mornings, the cow is dancing before I hear a peep from them.

So, here's how this little gadget works: You set the time that you want your child to wake up (I have set the time for 7:00 a.m.); at 7:00 p.m. the cow "goes to sleep" (a picture of a cow in a bed lights up), at 7:00 a.m. the cow "wakes up" (a picture of a cow dancing lights up). It's as easy as that. You can also set nap times but I don't bother with that, my Zoe is an excellent napper (I put her down at 1:00 p.m. and don't hear from her until 4:00 p.m.!).

Make sure you explain to your child every night when you put them to bed that they "must stay in bed until the cow wakes up" so that they fully understand and remember to look at the cow in the morning. When first using this for the girls I would set the cow to wake up 15 minutes before they would normally wake up (ex. if your child is normally waking up at 6:00 a.m. then set it for 5:45 a.m.) so that they got excited to wake up and see that the cow was awake. If you want your child's wake up time to be 7:00 a.m. and not 6:00 a.m. then gradually increase the time you have set by 15 minutes every day or two so that they train themselves to sleep a bit longer without even realizing it!

PROS: YOUNG children can use this (like I said, Zoe just turned two years old!), the pictures are big and bright, it is easy to program, choose from pink, blue or green

CONS: Pricey ($30), if you need to put your kids to bed earlier than 12 hours after they wake up then the cow is "still awake" (this happened to us recently when we put the kids to bed 30 minutes before they normally go to bed..."Mommy, why is the cow awake?"..."Um, it's not working right now; go to sleep and it will be fixed in the morning!"