Sleeping and meal time are the two things we’ve decided to be pretty strict on.  Our kids have never slept in our room.  I know that makes us sound cruel but we have our reasons.  The main one being that I am such a light sleeper that I cannot sleep at all with baby/kid noises or extra motion in the bed.  We’ve always used monitors so we can hear if we are needed.  If the kids were ever sick or I thought I needed to be near to them at night for any reason, I would sleep in their rooms so they have never expected to sleep in ours.

But, like all kids, they did try to get up in the middle of the night and really early in the morning.  Thankfully, I found a fabulous product to help us keep them in their rooms at night and until an appropriate time in the morning so the entire house gets a good night’s sleep.

This is a product recommendation that probably every house with kids can use!  If you have children you would love to stay in bed longer in the morning or be better about staying in their rooms all night now, this one is for you: The OK to Wake Clock.

We love this thing!  It turns green at a set time so if your kids wake up and see it green, they know they can come out of their room.  If it isn’t green, they need to stay in their room until it turns on.  You set a time for it to turn on in the morning and then you can set a duration for it turn on in during nap time.  It runs on batteries or can be plugged in and comes with a green face and pink or purple face.

While the product is fabulous, you do have to train your kids to follow it.  We started using these clocks when Bear and Ladybug were transitioning from their cribs to their toddler beds.  You certainly could start later than that as well but setting up the “rules” before moving to a toddler bed or right when you do move to the toddler bed probably help.

Explain the night before you use the clock the first time that the clock will turn green when it is okay for them to get up and come out of their room.  If they wake up before it turns green, they need to go back to sleep or read/play quietly in their bed.  We have books and stuffed animals in our kids’ rooms for that purpose.

Also explain that if they stay in their room and are quiet until their light turns green, they will get a reward.  We used M&Ms and then a sticker chart for a reward like a new toy or special date.  I like this because they get an immediate reward from the M&M but then something bigger to work towards.

Set the time in the morning for when they are normally waking and then gradually move it later by 15 minute increments every few days of them successfully staying in their room.  Example, if your kids are getting up at 6 am and you’d love that to be 7 am or later, set the clock to turn green at 6 am the first morning.  Once your kids have stayed in their rooms for a few days at that time, move it to 6:15 am.  Then 6:30.  Etc.

Same set up for nap time.  If they are napping for an hour and you would like to make that 2 hours, start with 1 hour for the time set and then gradually move it to 2 hours.

The most important thing: consistency.  Each and every time they get up before the light turns green, walk them back to their room and put them back to bed saying “you can get up when your light turns green.”  Say that and nothing more.  This means whether it is 5 minutes until the clock turns green or the middle of the night, you still walk them back to their room.  No stories, no extra hugs and kisses or cuddle time.  Just a quick walk back to their room.  Yes, in the early days they protested or were upset.  That ended quickly though when they understood that getting up in the middle of the night or early in the morning didn’t get them what they wanted.

Of note, our kids have a jack-and-jill bath between their rooms so they can use the restroom on their own without going out of their room.  If your kids need to go out of their rooms to use the restroom, you may need to adjust the rules slightly (can only go out before green to use the restroom BUT must go right back to room).  We also have video monitors in their rooms so if they are sick or need something, they can call to us and we can come help them.  If you don’t use monitors, you may need to say it is okay for them to come out if they are sick or need something.

Our kids now stay in their rooms until 7:30 am (or later if we have a later night and set the clock back a bit) and have 2-3 hour nap times depending on the day.  We also very rarely like I don’t remember when the last time was have them getting up in the middle of the night.

I hope this clock helps you get better sleep!  If you have any other products or tips for sleeping through the night, please use the comment feature above to share your thoughts!

