The Good Nite Lite so far

Well, so far so good.  The whole point of this thing (for those of you too lazy to click over to the website and read about) is to get your kid to sleep later in the morning.  (The night light shows up as a moon when it's time to sleep and changes to a sun when it's time to get up.)  It hasn't *exactly* worked like that around here.  I started out setting it for the sun to come on at 6:30 am, the time she'd been getting up for the previous few weeks.  She woke up early the first morning, around 6:15 or so, but I didn't go in right away. I went in right before it switched to the sun so I could tell her that we don't get up while the moon is on, we have to wait until the sun comes up.  The next day she was quiet until the sun came on at which point she started saying, "Up! Up!"

After a few days I set it to go off at 6:40 instead of 6:30 and she seems to be doing alright with that.  It has not (and probably won't) encouraged her to sleep any later.  BUT!  She doesn't cry when she wakes up now.  She waits (or talks to herself) until the sun comes on and someone comes to get her.  This is GREAT.  I cannot believe what a relief it is to KNOW what time she's going to get up.  I don't have to worry that she'll be up at 5.  If I get up at 6 I know I can shower before Kalena will be up.  (I don't have to worry about Will, he's a more predictable sleeper.)  She doesn't wake me up by crying anymore.  It is AWESOME.  Next week I'll be pushing it back to 6:50 and then 7:00 am the week after that.  Depending on how she does with that, I may or may  not try to push it later than that.  If this system does eventually cause her to sleep later, I'll probably push it back a little more.  We'll see though, I don't want to make her bedtime any later.  I very much prefer her to be up in the morning and have the evenings to myself.

One of the reasons we started it now is that she's still in a crib.  When we move her to bed, I fully intend to use it to keep her from getting out of bed in the mornings.  (I REALLY hope this works.)  There is one change I'd make if I could though.  I wish it had a "nap" setting.  Kalena doesn't always nap, but I think if I could tell her that it's "quiet time" while the moon is on and we don't get up until the sun is back out I think that would work.  Maybe some other sort of visual cue would work for this?  Any suggestions?

Anyway, even with no nap setting, I'm sold.  It's worth it.  I'll keep you updated on how things go as the weeks go on.  Because nothing is as exciting as sleep schedules.  I know you'll be holding your breath.