How long does it take for your baby to sleep through using the Gina Ford methods?

[aquablue]

I just started the Gina Ford routines for my 11 week old baby this week. How long does it take usually to get them to sleep through the night??!!! He is still waking twice a night...yawwwwwwn

No experience of GF routines but waking twice a night is really good at this age! He may well still need feeding in the night for some time yet (remember he has not read the book )

Are you allowed to mention Gina Ford?

At 11 weeks, your baby is too young to try to force to sleep through the night. It is unatural in my opinion as babies do need to feed during the night.

tis normal for our baby to waking twice in the night.
best advice i acan give you is to bin the book and enjoy your child.

I must add - the author of any book knows nothing about

Your baby's appetite
Your baby's need for comfort
Your baby's need for sleep
Your family circumstances
Whether your baby is ill
Whether your baby is in pain

So use any routine, or method, with caution. 11 weeks, two wakings is really good.

Both DDs were 4 months old when they started sleeping through 7pm-7am.

never did GF routines but at 11wks to only wake twice a night that is great. Some children just dont sleep through, none of mine do completely so we have at least 3 nights a week where they will be up, however all 3 choose to alternate their nights

Both my DSs slept through 11 - 7 after about 3 weeks on Gina, and then 7 - 7 about 5 weeks after that.
HTH

Ah.....

Sometimes, babies just dont understand books the way we do

Seriously though, your baby is a bit young for strict routines, and 2 wakings a night (I'm assuming your baby is feeding and going straight back to sleep), is pretty normal.

I would also point out that this is around the right time for a huge growth spurt, and its quite common for babies to wake more in the night at this time.

Twice a night......you lucky cow.

DD slept through from 12 weeks after a visit to Longleat as I had promised my nephews I would take them.

Eh ficko emoticon needed are you advocating Longleat is there something GF missed.

Longleat? Eh? What's that go to do with anything?

I have to say, (and I know its not a popular opinion) but I found GF very useful, but only from about 4 months. Once DS proved he could sleep for 6 hours we tried to encourage that...but try just to use Gina as guidance, not gospel. I still BF on demand no matter what she said, but on the whole, from the 4 month mark life got easier, DS slept longer and was happier. 11 weeks may be a bit young, but then all babies are different. Some naturally sleep longer, some don't. If you have a good sleeper think yourself lucky and enjoy it while it lasts!

i am all for routines for older babies - ds1 was the king of routine. He fell asleep at 1 pm every single day when he was 11 months old - regardless of where we were, or what he was doing. He fell asleep in the swimming pool once.

my ds has only started to regularly sleep through the night recently and he's nearly 16months. He'd sleep through on the odd occassion before that, but mostly wake up once from about 10 months.

It's hard but like adults all babies are different and as MegBsset said your ds hasnt read the book - whether gina ford or anyone else's book.

my dd slept through from 11 weeks without using any sleep methods or books, my ds woke every two hours until he was 8mo. so it is hard to say when your lo will sleep through as they are all different. 11 weeks old is waaaaaay to young for sleep training imo. I would feed as necessary until 6mths. But that's just me. oh and btw - only twice?? That's brilliant!

2 wakings a night sounds about normal, lucky even! Routines are fine as long as your baby fits in with them naturally in which case why use them??!? Please bear in mind than any kind of sleep training that involves leaving infants to cry or "controlled crying" can affect your childs attachment and pychological development. Not just my opinion, backed up by all the child psychologists and psychiatrists I know as well as more credible evidence based literature. If the methods work without lots of crying though then fantastic.

My dd slept through on random occassions from 10 seeks old but would wake up if growing needing more milk etc. Slept through at 4.5 months of her own accord without need for routine intervention and I counted myself v lucky that it was so soon!!!

I did gina with both mine and they both slept 7-7 between 4 and 5 months. I stuck to the routine during the day but I didn't do the 10.30pm ish feed because I was going to bed at 9 and didn't want to wake up and then wake them up. I think at 11 weeks they were waking up at 1-2ish and then 6-7ish. i.e. 2 stretches of 6 hours instead of 1 stretch of 8 hours. This suited me better because was breastfeeding but ginas way might be better if bottle feeding and dh can do last feed when you're sleeping. I love gina and like most people have enough sense to feed my baby if they need to be fed and change the routines according to circumstance.

I think we all like to think that People take tips from the books and adapt them to their individual baby but unfortunately this isn't always the case. Some of the families I've come accross and friends have been very rigid , flexibility and respecting your baby as an individual are the most imporatant factors when deciding to implement an "experts" routine.

Look, since we apparently are allowed to talk about this woman I would like to point out the following...

a) She has never had a baby
b) Her mother had PND and NO ROUTINE in her life and they slept together until she was 12. So is her need for routine an issue from her own childhood?
c) Babies need love and cuddles and feeds not to be left to cry at such a young age.
d) Books are there to make money and you are there to nuture your baby. I say throw the book out of the window.

I would like to point out the following

a)I give my babies just as much love as people not following a routine

b)I give my dcs loads of cuddles and don't see why anyone would think that this is incompatable with a routine

c)I would be suprised if there was a routine that did not advocate giving your baby feeds.

d)Making money and giving advice are not mutually exclusive.

e)I have never left my babies to cry. Liking routine doesn't make me a total witch.

f)The poster clearly wants to try ginas routine and was asking a perfectly legitimate question. Her baby is only 11 weeks old and I'm sure she doesn't need people telling her she is not nurturing him just because she wants a bit of kip.

aquablue - we know you are just wanting to do the best for your baby, but for now you really need to go with teh flow. HOnestly honestly honestly, two wakings at 11 weeks is FANTASTIC!!!! They are little for such a brief time - enjoy your peaceful nighttime cuddles and F* the book!

On advice from friends I tried GF with DS and id didn;t work. I DID throw the book out of the window.

I found GF and DS to be from different planets.

He slept through at 13 months.

By "sleeping through" I mean 7-7.

I wish I had realxed more in the early days instead of trying to force him down some road that wasn;pt right for us.

I hope that things do wrok out for you, but if they don;t, please don;t think you are doing something wrong and start fretting about it.

I had a nightmare getting my lo to sleep until I got GF book at 6 in 52. Slept 7-7 from 8 wks (lifted to feed at 1030pm still asleep) straight thro from 12wks. I found her to be a sanity saver!! lol Good if you don't take every timing literally.