Gina Ford

[kbaby]

Hello,
Im 37 weeks pregnany with my first baby. I bought the Gina Ford book today on contented babies. Has anyone tried her routines and did they seem to work.
Her theories look quite good but I dont know if you can stick to such a strict routine, especially as this will be my first baby.
Any advice appreciated.
Thanks

If you do a quick search on MN for Gina Ford you will find loads of threads. Comments on each are for both sides - those advocating her stuff, those against. Some quite heated debates at times Interesting reading!

Personally I wouldnt touch her with a barge pole. If you search under her name you will find lots of stuff. Lots here find her a godsend.

It has been the cause of many a heated argument!

oooh, brave lady!

No I didn't and no I couldn't have.

My guess is, if you use them and they work, great, stick with them, if they don't then move on but don't beat yourself up because you've 'failed'; they just weren't for you.

Whether or not they work must depend very much on the nature of the mother and the baby, IMO.

Are you infering clayhead that it doesnt work for ALL babies?

Dont beat yoursel up about it if your baby isnt a perfect gf baby.

And you thought that this was an innocent question! Sit back and watch! Only the political debates get more heated.

Personally I've found the books helpful (the Baby Whisperer is another good one - and it lacks the minute by minute "timetables", but you need to bear in mind that all babies are different. With my first child I took it as a good idea of what a day might look like, and also took on board that there is such a thing as an "over-tired" baby (even though I had so many stimulating things for him to do!). I've been lucky with my two as they have more or less adapted well to the routine (give or take an hour or so...).

Don't try to keep desparately to the timetable at first though - just get to know your baby.

Forgot to add my own thoughts! I didn't follow GF and I don't believe it would have been suitable for either me or DD. We aren't very good at routine in this household

Ooops, stray wink got in.

Oh God! RUUUUUUUNNNNNNNN! There is a GF thread starting again, take cover!

The only thing that caused more grief was the stolen grape thread

same as ladymuck - we took certain ideas from GF (like nap two hours after waking in the mornings, longer nap after lunch), but I let dd sleep if she wanted to, didn't wake her up last thing at night and her day was 9.30 ish to 9. She was a little angel and slept through from 15 weeks.

Ds on the other hand has failed to get into any kind of routine so I'm currently toying with the idea of doing GF strictly for a few days. Not sure I can bring myself to do it though!

message withdrawn

HMB: La-ti-da-la-ti-da-la-ti-da (I have my fingers in my ears for this thread and am humming to myself) La-ti-da-la-ti-da-la-ti-da ...

It's you isnt it Twiglett! Come on admit it.
You know exactly when you're going to be eating your toast!

Oh god have I started something??

I dont mind either way if it works or not, but as a first time mum I thought it may give me a idea of what to expect e.g how many feeds a day the baby may need etc.
It does seem quite strict and your limited as to when you can go out. Ill have a look at the threads from before.

ooh, the controversial GF! IMO she's great as she worked wonderfully for ds from about 12 weeks, tried earlier & impossible though, routines too strict when he was so tiny. After that, it was such a welcome relief to have a book which seemed to be mum, as well as baby focussed, and was just plain common sense (the like of which our mums/aunties/grannies probably used to be on hand for, but we need to be told now it seems). If it works, it means your baby will sleep through the night from quite an early age - hence early need to wake up from naps, regulate activities and differentiate clearly between night & day. It ultimately depends on you though, how much you like organisation, how little sleep you can cope with etc and of course your baby. You might surprise yourself after the birth - I'd always thought of myself as relaxed and disorganised, but unexpectedly found her strict routines a god-send!

Kbaby - I found it wonderful - but then I didn't have a scoobie about babies so needed an easy to follow manual.
As everyone tells you, each baby is different - mine (now 3.5 yrs) was definitely a GF baby.
I would definitely give it a go. GF certainly made me feel more confident about what I was doing. (Have to admit breast feeding didn't work out for me very early on - which I was very sad about. So my opinion is based on formula feeding.). Sleeping and weaning advice brilliant. DD now 3.5yrs and still has a hugely varied diet.
Best of luck. Read the book a few times and keep it handy for when things go wrong.Generally speaking I found the answer was usually in the book.
All the best.

From what I have read on threads gf and breastfeeding dont mix well. so please be warned if you do want to bf.

My dd is 8 months and my first and I was the same as you - read the book during my pregnancy and it sounded great!!!
However as much as DP and I tried to put DD into the GF routine she wasnt having it
I began to feel inadequate and in the end have vowed never to look at anither book
The best thing th GF book can do for you is give you an idea of how your day could be planned and what to buy before the arrival.
Good Luck

Ref hercules post. The breast feeding not working had nothing to do with GF! Would still have tried her book if things had worked out on that front. (But don't do as I did: Phoned GF for more advice on bf and even bought an electric pump - BEFORE the baby was born - stupid or what!!)
If it works for you keep it quiet - folk don't like it if your contented baby sleeps through the night from 5 weeks as mine did! From 11 weeks it was 7 to 7. Oh and IF you're going to do it, get dh to read the book too - certainly made it easier for us to work together.

completely agree with Cab! People'll be envious if you've got a baby sleeping thro the night- when we're all so knackered & recovering from labour can bring out the hateful side. My neighbour did b/f her ds solely for 6 months & used GF's routines, so it can work. I expressed instead and did so as per the routines, no problem.

20 messages in just an hour - shows how emotive this can be!

Loujay - apologies - ref timing of my post. Think parenthood makes us all feel inadequate. Bet you'll fair better at potty training than I did - GF's advice on that in the next book did not work for us.

btw, (sorry it's me again) what's this about stolen grapes??

Think it depends on how your baby responds to a routine. I found looking after dd very hard till 6 months, when I tentatively tried GF nap times. Worked SO well. DD much happier (she would never sleep in her buggy if out and about). She still loves her two-hour nap at lunchtime and sleeps very well (most of the time).

btw, all my friends who thought I was mad putting dd down for GF nap at lunchtime a year ago ALL put their children down for a lunchtime nap now. I love our rotuine, so does dd (and it's same at nursery too.)

Sorry! It was a thread that went on and on and on, and became quite heated at times. It was all about whether you let you children eat food in a supermarket before you have paid for it!!!!! And boy did this polarise things! It has now passed into mn folklore! anyone know the name of it? Parts of it were also quite funny and in an odd sort of way it symbolises a lot of mn!

My DD slept through the night from 10/11pm to 6am at least - no early morning feeds) from 6 weeks. She was NOT a GF baby in any way, shape or form. So sleeping through is achievable on any system you go with, even you're own made up one.

All messed up sadly at 13 weeks when we went on holiday temporarily but never mind.