*This post is not sponsored.  I have owned three of these clocks (one got dropped pretty badly on a trip so we quickly replaced it with another) and there is currently one in Bear’s room and one in Ladybug’s room.  As I write this, they are on hour 2 of their naps.  🙂

1. “Begin as you wish to go”  This one is really the mantra for all of our parenting. Various versions of this quote are attributed to many individuals but it is the basis for many of the Baby Wise techniques (see books by Gary Enzo and Robert Buckham, MD).  Basically, it means that if you don’t want something to become a habit or your new ritual, don’t do it.  Not even once.  It may make for a hard meal or two to not give in on something, but you’re in it for the long game, not just a meal or two.  Sticking with your “rules” is worth it. 
2. They eat what we eat.  As soon as we could, we got our kids eating the exact meal that we were eating.  We make dinner for the entire family with no separate meals or dishes for the kids.
3. They sit at the table the whole time we do.  No one gets up early or runs around while we are eating.  Meal time is a ritual where we sit and eat and talk.  If they finish early, they sit at the table with us until everyone is done.
4. We don’t sabotage ourselves.  If we want to have a good meal with our kids, it is worth pushing through them being hungry and making them wait instead of giving them a snack and then having kids at the table who aren’t actually hungry.  Schedules we followed are below.
5. We remember that they are a little smarter than us at times.  Most kids only eat when they are actually hungry.  Often our kids would eat a big breakfast and not really be that hungry for lunch.  We wouldn’t force them to eat at lunch time but would still stick to our feeding schedule so the next meal would be snack time or dinner, depending on the stage they were in.  No extra or early snacks just because they didn’t eat a good lunch.  Because they eat well and eat good things, I don’t worry at all if they have a meal where they don’t eat much.  This takes a lot of stress away from the table and gives them the power to control how much they want to eat.

1. Use a variety of baby foods.  When I would go to the store for baby food, I would buy only one of each flavor in order to encourage my kids to eat different things.  If you make your own food, you could just make sure to make a bunch of different things and vary them with each meal.  
2. Serve fruits and vegetables, individually and mixed.  We would serve a fruit or fruit blend for breakfast, mixed fruit and veggie for lunch, and vegetable or vegetable blend for dinner.  This helped them to get used to things that weren’t sweetened with fruit.
3. If they don’t eat it, save it for the next meal.  If my kids turned their nose up to one kind of baby food, I would put whatever was leftover in the container in the fridge and serve it to them again at the beginning of the next meal.  This taught them that they didn’t get away from eating something by refusing it.  
4. If it is gross, don’t serve it.  I tried the vast majority of the baby food I gave them and if it was truly gross, I would not buy it again.  I can remember one that was a black bean and grain puree which basically tasted like dirt.  I gagged when I tried it so I didn’t force Bear to eat it and definitely did not buy it again.
5. Give little bites/purees of whatever you are eating.  As soon as we could, we would mass up bits of whatever we were having for dinner and let them try it.  
6. Stay on a feeding schedule.  We had breakfast around 8 AM, lunch around noon, small snack around 4 PM, and dinner between 6-7 PM each day.  They knew when to expect food and to know that I didn’t give extra snacks in between.  
7. Have them eat dinner with you.  As soon as they could sit in their Bumbos, we had our kids sitting on the table while we had dinner.  They would watch us eat, eat themselves, and get used to sitting in one spot during meal time.  If they were restless and done eating before we were, we would give them a toy or two to play with at the table but they had to stay in their seat.

Bumbo on the table

8. Start taking them to restaurants.  I started taking my kids to restaurants during my maternity leaves and continued to occasionally take them as infants out to lunch on my days off.  This helped them “practice” behavior at restaurants.  I would pick restaurants that were loud at first and times (mainly lunch) where they were less busy so it wasn’t as high stakes as say taking them to a busy restaurant for dinner.  

1. As soon as our kids could do “table food” we transitioned them away from baby food.  They had been getting small bites of what we were eating all along so it was easy to move them away from the baby food to exactly what we were eating.
2. No toys at the table.  Coloring on the sheets given at restaurants was fine but at home they were sitting and talking with us while eating their food and learning that toys were not for the table.  
3. Give small amounts of everything and more of whatever they like.  We would give small amounts of everything in our meal (usually a meat, veggie or two, and occasional starch or grain).  If they loved one thing and wanted more of it, we would keep giving it to them.  This meant sometimes they really only ate 1 item for dinner (with Ladybug it was often peas) but they were happy and eating something good so it wasn’t a big deal.  We would encourage trying the other items but not force it.
4. Serve sweet items like fruit or dessert later.  Because of number 3, we wouldn’t serve strawberries, for instance, with dinner because if we did, Ladybug would only eat strawberries.  BUT, we would give strawberries after the meat and veggie as a dessert.
5. Give water throughout the day and milk only at meal times.  We made sure they could always have water if they wanted it but milk was only available at meal times, not snack.  This was so they wouldn’t fill up on milk shortly before a meal or throughout the day.
6. Have them eat dinner with you.  At this stage, we used a high chair with a little safety belt so they were literally buckled in at the table.  If they finished early, they sat with us until we were done.

