Advice on GF routine

[snacks]

Hi all, looking for advise on the famous GF routine. My baby is six and a half months and has been following the GF routine for two months.She is a much more contented baby and is eating better as a result. She has her 9am to 10am sleep, followed by her 12-2pm sleep and goes to bed at 7pm but in the last few weeks has started waking up at 5.30 am or sometimes 6am .How can i get her to sleep until 7am?I have tried to increase her protein intake as I had read that it could be a contributing factor.The other problem is that my baby struggles to wait until 6pm for her feed -she gets really tired and irritable.Would love some support from GF fans.

My 10 months old eats at 6 PM latest as she can't wait any longer... so don't worry too much about that. As for waking early : is the room very dark ? It is very common for babies to wake earlier in the summer. Also what happens at 530 ? Is it something that needs to be attended to or can your baby fall back to sleep ?
Also have a look on this ate GF Q&As.... I know they cover early wakings.

My dd eats her tea at 4.30 then bottle at 6.45 and bed at 7, she sleeps fine although normally wakes at 6.30, sometimes 6 and sometimes 7.30 ! It really depends. As Pupuce suggests I think it is the summer that does it. Also they go through phases.

Where can i get this GF book from and is it too late to start it with my 18wk old?

Never too late Leander, although I never did GF, just my own routine but pretty similar I think from what I've heard. I'm sure the GF Mum's here can help.

What's all this about eating at 6pm? What is your routine at night please - I don't see how you could fit it all in! Do you bath the baby before tea? I've been feeding dd at 5pm (not that I'm following GF) but is 6pm a better idea for going through the night?

Thankyou for the replies folks.
I have a few responses and questions for each of you.
Pupuce- how did you fit activities in with the GF routine as i find that i only have a few hours here and there .I don't feel it incorporates time for shopping etc(as i work 9-5)I'm always rushing back to the house to get her to bed...
Tillysmumy-I think you are right about the summer.My daughters room is a lot lighter in the summer so maybe that's why she wakes up so early.
Leander- don't worry about not having started the routine .I didn't start my daughter on the routine until the fourth month in preparation for returning to work.My daughter adapted to it within a couple of days , although i think that may have been luck. She thrives on the sleep as previously she maybe slept for one hour only.I got the book on recommendation. I don't know what country you are in but the book is called "The contented little baby book" by Gina Ford.It worked for me but initially i laughed at it as i thought it was a bit extreme and regemented.
Thanks again folks.

I think GF suggests bathing, feeding and then bed? (is that right pupuce??) But I always gave supper first, then bath, then milk, breast, bottle, beaker depending on what stage we were at. Dd used to eat supper at 5.30 and still does, then has cocoa after bath and before teeth!

Snacks - I just wanted to underline how important it is to comletely black out the room if you want maximum sleeping in the mornings - a black out blind well fitted so that it covers as much of the window as possible ( If you're in the Uk I believe Argos are quite cheap)is essential as well as curtains/pelmets EVERYthing possible to cut out chinks of light ( we've even got draft excluder around the door to be ulta sure!!)

Yes , i bath my daughter, feed her then put her to bed at 7 . Bayleaf, how on earth do you cope if you travel with your family? I was reluctant to make the room completely black as i thought my daughter would never adjust to sleeping in other environments. We went to new york recently and stayed ina flat which had no curtains. Luckily at that stage my daughter wasn't used to the darkened room as recommended in GF's book, so she adapted.Now though i fear that she will depend on darkness in order to sleep.What do you think?

Re darkened rooms, do little babies not get frightened in such blackness? I'm getting some blackout blinds made but assume with the south facing windows she'll still be able to see some stuff. I always thought dd would be scared if she was all alone in pitch black.

I'll answer longer later but for the blinds - get them to cover all the (external part of) window not just the inside bit - DYKWIM ????
Babies are not frighten of the dark it really helps them sleep as it does adults, it triggers some hormones in your brain that make you sleep.

I always took a lenght of black out lining ( it's very cheap - about £2 a metre in our nearest mill shop) and a few saftey pins - I either attached it across the top of her travel cot - or at the window - whichever was most practicable.
And no, dd has never been scared of the dark so far. Sha is also able to sleep in the light as she does at nursery.

Thank you again to you all for your suggestions. I was looking through all the older messages on the Gina Ford search and found some really useful hints as to how to get babies to sleep longer. One of the suggestions was surprisingly to put my daughter down to bed earlier, which i will try as there are times that she struggles to wait until 7pm. I will also try to get some lining for the curtains

Just to answer on the sequence :
It's solids, bath, bottle/breast, bed.
As for the dark room... yes it is a bit difficult to travel when the place you are going to isn't very dark... I find that it can be a problem but not always. For example, when we go on holiday the kids are far busier and therefore more tired and will sleep easily.
At 2 1/2, DS can sleep in a not so darken room - we just came back from a 5 day break and every morning he woke at 630 except 1 (at 830 - youppee) and that was in a room which was far from dark.
DD (10 months old) slept as she would at home.

Generally very dark room helps them fall asleep (definitely IME) and if they woke early they might not be tempted to get up.

However dark you make your room if you have large windows (as we do) it is never pitch black anyway... it use to irritate me - but I am (finally) over it.

The key thing from GF - IMO - is that our babies learn to sleep well early on (settle in bed without crying, sleep uninterrupted nights, enjoy naps.....) And as Enid has said somewhere else, that's a great gift you can give a child.

Can anyone give me a brief outline for a routine for a 5mo.I haven't had the chance to go and get the gf book yet.his routine at the moment is
wake 7-7-30 +bottle but then he goes back to sleep till approx 10-30, has a bottle +lunch at 11-30 , then a nap at 12-30 for 1/2 hr has bottle +tea +pudding at 3-30 -4-00, bath at 6-30 bottle at 7 then bed.I think this is roughly ok , but does he sleep too much, i forgot his nap at 5 for about 1 hr.

If he sleeps well through the night then you're fine !
But he sleeps more than the routine - so does DD ! And it isn't really a GF routine that you are doing but you know that !

Leander, what on earth do you need advice on a routine for!!? What a lucky, lucky woman you are. At 5months my ds was up all night, refused to nap at organised times etc etc I nearly went bonkers. You have the life of riley in comparison and a dream baby. Let your baby sleep and enjoy!

Also, did you just post this just to torture us not-so-lucky mums

Leander, just looked at your message. Enjoy that routine while you can - you don't know what's round the corner! However, you may have struck lucky on the sleep stakes. My oldest ds was a great sleeper from the word go - 7 years later he still is.

Aloha , I'm sorry if i offended you it wasn't meant! All i wanted to know was if it was a similar routine GF reccomends. I know i'm very lucky as DS is an absolute angel. Once again im sorry.

Leander,
Just read your message and i wanted to reassure you that if your baby is sleeping well and is happy within his own routine then why look to change. The reason i started this question was because i was having real problems getting my baby to sleep through the night and through the day and as i was returning to full time employment i felt i needed some advise and some structure to my baby's day.The GF book has helped us cope better and my baby is much more contented but i know that for some the book is contraversial as it is quite a strict routine .I think it is best to use the book as a guide only. For those out there who suffered for months from sleep deprevation, this book is a blessing.I could never return to how things were two months ago and now that i have returned to work -life is sweeter.