Be Excellent To Each Other

Bought some of these last week

http://shop.easybulb.com/shop

The same as Phillips Hue but a lot cheaper. You also have to buy a wireless controller that requires a onetime set up (via the app) to connect it to your wireless. Then once done following the instructions on the app to add your bulbs and all done.

You get 16 million colours, dimming, mood lighting and it will pulse to music. You can also set a bulb or bulbs up to flash if your phone rings and set timers for when you’re away. Also a bulb can be set up as a night light for a kids room, it will dim over time until turning off.

Lights can be controlled from anywhere as long as you have an internet connection. The app also has a white button which you can press if you get sick of colours to quickly return the bulbs to normal colour.

I bought 10 bulbs in total with 5 going into bedrooms and the hall and the other 5 into wall lights in the lounge. If I’m honest the 5 in the lounge get the most use, I find them really good for watching films, I set them to a “white blue” then dim them and find that this really enhances the TV picture whilst still providing enough light to see what you are doing if you need to leave the room.

Some things to note with these though…

For some reason they don’t provide a plug with the wireless adaptors, you get a USB cable. Whilst this hasn’t been an issue for me as I replaced a lot of power sockets with new ones that have USB in them, you would need a phone charger USB plug to power them in many cases.

Setting the app on other devices can be confusing, when you do the first time set up you are required to give your wireless adaptor a name. So in my case I have 2, living room and play room. When you set the app up on an additional device, these wireless adaptors are just called Easy Bulb, so you have to work out which one corresponds to the named controller on the device you did the setup on. Once I realised this it was very quick and easy to add other control devices.

I’m currently replacing every bulb in the house with LED, don’t think I will get more of these as they are around £12 each and not sure I need the function everywhere.

All in all very good lights for the money

I really fancy these as I can't stand having the living room lights on because I hate the colour. A nice warm orange glow of an eve night would be nice, though.

It might also be handy for when Darwin moves into the nursery. In, like, a long time from now.

Do they turn on and off from a normal light switch?

I can't help but think that they are ever so slightly misnamed, given the level of explanation above.

I thought they were orange.

Get them ordered!

From their FAQ:

I have realised this sounds like I'm pushing for Darwin to move into the nursery sooner rather than later. Actually I just want cool lights.

It'd be nice being able to use the living room lights of an evening. We'll have a look this evening

Get him in his own room before he is 1, obviously do it when you are ready, but I'd really suggest it's easier before he is 1, than after.

@ashfish do those usb sockets have some energy leak if you don't put any cable in it?

Why would they have?

Use a knife to push tinfoil in the slot if you are concerned and want to block the emissions.

He's had his own room since he was born, but they say to keep him in your room until he's at least six months, and he's only five months.

Because USB chargers still use some power even if you've got nothing plugged into them. Not an amount I'd really worry about personally but not really ideal either if thy start installing these things everywhere.

By 'your' room I mean my room, otherwise that'd be a bit weird. And inconvenient.

Didn't have problems with either of mine and they were both 2+

I even *SHOCK* slept with my kids

Darwin sleeps in a co-sleeper (like a sidecar crib) through the night, then we usually have a cuddle in bed when Russell gets up for work. The one and only baby book I bought (only a couple of weeks ago) suggests id be a total bitch if I moved him out of my room, no, my bed, before he was seven. Also I should throw away my bed and sleep on the floor do he can't roll off, obviously.

It's all ridinculous. Do what works for you, your little ones, your space, time and resource.

Cool lights will help, though.

Ooh, never thought of doing it that late! That might work, as they can be more reasoned with then (to a degree). I was more thinking that by 1, they know they can get a rise out of you by playing up, but they don;t understand enough for you to explain what's going on. The earlier you do it, the quicker they get used to it.

Pauline was absolutely useless at bedtime routines, and I ended up doing the bedtime putdown for 90% of the time. I had the best results with Seb and Raven, who both had their own room from early on. (although Raven regressed when she was about 30 months old and was really hard to put to bed for about 18 months, even now - at 7 years old - compared with her brothers at the same age, is by far the worst at bedtime, and staying in bed)

Yes, but if you turn the light on at the switch then turn the light off with the app you need to press the switch twice to turn the light back on. Will check this as I only tend to use the switch first thing in the morning



Not that I'm aware off, will check this next time I'm in Wickes! I didn't put these everywhere, think maybe 5 of them from a total of 12 or more sockets downstairs, the rest were replaced with normal ones.

We had our son in the same sort of crib until he was 6-9 months, then he went in a cot in his own room. Will check exact times with my wife but I'm sure he was in his own room by 1 at the latest.

Our son settled in no issue to a cot, he was a nightmare sleeping anywhere until 18 months, but that was more down to acid reflux and trapped wind, once that passed he became a brilliant sleeper and we never get any issues with him (aside from illness and the odd random 2am waking once in a blue moon)

If you want to have him in your bed, then you can get full length bed guards that go under the mattress to stop them falling out.

I was thinking more of the affect on the parents!

Not sure exactly what you are after Mimi, but have you seen these?
http://gro.co.uk/grolight

Izzy was definitely harder than Olly to get to bed, and takes longer than him to go to sleep now. She's an early riser too. I wonder if it's a girl thing.

I mostly just parent the laziest way possible which meant leaving that battle alone for as long as possible

What, by bedsharing you mean?

Some of the biggest families I know are co-sleepers so they're obviously not having issues

The Easier option is certainly to let the baby sleep with you, The baby has a brilliant sleep, and can be settled within seconds, however, there are the risks of suffocation and all that, and the impact on sexy fun time with your spouse. So you weigh one up off the other.