Baby seat with buckle

7. Give lots of praise for trying new things or being good at the table.  We would constantly say things like “I love how you tried the X” even if it was only one bite or “You say very nice at the table.  That makes Mommy happy.”  

8. Give timeouts for inappropriate table behavior.  This is the stage where if they were being inappropriate at the table, we would put them in timeout away from the table (in our house it is the steps going upstairs).  They can still hear everything going on but not see it or participate in it.  When we told them why they were going to timeout, we would say something like “You were not acting nice at the table.  You can come back when you are ready to sit nicely and eat with the rest of us.”  

9. Start having them say “thank you for dinner” and ask to be excused.  Our kids know that when everyone is done they can get up if they say two things:  “Thank you for dinner, X” and “May I please be excused.”  I heard this from one of my friends and loved how it asked the kids to acknowledge the effort that was put in to making the meal.  Asking to be excused gives them a clear time when it is okay to get up.  If they haven’t been excused yet and get up, they are asked to go back to the table.

1. Transition away from snack time.  By the time both our kids were 2, I noticed they were doing great at the table for breakfast and lunch, eating a small snack, and not really that hungry for dinner.  So we went to smaller and smaller amounts for snacks and eventually eliminated it all together.
2. Treats/desserts are the exception, not the rule.  If you knew after every meal you would get a nice big dessert, would you eat as much of your meal?  Of course not.  If kids expect to get a treat or dessert after a meal then they will often focus on that and eat the minimum you deem acceptable in order to get the treat.  We have a treat (usually a cookie) or dessert after dinner only occasionally so that it is not expected.  The kids instead focus on their meals.  If they have eaten a good dinner AND had a good day otherwise with behavior then we’ll offer something after they are completely done about once or twice a week.  Never enough for them to expect it and if they start asking for dessert then we usually say “not tonight” for a few nights to get them back on track with not expecting it.
3. “No thank you bites.”  If they wanted more of something at this stage, we would have them take a “no thank you bite” of something they had not tried first.  This could be a very small bite but would get them to try something different and possibly to start eating something else in addition to what they were really enjoying.  
4. Transition to sitting in chair like “big kid.”  One of the rewards for our kids potty training was getting to sit at the table like a “big kid” in an adult chair or on a bench without a baby seat.  By this time they had been used to sitting at the table and not getting up during meal time.

1. “I’ll give you more X, if you eat 3 bites of Y.”  By age 3, they’ve had the “no thank you” bites and know that you’re not trying to poison them.  You can encourage them to take more bites of something in order to get more of what they are really enjoying.  That being said, we certainly have our exceptions.  My kids actually gag when I give them cottage cheese.  So I’m not going to force them to eat something that literally they physically cannot get down.  I feel like everyone should get to have a few things that aren’t their favorite, especially if they are doing a great job eating everything else.  We try to read our kids and determine if they are not eating something just because they like another item a lot or if they aren’t eating it because they are turning their nose up to it.  Bear will often devour all his meat and ask for more before he has even touched his vegetables.  He’ll ask for more meat but we’ll ask him to take 3 bites of veggies before we give him more.  Once he tastes the veggies and determines he likes them as well as the meat, he will typically start eating them just as well.  
2. Table manners.  Up until 3, I feel like the main goal for meal time with kids is to get them to eat a variety of things and sit at the table without screaming.  Right?  By age 3, you can expect more from them in terms of table manners.  With Bear we are talking more about leaning over his plate so crumbs don’t fall, making sure to use his fork/spoon correctly and all the time (no fist shoveling), and using his napkin instead of his shirt or my tablecloth.  He seems much more receptive at this age as well as able to perform our requests compared to when he was 2.