Last week found FrugalMrW and I at the end ofour tether and sleep deprived due to bedtime battles with both Daisy and Jake. I’m the first to admit that I’m not the loveliest of humans after several nights of broken sleep and after a week spent snapping at each other we decided that we needed to take action and fast.

Up & Down, In & Out

Jake transitioned from his cot into his big boy bed with no problems at all, the first week was a dream then he realised he could get out of his bed and open his door, we quickly moved the safety gate from the living room onto his bedroom door so that was one problem solved.

For the last six months Daisy has been waking during the night and climbing into our bed, we usually don’t realise until one of us wakes and finds her snoring away next to us, because FrugalMrW and I are both restless sleepers Daisy wasn’t getting the good quality sleep and she was waking up far too early when she heard her Daddy getting ready for work. As Daisy was having such poor quality sleep and waking very early she was really tired and it was starting to affect her mood and behaviour both at home and at school, we had tried all sorts of tactics to keep her in her own bed but all efforts were met with tears and tantrums which in turn would then disturb Jake waking him too.

Winning The Battle Little By Little 

With Jake needing a toddler bed it seemed the ideal time to buy a new bed for Daisy, she really wanted a bunk bed so we met in the middle and bought her a mid-sleeper from Ikea, I bought her some My Little Pony bed covers a new duvet and a new pillow to encourage her to stay in her own bed and that first night she slept soundly until 7 am.

After a few nights she began to creep back into our bed again followed by a week of 5.30 am get ups things seemed to be getting worse not better I knew I had to start getting tough as everyone was tired and snappy by the end of the week.

I remembered reading about the Gro-Clock and how it had worked for lots of people so I did my research and decided it was worth a go. We explained to Daisy what the clock was for and why we were buying it, she seemed really excited when we watched a video on YouTube about the clock.

We got it home on Friday night, set it up and explained it all again to Daisy and would you believe that every single night since she’s slept in her own bed. The stars fade out one by one until 7 am when she is allowed to get up and come downstairs and it’s working really well, if she wakes earlier she reads in bed until the sun comes up on her clock.

Jake is sleeping later too and without all the noise and commotion everyone is in a much better mood this week, I know it’s early days but if we keep being consistent I’m sure things will continue to improve.

Do you have any tips for keeping the kids in their own beds ? do your little ones rise way too early in the morning ? leave me a comment I love hearing from you.

Angela xx