After having tried it I'm a pretty big fan of the theory that you need to teach them to be able to get themselves off to sleep rather than having to creep out of the room once you've done whatever to get them asleep. Or even worse rocking them to sleep then trying to lay them down. Otherwise when they wake up the night (which they do, everyone does a couple of times a night even if they don;t remember it) they can find it hard to cope.

It took a couple of evenings and we've not had one single bad nights sleep in the 14 months since we did sleep training with Josie. Didn't believe anything could work so well. She loves bedtime now, do some stories, put her in the bed and she says night and sits there whispering to her toys before nodding off. Such a relief getting it sorted because it was starting to be a bit much, all three of us frazzled to fuck all the time.

I love listening to my son talking to all his toys on the monitor for 20 minutes every night before he drops off

Are they made b the same people who make Grobags? I love those, they make life easy. We actually have a light integrated into his monitor that can function as a nightlight and also temperature gauge (a bit like a GroEgg), but really I thought a funky colour changing bulb could work for sensory fun (whooo, green room!) but also to shift the light to redder hues in the evenings, because I think that the colour of light and wavelengths associated have a lot to do with reinforcing circadian rhythms (which is why no blue screen time before bed, kiddlywinks). Even if that doesn't make a difference, being able to make the room go funny colours might be nice for a little sproglet.

What age did you do that at? At the moment Darwin listens to a book whilst having his feed, and then is put down and is restless, so we have to put a bit of white noise on to get him to go to sleep. Then (as long as we don't wake him up) he usually sleeps 10-11 hours.

You're taping all that for his 18th birthday, right?

Ah, that book covers this. Let me paraphrase:

Not that's not fair!

I didn't feel the need to 'train' my children, bed time takes 20 minutes and they sleep through unless they're ill. They all get there eventually irrespective of how you parent them

Would agree a little with that, but if you know some IT basics they are easy enough to set up.

Oooh, it's cute! Oh, do tape some: he won't appreciate it when he's 18, or 21, but when he gets to 30 I reckon he'd love nothing more than to hear a few of his chatters.

Why are some people obsessed with having everything in their house connected to the internet?

I couldn't care less if they were connected to the Internet, but being able to change to loads of different colours quickly and easily is nice.

I have various IKEA colour changing bulbs (well, LEDs) and have never done anything with them. UGH THE LAZINESS.

Think it depends on the kid really. For the first 12 months our son was a nightmare sleeping and eating, all due to reflux and trapped wind. My wife would get really upset as all the other NCT mums were reporting their kids doing 12 hours etc.

Now his is approaching 3 his is by far the best kid for sleep out of our NCT group. We have one couple who's boy woke @5.30am every morning, now its 4.30 since the clock change. Another couple have 2 hours of tantrum's every night just getting their boy changed then another hour or more of screaming before he goes to sleep.

My wife has finally realised what I said all along that our boy is brilliant and only acted up at the start because he was in pain

Good for you, we needed to do something though because due to my wife's MS the lack of sleep was really fucking her up. Really appreciate how you put 'train' in little quotes making the snide insinuation we did something bad/wrong/not as good as you.

Or, perhaps I put it in quotes because everything I - we / you / people - do as a parent 'trains' my child to do one thing or another, therefore arguably it's just a poor choice of word but I couldn't think of anything else.



ETA: I told my 3 year old to "go to fucking sleep" when he woke up for the 3rd time the other night (because of snot in his throat). Trust me when I say I'm the last person judging your parenting.

MrsA has been talking to me about "The Internet of Things" and a hat this morning. I have tried to pay attention, I really have, but it is beyond me.

I think, like breastfeeding, like so many things, it's an emotive subject and people should always do what is best for the kids AND the parents, and everyone has different needs. I love breastfeeding my little one, but I'm lucky that my physical, home and all other situations allow me to AND I want to (which is a big part of it). Others don't want to, can't physically, or can't because of some other environmental or lifestyle reason, and much as I appreciate the advocacy of breastfeeding, I think it's important not to stigmatise those that don't.

I think this is the same, in a way. I'm lucky with Darwin, and though we have had a few bad nights (and currently some whiny days) my friend is up every couple of hours through the night and was at one point up every 45 minutes with her little one, who is the same age as mine. If she could train her little one to sleep longer I know she would. It would be great for both of them. Some days she has no energy to play or enjoy being a mother, and I think if there was a solution then she'd take it (which is why I asked what age did folks start sleep training... I don't know how early these things are possible). Also, though I know Darwin sleeps pretty well now, I am 100% aware that this could change any day in the future, and the more options I have, the better informed I will be to try and find a solution that helps us all.

Because it's cool, you pleb. Actual cool, not big beard and beer that smells of horses cool

Genuwin LOL

Exactly - and so I'm sorry if you thought I was being snide but I really wasn't. I was just offering a counter experience same as with Malc's earlier post.

I regularly cry all over Gaz about what a shit parent I am and how I've failed my kids in XYZ ways. Like I said, I'm the last person going to be judging you and yours.

I don't think there are enough things really. Unless you have loads of money for professional home automation then your are limited to bulbs, Nest heating and smoke alarms.

Promised via Nest but still in US Kick-starter territory are locks, integration with cars, proximity sensors that work out where you spend your time in the house and adjust heat and lights accordingly. Also some sort of smart fridge, these are early stage US only but claim to be able to work out what you put in there and they order stuff online from the supermarket. long way to go yet though!