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

3rd time lucky pleaseeee

havent the energy to read the whole thread.... but i hate gf too... hate cc, hate that level of routine... cant imagine living like that or getting a baby to routinize that way... far too harsh and for me, went against every natural instinct i had.... and totally incompatible with on demand breast feeding.... and i have a healthy, happy 6.5mth old albeit that she is not 100% predictable... go with baby whisperer-type approach would be my advice

I read TCLBB before dd was born & tried to make her fit the routines,but nearly gave myself a breakdown.I continually fretted that I was allowing dd to fall into 'bad habits'.I agreed with her ideas in principle,but they just didn't work for me.One of the reasons was,that dd was a fab sleeper from an early age-in fact she is 8 months now & the last time I had to get up at night with her, was when she was 9 wks old.So there was NO WAY I was going to wake her at night to give her a feed that she clearly didn't need.Neither was I about to wake her up at 7am,to get her into a routine as she likes a lie in until 9am or later!

However,I know that she is the exception & if I had another baby that wasn't such a sleep fiend,I would probably try TCLBB again.For what it is worth,I preferred The Baby Whisperer,but it is really common sense at the end of the day.

Kbaby,best of luck.You may well be pleasantly surprised & not need to use a prescribed routine,most babies seem to find their own eventually.

Mirage - completely agree!

Kbaby,
Bet you got more that you bargained for by commiting those to letter to a thread: GF!!!

Haven't time to read the whole thread... so my tuppence worth:

I followed GF from week 3 but only used the bits I liked (no swaddling and didn't put DS in his cot till 6 weeks. Also used baby bags from this time, no sheet/blankets). I found her advice on feeding and sleep times very useful and informative, especially putting DS down for a sleep after two hours and the whole idea of baby's sleep patterns (waking after 45mins etc.)

I also found some of the ideas in the baby wisperer useful e.g. the pick/up put/down method.

In conclusion: IMHO, as with all advice, listen/read all of it, use what suits you and baby. The only right way is the way that works for you.

Good luck and keep posting.

BR

I had zero confidence and found GF routines brilliant as a starting point to fit your own baby/lifestyle around. Started when ds was about 9 weeks. I would recommend to any new mums lacking in confidence, as guidelines only to build your own routine on.

And without a doubt, you either give birth to a sleeper or you dont - you can nudge them in the right direction but you cant change them!

I followed GF's routines loosely, but let my dd take the lead, she was very happy and contented. Now age 4.5 months she has fallen into the Gina routine anyway by herself. I think Gina is wise but I did get a bit stressed trying to do the routines to the T, and some babies just can't be made to sleep/feed/eat to order, so you have to be a bit relaxed about it.

Just to highlight that following the routine really doesn't guarantee a perfect nightsleeper - I did a GF routine with my son from 10 weeks and at 9 months he's still not sleeping through the night. 7pm til 7am? What a laugh! 10pm - 7am would be a luxury.

We didn't do any sleep associations, ensured he went to sleep by himself but still he wakes. He's definitely a particularly awkward sleeper but just to demonstrate that the routine isn't foolproof.

I think someone should re-write the Gina theory in to a more understandable and empathetic text.

All those rediculous minute by minute weekly routines and the continually condescending tone. There's some really good stuff in there when you can see past those two BIG negatives.

If you haven't read the book for a while check out the way she answered the questions on this site...always starting out by pointing blame firmly with the parent. Looking back it makes me laugh to think how much her written words got to me in those early emotional weeks. I think it would be a service to parents to have a rewrite done.

wasn't gina ford on 'cutting it' on tuesday night? she looks far younger than I expected!!!!!

I so agree with decmum's point about the tone and language of GF - a judicious bit of advice from the publishers would have made the books so more palatable.

I used ttclb for DD1 (now 3) with a lot of success. I am a very structured person, so it appealed to me to have something to follow. But, being postnatally hormonal and with my life having changed beyond all recognition, I did beat myself up when things didn't happen to the minute.

Eventually I gained confidence in interpreting my dd's needs, and began to go with the flow a bit. I realised that one missed nap or poor feed doesn't break the good routine habits your baby has developed.

With DD2 I'm finding it more difficult to 'do' Gina. I note that there's really not much advice given on how to balance the needs of the elder child, or manage them at the same time as the new baby. For example, some days we can't do a lunchtime sleep because I have to collect dd1 from nursery slap bang in the middle of it. Hoiking dd2 in and out of car sleeps doesn't make for a good nap! Also, bathtime and the quiet wind down for DD2 is virtually impossible unless DH is around to manage teatime tantrums.

My advice kbaby would be to take the general principles - feeding as much as possible between 7am and 7pm, limiting the daytime sleep to the totals mentioned in the book (but not worrying unduly about when these happen), the 2 hour awake time to manage overtiredness, blackout blinds to manage early morning waking and a certain amount of darkness for daytime naps (but not always in the dark, otherwise travelling and day trips become hard!).

Don't beat yourself up about the detail though, and perhaps give yourself a few weeks (or even months) to get to know your baby and his / her patterns first. Don't think that you have to do it from day 1 otherwise the whole thing is doomed - this is the quickest way to get yourself stressed out. Although dh and I were very pleased to have our evenings to ourselves from about 3 weeks, we do sometimes look back on our experiences with dd1 and wish we'd been a bit more relaxed about things. Maybe this is with hindsight though - at the time we felt more relaxed than when we weren't doing a routine!!

Good luck with your baby - enjoy it and be confident that you will know (or will work out) what they need!

The "GIna theory" is exactly what my MIL expected me to do with my babies and she was in her eighties when I had them - a very good reason to rebel against it!