anyone using gina ford sleep routines?

[janx]

I have been using gf suggestions for a while - my dd is 6 months - but everything is going haywire!! she has never been great at daytime naps especially the lunchtime - but now she is falling asleep on my breast at 11am feed. She wakes around 6.30am - has a 30 min nap at 9am, but gets tired around 11am. Lunchtime she sleeps for 30 mins mostly and then wakes up and somethimes has more, sometimes that is it. She then gets grumpy in the afternoon. On the good side - she does sleep very well at night....any ideas???

by the way - agree with the lady who says it takes a while for the lunchtime sleeps to kick in. Once they do you'll be glad you perservered. My two are nearly two and I still get 2 hours of peace at lunchtime!

Ma DS is 26mo and is still on GF routine. Gets up at 7, lunch at 12, nap at 12:30 - 2:30 and back in bed at 8pm. He is well behaved and easy to manage and I feel in control and able to manage, knowing exactly what we need to do for the best result. My next DS is due in 11 weeks and I will be digging out my GF book again for him.

I know there were times when we struggled to meet the schedule but I just kept chipping away at it starting each day afresh till it clicked. Don't be discouraged. HTH

Thanks for the advice. I am persevering with the GF routine and DD now is waking at 7am having breakfast and milk feed having a nap for half an hour at 9.30 am and eating much better at lunch time. Sleep at 12.30 seems most difficult as she wakes after 45 mins - 1hr. I will try to let her nap late afternoon, but based on what everyone says I'm hoping the lunch time nap will get better!!

hi
been really interesting reading all these. i'm a GF fan for sure. used it from 3wks with DS1 and he slept through from 10wks and has always slept really well at night. he's now 21mths. i do remember having problems with lunch time sleep from time to time but just persevered and eventually it went back on schedule. i know that people say you can't dictate the routine etc but when they are born they don't know the diff. between night and day and when they should have sleep or when they need it etc. my ds has always been a really 'content' child, eats well, rarely grumpy, loads of energy etc and i'm sane because i had something to follow! like Alyie said, if you are struggling to to follow the times as GF sets them out, then it's really good to just understand the basic needs of the baby. my ds would almost drop off to sleep after 2hrs of being awake (to the minute), he didn't drop his afternoon sleep for a couple of months after gina says but he was still sleeping well at night so i figured that was fine. ds2 is due any day, i know i won't be able to be as 'routined' as i was with ds1 but i'm much more confident about what he will need so hope that will compensate for a slighly loser schedule! Good luck to all those trying it out, it's def. worth persevering.

qsack, good luck with ds2. I have always had a good routine with dd but once she hit 9 months it all changed. She is much grumpier (tired) and waking in the night. That is why I am now trying to follow GF routine. Started with diluted night feed which I should have stopped ages ago. That is now Ok but she still wakes. Its only been a few days since tried GF but will keep trying. So far she seems happier in day but afternoons she gets grumpy. Hopefully her lunchtime nap will extend to 2 hours which I believe will make her happier in the afternnon. She has no problem going to sleep at 7pm but is exhausted.

Remind me again about Gina Ford and how many children she has.

Haven't had time to read all posts, but Janx, CONGRATULATIONS!!! - your baby is a human being and not a robot!!!
I know that when I had ds1 I had no idea what to do with a baby, and would have loved a 'manual' like GF. Now I'm pg with no.3, I realise that you just have to go with the flow!! If your dd is sleeping well at night at just 6 months you really can't ask for more than that!!

my advice would be not to get too worried about gf routines, as when teething starts all naps go to pot anyway !! ds used to only do 45 min naps for ages, then he suddenly started napping for longer in the afternoon at about 5mths old. few months later the teething started and naps varied every day. now still at 14mths old his am nap can be 30 mins with a longer pm nap; or he often wants a long am sleep and a short one at say 2 or 3pm. so i would try and go with the flow, i wish i had been more relaxed about it earlier. ds has had terrible trouble with prologed teething, which affects his sleep patterns in the day, if his night has been a bit disturbed. you may be lucky, and escape with few teething probs. ds, if i remember had a late 30min nap in pram around 4.30pm, for a lot longer than book said, even if he'd had a good nap after lunch. this did help him not get overtired by 6.30pm. hope this helps, good luck!

I use GF method, have altered time to start at 6.30am till 6.30pm as I like putting lo to bed early in evening and as a family we always get up early. Sometimes sleep at lunchtime can get a bit disrupted, but try and keep to it as close as I can, find it good the GF method.

My dd took ages to get into a routine but she did in the end..... didnt really do GF method but controlled crying def helped. Think next time i would consider 'helping her' into a rountine a little earlier. Athough it makes no difference in end. Dd is now 3 and sleeps well. Every child is different as is every adult.

Hi just to say that our baby has slept for about 2 hours for the last three lunchtimes (12-2) and seems to be back on track??? We have been doing his 11.30am feed in the nursery and trying to do a similar routine to the evening before putting him down. (this is following the GF 5-6 month routine. Maybe this has made the difference to feed him closer to when we put him down and getting him in the right frame of mind? Who knows? It's quite hard to keep him going until 11.30am so usually go out to keep him distracted. Catilla - your advice sounds good.