To ask if anyone used Gina Ford method

[newmum1611]

Posting here for traffic
Did anyone use this routine? Did it work? I have a few things I’m not finding clear answers to with it..

I did when ds was 5 months old. I was desperate, young and he just wasn't sleeping. My sister sent me the book and it saved me basically.

No. Someone gave me the book but it seemed so regimented I couldn't face it. I just let mine find their own routines.

Brave, OP!

Ooooh she who must not be named!! Suggest you google Gina Ford and Mumsnet OP

Google Gina Ford Mumsnet Guardian.

Xpost @StoorieHoose

GF is like Voldemort on here.....just saying

No. Because i like my child.

I have seen PLENTY in charity shops...

I tried. I gave up. Turns out it wasnt very helpful for a baby with undiagnosed TT and major feeding issues.

My best friend swore by it. Both her children raised by following it to the letter.

The only thing i follow, its more just my DDs pattern now than a Gina Ford technique, is that i make sure DDs first nap is short and then her post lunchtime nap is a good 2 hours if i can stretch to to that long. I try not to let her nap after about 4:30pm.

I spent months losing my mind over DDs sleep and her only ever feeding to sleep and not being able to sleep unless she was breast feeding. I just go with the flow now. DD is a happy baby and still wakes in the night but i cant bring myself to do CC and im actually not bothered about her night wakings anymore.

Is there anything specific you're having difficulty with from the book?

Yes I did, rarely mention it on Mumsnet though as it is so unpopular. .
I found it worked very well BUT who knows if it was because I followed the routine or because I just had a very ‘easy’ baby ?
Anyway, I can try & answer questions about how I followed it if you want to ask.

Lol @ the voldemort comment.

Sounds about right! I like routines but yes, Gina is OTT with hers.

I did it. Mine are 14 and 10 now so it was a long time ago. I couldn't follow it to the letter, some of it was totally unrealistic, but I followed it for sleep and feeding times. It worked really well for me and I got them both in a great routine which kept me sane.

It's a guide not a prescription. I used it with all four of mine. Loved it.

I have used it as a useful guide for reference but I by no means stick to it to the letter. I find it helpful to read a head a month as it has suggestions for activities and it can take time to order bits or book on activities. I actually used the little ones sleep programme as a guide for the day when DD was 4 weeks. Now we're out and about, the days are quite flexible but we still stick to it at night. It can be hard work but she now sleeps 6:30-6:30 with a 10/11pm feed and is much happier for the routine. I appreciate GF can be like summoning the devil but her suggestions for gradually leaving baby in preparation for returning to work have been helpful (we're literally talking a few hrs a week at the mo).

My problem with it-and u do k ow people who have followed Otto the letter, is that it is so restricting for the parents!. One of the joys for me of giving up a very high pressure job to have my first baby was the glorious freedom it gave me. I could just go out and about whenever I wanted to-the baby could sleep in push chair or sling-it was lovely. Trying to impose a strict routine just seemed the worst of all possible worlds.

It’s not that the method is unpopular on MN. Gina Ford threatened to sue MN so then she became SWMNBN

Never thought I’d see a GF thread on here again.

I read GF’s book and did do some of it 12 years ago. Not the get up at 7am and eat a piece of whole meal toast while breastfeeding the baby 1 boob stuff, or the bit about not picking up a crying baby (I believe the book suggested they just do it for attention...) but I did broadly follow the nap schedule. It worked very well for DD1. I was certain this was down to my superior parenting. Then I met DD2 and learned my lesson. I do think the nap schedule is helpful though.

*it.
Not sure who Otto is.

To a degree. It felt like a kind of instruction booklet for someone who was pretty clueless about babies when I had my first. I didn't ever follow it to the letter because it was far too rigid, but took the idea of having a routine and adapted it to suit my own circumstances. I blacked out DD's room on her instruction which seemed to work quite well in distinguishing night from day. It gave us both a bit of structure in those groggy early months which I found strangely comforting as much for me as for DD.

I should add that two years later when I had DS I realised it was unworkable as DS had to fit in with DD, but by that stage I had enough confidence to do my own thing entirely so DS had a schedule entirely of my own devising to fit in round his sister which also worked well.

I read it because I had a friend who followed it religiously - and had 2 very good sleepers though the 3rd is not so great.

It didn’t fit my dd at all and I felt v stressed that I wasn’t getting it ‘right’.

Then DS was born and he must have read the book in the womb because he was a GF baby. He followed the routine from day 1. But it was completely down to him and absolutely nothing I actually did to make it happen.

Oh I didn’t realise GF was hated on here
Thanks for anyone that has answered. Agreed it’s very regimented but with a baby that wakes every hour through the night I’ve been reading up on some routines. What I don’t find clear about GF is what to do when baby doesn’t want to fit into the routine. Eg last night he had the required feeds etc in the evening and the late feed - slept through for 3 hours and then awake every hour after that. It doesn’t say what to do if baby just doesn’t do the routine?!

Any other routine advice welcome especially anything that is more flexible than GF

I did with DS1 a long time ago & in conjunction with the baby whisperer. Worked for me but I was utterly clueless about all things baby so would have ended up feeding continually and never getting any sleep without some sort of guidance. I literally knew nothing and had no mum to help me. I also loved getting him off to bed by 7:30 so I could have my evening to myself. With hindsight I could have been a bit more relaxed as I did get a bit mad over feeding and sleep times. When the next 2 came along it was totally unrealistic but still used it as a vague guide - starting off feeds from the breast last used / roughly knowing they would probably need a feed every four hours or so, having a bedtime routine - that sort of thing.

Yes and I loved it. Except I did my own “light” version.

I know way did all this “have a piece of toast at 8am” malarky.

I just tried to encourage the feeding and sleeping routines.

One thing I did to encourage routine was to get them and feed them at 7am no matter what had gone on the night. Ta well established even with adults is to wake up every time at the same day.

Then I followed the bottle times of 7, 10.45, 2.30, 6pm, bed at 7pm and a dream feed at 10.30pm.

I kept days bright and loud and they slept wherever we were. (None of this swaddling in a dark room etc) with lots of noise. Night times were kept quiet, minimal talking, minimal interaction.

My daughter stuck to her nap times naturally. My son had a different idea and he liked a morning nap and to miss the long middle of day nap and then have one from about 2-4 and that worked for them.

Before I did a routine I was jibbering mess.

I did it with dd who is now nearly 16 - at the time everyone was using it! She did sleep through 7-7 from about 10 weeks (!) but after having ds now aged 6 and trying it with him and he was having NONE of it I do wonder if I was just lucky with dd and Gina Ford had nothing to do with it at all!