Gina Ford Routine for a 6 wk year old

S

southside852

Registered User
We've decided to do the Gina Ford sleep schedule with my 2nd son. My 1st son had reflux so getting on a routine was quite difficult. I am wondering what experiences people have had with Gina's schedule. My son has just turned 6 weeks and sleeps about 5 hours straight at night, then 3 and 3.

My questions for those who have successfully used Gina as a guide are:
1) did you follow her suggestions sleep/awake times to a tee?
2) If your baby was still sleeping, did you wake him/her up for a feed?
3) What happens if your baby cannot stay awake for the 1.5/2 hour stretch?

Thanks!
 
Sorry, but Gina Ford never worked for me. My babies were both small and could never reach the weight milestones that she has for each age stage. I did appreciate her general advice, though - on having more feeds during the day, so you'd have fewer of them at night, arranging the nursery, getting black-out curtains, etc.
 
I did a slightly relaxed Gina Ford with both my sons and it has worked really well for us. The things I did stick to were the intervals between feeds as closely as possible and the nap times. So by 6 weeks my sons were both on 4 hourly feeds (one is now 19 months and one is 6 months!) I found if things slipped by half an hour it didn't matter too much. I definitely did wake to feed both in the daytime and for the dream feed at 10.30pm and also woke them in the morning at 7.00am if ever they slept that long (not often!) As they get towards 12 weeks the amount of you start cutting down the daytime sleep so I just checked that every now and then and made sure I was cutting it down enough. I think the discipline of a lunchtime nap is great and the bedtime routine works well. The morning and afternoon naps are a slightly more moveable feast!
 
I tried following GF's routine to a tee with my first daughter. I was really unhappy for the first few months when a young baby just can't be trained into a routine. This time round, I still try to use GF's routine but adapt it to my baby's needs and our lifestyle. Yonge is right on the general advice. I find that having my daughter sleep in a quiet and dark room means that she'll have an undisturbed sleep and will be fresh when she's awakes, letting her feed longer so that she can get the hind milk which will keep her fuller for longer, etc.

1) Not to a tee. Adapt it to your baby's needs.
2) Sometimes, depending on how late she's been sleeping. But I do get her up at the 10.30-11p.m. feed.
3) I'll just let her sleep and adjust her entire sleep for the day to meet the required sleeping time.
 
Can I just add that i think that a routine will only work for you and your baby if you yourself are a 'routine based' person. Gina Ford worked for one of my clients who engaged her for her first child; I went in for the second baby to help the Mum and her biggest 'complaint' was not the method used so much as the overly strict attitude which went with it and my client really felt that she was made to feel guilty if she didn't stick rigidly to the timings that were set and to the extent that the baby was 'forgotten'. I had to work hard on this mum to stop her from watching the clock more than watching her baby but she did say that it was a relief and stress free experience to get to know her baby first before launching into 'timings' at an unreasonable pace. May I add that her second baby slept through the night a week earlier than her first and was a very happy, chatty little fellow.

The point I am trying to make is that you have to trust your instinct first and get to know your babys habits, only then can you have the confidence to implement a routine which will suit BOTH you and baby alike. Perhaps use this book as a guideline but ignore the 'guilt' notes!!

Best of luck!
 
I knew my post would spark some chatter. you either love her or hate gina ford. i get both sides as this is my 2nd time around being a mommy and i was definitely a non-believer with my first son and thought her schedule was crazy to ask of such a baby. but now, looking at it from a different perspective i see benefits of it and since i am not a crazy gina ford follower, but what i would consider to be a sensible mother, i've been keepng to a lose gina ford schedule. my son is now 7 weeks and his night time sleep follows her schedule to a tee. but during the day, he is off about 30 - 45 minutes. i just think my son is more of a sleeper as there is no way he can stay awake for 1.5 hours at a time. i let him have his sleep.

for now, this works for us as we can eat dinner with my older son and my husband can do the before midnight feed while i get some continuous sleep. we are pleased with it. thanks for everyone's feedback!
 
I read GF ands think she has some good advice, but for me there were 3 main probs with the routine

1. My son is breast fed and however well he fed, 4 hrs between feeds was just impossible- would have meant having him screaming for food for at least an hour. He's still pretty much a 3 hrly feeder.

2. He was (still is at 12 weeks) a sleepy baby and even now often struggles to stay awake for 2 hrs. At 6 weeks it was more like an hour.

3. I found having fixed windows to get out of the house too restrictive. Often you have to fit in with other people or you need to be out for a few hours and need them just to nap in the pushchair or wherever

However, I did follow her advice re bedtime routine, differentiating night from day and thought that was useful.
 
i HATE the idea of a quiet house and blackout curtains... HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE IT! (sorry... don't think i can accurately portray how much i REALLY HATE those things! LOL)

my mother used to put me in a bassinet and place the bassinet beside her piano and she would play for hours while i slept. what did it do? it taught me to sleep through pretty much anything as a child. she could vacuum, clean, have visitors, take me out and about in the pram etc all without worrying that it wasn't quiet and dark!

i did the same with my son... well, not the piano as i couldn't play more than "mary had a little lamb"...but when my son was a baby, we had a lot of dogs living with us. the dogs would be directly outside his bedroom at all hours of hte day and night. it turned out that my son learned to sleep through anything.

my daughter, however, was slightly different. we moved to a different house and the dogs were now 2 floors down from her bedroom. for the longest time, it meant that she woke at the slightest sound. BUT eventually, she, too, learned how to sleep through anything.

last year, a friend and her family came over to spend christmas eve night with us. my kids slept in my bed, while her kids slept in my kids' beds. she and i had to organise and wrap presents for 4 kids. once my kids were asleep, which took about 20 minutes, i turned the light on in my room, broke out the bottle of Bailey's, and she and i wrapped all of the presents (while listening to 80s tunesand enjoying shots of bailey's!)... my kids didn't move a muscle. they slept through it all!
 
I agree with Carang. We live in a small flat and I knew I didn't want to be tiptoeing around everytime my son was sleeping so I never did the quiet thing or the no light thing. I also have to say I really liked a lot of the Gina Ford ideas but I am so not good with routine. We were out all of the time because I'm not good at being stuck at home so it wasn't really possible to stick to her routine. So I really have no idea if my son would have adjusted to the routine but I certainly couldn't.
 
for my first I stuck with GF - she was GF baby...didn't have to do anything really - listened to what my baby wanted, and when I looked back at GF it was basically that! she was the "perfect" baby as some would say. with #2 now, can't say it's quite as easy...I'm doing the SAME things but being #2 she is learning the ropes faster - not the GOOD things, but the BAD things some would say...like wanting to stay up and play instead of nap, and not topping up on all her bottles. one GOOD things though is that she does manage to sleep from 7:30-7:30 with 2 feedins in btw (midnight and 6am)....also, my baby sleeps through ANY noise in a lit room....both of them can sleep ANYWHERE just as long as they are tired...that just made life easier for me! :) I like routines but I do adjust them to suit my needs.
 
I'm also picking and choosing what I like from Gina Ford... Mainly just the feeding times and nap times, and following a bedtime routine, but I regularly take my baby out during her naps, so she's definitely not in a darkened room and will sleep through anything. I also believe in lots of hugs and cuddles and haven't let my baby "cry it out" as she kind of recommends... It really seems to be working for us and her sleeping has improved SO much that I'm really quite grateful to Gina!

Some days we get totally off track, but starting the day at 7am every day and doing the bath at a fixed time means we eventually get back into it...
 
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