Gina Ford and waking between 10pm and 11pm

[Madigan]

Does anyone follow GF's advice and wake baby between 10pm and 11pm?
I have been doing this, and it has worked in that she sleeps much longer and better afterwards, but it does seem a bit mean because she really objects to being woken up. If I do not wake her at this time, then she will sleep until midnight, but will continually wake up for the rest of the night. So far, on the GF routine (a relaxed version...) she will wake only once (at 3am) after she has settled at 11pm.
Does anyone else do the 10pm-11pm awake shift, and does it work? and what can I do to keep her awake? or am I doing the wrong thing?

Works for us - why don't you try just getting her up and feeding her without actually trying to wake her up properly, see if that's better?

Did do a feed for both of mine last thing at night before I went to bed but did not try and keep them up for an hour or indeed to wake them at all. I'm not sure that they really woke up - room dark, no noise no talking and I think it helped us all sleep better at night.

Have you tried just feeding her at this time but not waking her?

yes - tried feeding her, but not wakuing her and it does not seem to work as well ... was hoping that eventually we will be able to do that, but at the moment it seems to help her sleep better through the night if she is awake from 10pm to 11pm. GF says that babies need some waking period between 7pm and 7am ... is this true? or do your babies sleep through, without being properly woken up to feed?

I do a relaxed version of GF and wake up DS (10 weeks old) for feeding between 10-11pm. Following this feed DS sleeps until 3:30am appx and sometimess until 4:15am. Unlike GF I don't turn lights on fully, but I do change his diaper. Sometime he will awake fully on his own and sometimes he will finish his feed without ever opening his eyes (even with his diaper having been changed). I have noticed that whether or not he is fully woken for this 10/11pm feed he still wakes again at 3:30/4:00am ish.

I have also tried not waking him for the 10/11pm feed and waiting until he wakes on own. On these occasion he wakes up around 1:00am and still wakes again 3:30/4:00am.

I used a similar routine to GF with my son and until about 7 mo i would give him a dreamfeed around 11pm, sometimes he woke up and sometimes he didn't - didn't realize she thought they needed some awake time, my ds certainly didn't! He was a great sleeper in those days.. now he is 11 mo and wakes up much more in the night!

What age is your DS ?

We kind of did GF and didn't keep DS awake for an hour, we were too blooming knackered at that time of night, just gave him his milk.

I never followed GF but I did the waking up thing with my dd just through how she fed in the day.
I found that if I fed her then (I called it the dream feed) then she would sleep right through.
She wouldnt really wake up as such but would take the feed. If she got a bit sleepy or fall asleep whilst feeding, I found that a quick nappy change mid feed worked a treat and stirred her enough to finish off.

I also did a slightly relaxed version of GF, and have always woken them for the 10.30 (ish) feed.

I used to turn lights on fairly bright and change nappy to wake them up. Feed them and then settle back to sleep, regardless of wether they were awake for an hour or not. I don't think that is so important.

I think this feed is crucial to them going through the night. In time your DD's 3am feed will push back to 5am, 6am and then it will become her morning feed. So this 10.30 feed sort of sets them up for the night.

Having said that I hated this feed because my evening ended at that time every night. Couldn't wait until they were old enough to drop it!!

Good luck !

My DS is 9 weeks and although GF depressed me as I never felt I was doing the right thing I did take some of her ideas and loosley follow them. So I wake her at some time between 10 and 11 - but only gently, give her a feed and then put her back to bed. It is much easier now I express and feed her with bottle at this time rather than trying to get her to latch on whilst really tired.(Low lights if any and little eye contact / stimulation.) Normally she then sleeps till 3.30am (give or take half and hour) if I don't then she wakes at 1am and then still wakes at 3.40 / 4am. At some stage I hope to drop this feed but not sure when.