LittleHippo Mella: Ready to Rise Children's Sleep Trainer, Night Light, Sound Machine and OK to Wake Alarm Clock for Kids - Bright Purple

TLDR: If your kid wakes up way too early, buy this clock and get a routine going. It works.Picture this: You're snug in your end, it's 4am and you are in a deep sleep, when suddenly you ar jolted awake. It must be an emergency, right? No. It's just your 5 year old, up before the sun."Mom, I'm hungry." Those were the first words I heard every morning, like clockwork, around 4am. Who TF wakes up that early?! We'd been trying "You sleep when the sun sleeps." That worked for a while, but the sub stays out late in the summer and comes up early. So we got this clock and never looked back.This clock is very simple to set up. There's a settings button, use it for setting up most everything. You can set it so that a light comes on at a certain time. We set ours for 6:30am since we have to get up around then to get ready for school anyway. When it hits that time, the clock turns green.It also has a night light, you can have the clock face be a certain color during the night. We changed this color to red and told our kid, "When the clock is red, stay in bed." You do have to turn the nightlight on manually every night, but we made it part of our bedtime routine. If you've set it right, the clock will have a sleep face and your night light color of choice (trust me, red is good for this). We also opted to use the white noise sound. This sounds will stay on until you turn it off (now part of our wakeup routine).When it hits your wake time, it will turn green. It stays green for about an hour, then turns off. If you're just starting with this clock, that should be plenty of time. We told our kid if it was green, it was okay to get out of bed. Now that's she's older, she will sleep in a little more. So we tell her as long as it isn't red it's okay to get up for the day.Around this time she also started sharing a room with her little sister (2 at the time). Since we started this so early with her, we never had any trouble with her waking up at the crack of dawn.I cannot comment on battery life, as we leave this clock plugged in. I can say this, even when we unplug it, it keeps its time when you plug it back in. It has survived being knocked off a dresser quite a few times, so it's pretty durable. And not one weird little glitch has popped up. It's also easy to read from both of my kids beds ( they're older and in loft beds now).We have had this clock for almost 4 years. It works and it works consistently. It brought some sanity and much needed sleep back into our home. And it didn't cost a lot to do it. "Mom I'm hungry," are still the first words I hear every morning, but at least it isn't so early now.

Update on 5Jul2018-FANTASTIC CUSTOMER SERVICE (also, a solid product)So, I'm updating my original review (shown below). I should have done this a couple of months ago after I received a letter from Mella in response to my first review. After my original 3-star review with the "good and the bad," Mella sent me a personalized letter thanking me for my review, apologizing for what I found frustrating, and averring that they were already working on incorporating some fixes to the next version. Honestly, I was shocked but super IMPRESSED that they took the time out to do this. I even showed my dad the letter (who had just launched some goods on Amazon himself), and told him that this is what customer service is all about. I meant to update this post at that time, but since I suck, I forgot. Anyway, we've been using the clock now for several months now, and even though it was a little louder than we expected, the clock itself is rock-solid with the features and performance. While my original review for 3 stars hinged on the volume, we have grown quite accustomed to it and it doesn't bother our daughter one bit. I'm honestly so blown away by their customer service; a young start-up that takes the time to personally address my "concerns" when it would have been way easier to just ignore it is a great way to start out. Best of luck to Mella. You've made a great product.The GOOD:-super sleek design, very fetching-sturdy and well-made-multiple adjustable functions (sleep-wake light cycle, alarm, sound machine, night light)-multiple night lights-alarm sound options are greatThe BAD (and the reason for 3 stars instead of 5):= The sound function is incredibly loud. I know a lot of people exaggerate on reviews, but seriously. The sound-machine has three volume levels, and the lowest one can be heard down the hall (we listen to the "ocean" one). Maybe if this clock were on the other side of the room instead of the night-table by my daughter's bed, it might be better...but it's still audible through the door.= In a similar vein, the night-light brightness is not adjustable. The light options are great and soft and soothing, but honestly are too bright (in my medical opinion) to promote healthy somnolence when trying to put down a 4 year old who "isn't sleepy yet."= (Preface, this next point did not weigh-in for my rating, but is a suggestion for the "next model" if anyone from MELLA is looking in.) I wish there were an easy night-light button, so that when my kid wakes up in the middle of the night she could easily press it to get another 30 min or whatever of night light. As it is now, all the buttons are on the bottom of the clock. There are six buttons which are identical, but in the dark you can't see what each are for.