Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

Please or to access all these features

Parenting

For free parenting resources please check out the Early Years Alliance's Family Corner.

Tips/encouragement for starting Gina Ford

34 replies

RebeccaJames · 05/02/2014 12:50

DS2 is 8 weeks old and I think we are ready to start shaping things towards the Gina Ford routine.

I'm so sleep deprived that it currently looks scarily detailed and a blur of times and complications. Has anyone recently started it with a similarly-aged baby? Could you pass on a few tips about how you got started and what helped? And any words of encouragement?

I have decided to give it a go, so please no need here for anti-GF sentiments! Smile

Thanks in advance!

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
Meglet · 06/02/2014 19:41

DS cried more before we did GF at 6 weeks. I didn't have the foggiest idea what I was doing without a routine. BF was already a disaster and he was mix-fed.

Cue me 2 weeks into GF speaking to my mum on the phone (who hadn't approved at first) "mum, he's programmable!!!" Grin. It was harder to get DD into it because she was ex bf for 4 month, but I managed a simple routine by then.

DinoSnores · 06/02/2014 19:49

I really liked following a rough GF routine with my babies. She makes it very clear that babies shouldn't be left to cry and that hopefully babies should cry less overall as a result.

I have EBF my DS and DD and know lots of people who have EBF to 6months and then beyond quite happily while using the CLB. I BF DS until 16mo and only stopped because I was pregnant again and finding it all very uncomfortable during the 2nd trimester. DD is still BF at 11mo and she doesn't appear to have plans to stop. I am however expecting again so that might change things!

Use it as a rough guide, tailored to you and your baby. Starting each day at 7am does, I think, make a huge difference to the rest of the day. I've found though that bedtime until about 10 weeks is closer to 10pm so I've started the bedtime routine closer to that and then gradually worked it back.

my2bundles · 06/02/2014 20:15

allow your baby to naturally fall into its own routine, this routine will alter many times during baby hood as it grows and needs change. Throw GF away, she rights a book to make a profit.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about these subjects:

RebeccaJames · 06/02/2014 21:06

Thanks all. Today I didn't my exactly start CLB, but I have it up on the wa as something to aim for. And I've drawn a graph showing when DS2 slept today so I can easily count up how much he's had, and over the next week I will easily see if a pattern is emerging. I used BW's shush-pat method and actually got him to sleep at roughly the right times! I can't do the darkened room thing, as I have DS1 and need to get him where he needs to be.

Weirdly, the baby's been asleep since 7.15 which is UNHEARD OF! I but I am now terrified he's going to do his usual block of three hours while I'm awake and then not sleep again for the rest of the night, so I'll be missing the only sleep I was gonna get!

Help! I'm going to have the cohones to see what happens (you never know, he might do as Gina says and take a dream feed at 10 then sleep the core night?!) but I am sweating with the anxiety of getting no sleep!

Encouragement!? Have to say, it's strange that he went to sleep at the GF recommended time, but it can't work that quick, can it?!

OP posts:
Ragwort · 06/02/2014 22:27

allow your baby to naturally fall into its own routine - what if the baby falls into a routine that totally goes against everyone else in the family - does the 'baby's routine' trump everyone else's routine? Hmm

Surely the most important thing is for everyone to happy and by gently introducing some form of routine ie: sleeping during the night, the rest of the family can also get some sort of peace and quiet Smile.

My child's 'routine' of a 7pm bedtime didn't change for about nine years Grin.

RebeccaJames · 07/02/2014 03:18

Hi Ragwort. That's sort of what I am doing by mapping out my baby's sleeps while doing what I can to encourage them at the "right" times according to Gina. After 2 weeks or so I will see a pattern of some kind (I hope!) and tweak the regime to fit him, while still sticking to max. sleep, feeding times, etc. It's the only plan I have.

Thankfully, despite sleeping 7pm-10pm tonight (a la Gina instead of freefall until 11pm) he still slept his 4-hour block. Thank goodness! Inwas so scared I would miss it. What happens from now remains to be seen!

But if Gina is right that sleep begets sleep, the day's progress bodes well!

OP posts:
Oblomov · 07/02/2014 04:23

I read it. Found it helpful. Used a very relaxed version if it. Didn't sweat if it didn't go perfectly.
Try it. See how you go.

PumpkinPie2013 · 09/02/2014 12:21

I had a look at the GF thing (my little boy is 10 weeks now) but never tried to use it as I personally felt it would be much too rigid for us both.

I think like a lot of things it will work for some babies/families but not others.

So, I muddled through the first 6-8 weeks following his cues cos I'm a FTM and didn't have a clue

From 8 weeks he started to fall into his own rough schedule and we introduced a loose bedtime routine of bath, milk and then bed.

At first he would go to bed around 8pm but now he's brought it forward himself to 6.30pm (we obviously bore him in the evening lol).

So now, our days look something like this depending on what we have on.

Ds wakes around 6am when dh gets up for work but happily gurgles next to me in his crib while dh showers etc. Then dh takes him down around 6.45am while I shower.

From 6.45am to around 7.45am ds is in his bouncer or moses basket usually smiling and gurgling while looking at the lights! We chat to him while having breakfast and watching the morning news Smile

7.45am - I wash and dress ds

8am I feed him and he drinks about 7/8oz.

Then we have cuddles/stories/short play and he tends to have a sleep from about 8.45am-9.30am.

Then if it's a day when we have a morning activity (thur/fri) we go to that. If we have an afternoon activity (mon/wed) we play at home.

He has a feed around 11.30am/ 12pm - again 7/8oz then sleeps for about an hour before we either play or go out depending on the day.

He has another feed around 3/3.30pm and takes about 6oz. Then I usually put him in his bouncer and take him with me while I prepare dinner/do a job. Sometimes he has a short snooze, sometimes not.

Bath around 5pm and then he usually has another 6oz of milk around 5.30pm/6pm.

Then into sleeping bag, cuddles and in bed at 6.30pm.

He generally wakes once at around 3.30am/4am and has 4/5oz before going back to sleep.

So he has 30-33oz of milk in 24 hours (he's a big baby) and I think for 10 weeks he sleeps really well.

We tend to go to be around 10pm so I get a good 5/6 hour block and then another couple of hours which is good for me.

If we have to go somewhere at a particular time e.g. doctors app. I just alter things a bit and he is happy to sleep in the car/pram.

So he has a routine which is probably not hugely different to GF but is led by him and we can change it if we need to. He's a happy, thriving little boy so I guess I do something right somewhere!

Have a go with GF as it might suit/work for you and your baby but honestly don't stress if it doesn't. I thought at one stage (around 5/6 weeks) that we'd never have an idea of what would happen when but they quite often do find their own pattern eventually.

Clearly if their pattern includes being nocturnal then I can see why you would want a stricter daytime routine!!

Best of luck xx

PumpkinPie2013 · 09/02/2014 12:22

Oops - just realised a wrote a bloody essay!

New posts on this thread. Refresh page