I have always been a worrier. If I haven’t got something to worry about, it worries me.
But since Lottie arrived in our life, the worrying has reached a whole new level as I have mentioned before. One of my favourite concerns is the temperature and whether she is too hot or cold.
One of Mr M and my favourite conversations is whether the house is warm enough or too warm, whether it will drop at night and he is always asking me what temperature it should be for Lottie – he can’t seem to remember the magic 16-20 degrees bracket. Which is frustrating to say the least.
This started before she was born when I used to obsess about what clothes to buy for the unpredictable English weather in August.
I also worry (as pretty much every parent does, I’m sure) about cot death – this is tied in with the whole temperature issue, so I do like to be able to see Lottie at night and I do check her with alarming regularity in the few hours that she is upstairs (at least I’m toning my legs back up – just need to work on the tummy next!).
For the first six weeks or so, Mr M and I slept with our bedside lamps on so that we could see Lottie at all times. But then as we were trying to get her into more of a solid routine, my research showed that ideally you needed to keep the room light in the day and dark at night.
So I started to look for a night light for our room and eventually the nursery (if we ever move her out of her room – imagine the worry levels then…).
Coincidentally, the Gro Company then got in touch to see if we would like to review any of their products. The Gro Company specialises in safe sleep solutions, so they seemed the perfect brand for me, the anxious mother.
So then I discovered their Gro-egg Room Thermometer. What a brilliant idea for a product.
The Gro-egg is an egg-shaped thermometer for baby’s room, which changes colour according to the temperature (it glows gently at night and has a very soft hue in daylight). For the magic 16-20 degrees, it is yellow. If it drops below 16, it turns blue. If the room starts to get a little warm, between 21 and 24 degrees, the Gro Egg turns orange and if it goes above 24 degrees, the light will turn red.
The best thing about this for me is that you don’t have to remember what the temperature is supposed to be, you just need to glance at the light and you immediately know if you need to adjust the heating or baby’s clothing.
Even if you were to forget what colour it is meant to be (I know – baby brain is a killer), there is a little smiley or sad face on the display to show if the temperature is right. It’s totally foolproof.
The Gro-egg also provides a really soft night light, which is not disruptive to Lottie’s sleep, but lets us check on her for the 20th time that hour without having to turn on a light and disturb her.
The Gro-egg comes with a really useful leaflet about what is the ideal clothing for babies in different temperatures, as well as tips for safe sleeping, so that you can adjust things accordingly once you know what sort of temperature your room tends to be.
I really like the design of the Gro-egg as it’s modern and sleek, but we were also sent one of the Gro-egg Shells which slips over the top of the egg to transform it into a cute character. We have the Orla the Owl version, which I love as it fits the whole sleep theme, but there is also the equally cute Mikey the Monkey and Percy the Penguin to choose from.
