anyone else using gina ford? help please.

[aussiegal]

Personally, I think these books are good for a little guidance, but try not to treat them as gospel or beat yourself up if they don't conform. I also followed a similar book (author was Tizzie Hall - Save our sleep). Admittedly, I didn't follow the routines until my baby was a little older (from around 4 months from memory) but when I did, she often threw me out on many occasions.
Your baby is still very young so I would tend at this stage to just try and listen to him, learn his crys, use the first few months to get to know each other and that way when you are ready to enforce routine (if he is not falling into his own by this stage) you will at least have an understanding of his needs and cries (ie, is he just wanting attention, does he have gas, is he hungry, etc) and be able to handle his needs a little better. Naturally you will both grow with experience.
Just my opinion anyway, best of luck with your new son.

I agree with all of this and just wanted to say that there is nothing wrong with a baby wanting attention. As someone else mentioned, they are too young to manipulate, they genuinely need love and affection.
For me the first 4 months or so are the best. I give as many cuddles as I can and as my babies want without fear of it making my life worse down the track. We don't do routines at this time and it's worked out fine for my 2 older boys, both slept well from the appropriate age. Third is still in this spoiling phase and we get nary a peep from him unless he's hungry. Each to his own.

 

[aussiegal]

Also wanted to agree with Jennifer. My now 8 week old couldn't stay awake for an hour for at least 4-5 weeks. Asking a 2 week old to do it seems a bit weird.

 

[zac08]

agree with most of the comments above. we tried putting my baby boy on GF right from day one but found that it simply didn't make sense til he was around 3 months. the other posters are absolutely correct to say that even GF doesn't espouse CIO so early (pretty insane to let a 2 week old cry it out - that is borderline child abuse really). GF does NOT say you should let a 2 week old cio. crying down is a totally different thing from cold turkey cio. letting a 2 week old cio could be very traumatizing and even Dr. Ferber who is very controversial says not to try CIO til after 4 months. after our son turned 3 months, putting him on a schedule started to make much more sense and by 4 months he was pretty much on the GF plan, well with modifications of course.

 

[pooch]

i have used gina routines with both my boys. for the first 4-6 weeks i just went with the flow. i slowly started introducing set feed times. used her as a guide for nap times and didn't worry about self setting at all until around 6 weeks from memory. for my eldest son i would leave him for 5mins (a very long clock watching 5 mins) and go into him. he was textbook cry-down baby at 7pm and for months and months always took 15mins and me going in 2-3 times before he went off to sleep (never any issues duting day!) my youngest had a very different more traumatic cry that pulled at my heartstrings and i could never bear to leave him cry. so for the first 6 weeks i cuddled and rocked him and did all those things. from about 6 weeks of age i started to pat him to sleep in his cot. (the shh pat technique that the baby whisperer talks about i think). i tried my hardest not to pick him up and would not leave the room until he fell asleep. it didn't take long. the patting time got less and less. and if i felt like he needed a cuddle i picked him up and cuddled him and started again.

give yourselves time to find your groove and do what feels right for this little guy who is likely to be a very different baby than your eldest. I felt like a new mum all over again with my second!

 

[beachedwhale]

me too, I follow Gina's Ford's routine since my son was 4 weeks old. I can't thank you enough for her routine! Before that, my life was fallen apart.

didn't know what to do, didn't have any "me" time, didn't have time to have dinner with husband.

I found tight swaddling + shhhhh works. try to put baby to bed carefully in dark....

 

[Matty]

My first son managed well with the Gina routines, but I found that no matter how much I tried, my 2nd had his own ideas.

It was impossible to keep him awake, and he needed way more sleep than her routines offered.
If I had persisted, he would have been completely sleep deprived.

At 11 months he still is a ridiculous sleeper, sleeping from 7.30pm- 8am (usually needing to be woken up) and still sleeping 3.5- 4.5 hrs in the day.

If your baby doesn't fall easily into her routines, don't force it, some babies are just different.
Especially not at this age. Just because the routines don't work at 2 weeks, doesn't mean they wont work in a few weeks time.

It is a really bad idea to let a 2 week old baby cry. The world is a pretty confusing place, and they need to know that you will comfort them no matter what.

 

[LeahH]

Can I ask a question on the back of this thread of those who have successfully employed self settling techniques, crying down and shhh pat etc. - I am also posting this separately.

As I said above, I've made a rod for my own back by giving my 12 week old the dummy and rocking him (he sleeps in a hammock so rocking was so temptingly easy..) basically EVERYTHING I said I wouldn't do with no. 2....

He's exactly the same as number 1. bub was initially in that he can fall asleep without the dummy and a little rocking, but will wake 3-6 times in the first hour of falling asleep and need re-settling with rocking at first, but eventually the dummy (esp like tonight if American Idol is on and we want some peace) .

He's at least better than when he was very young as the waking would go on all night until his 10.30pm feed (similar to what onesarah describes)

At 12 weeks he is still waking at 2am and 4/5am, he might take 2 ounces at each feed (I express into a bottle for night feeds) so I know he's not really hungry - I'm sure it's just that he cannot settle himself. He's well over 6kgs so capable of going through the night - plus he's often not even that interested in his 7am feed.

I'm happy to leave the night feeds for now, but the big problem is that from 5 am until 7am he wakes on and off and never really settles properly - I give him the dummy, rock him to sleep, dummy falls out and he wakes up crying. I end up in the spare bed next to the hammock for the duration.

Btw, Naps are hit and miss, some I rock him to sleep with no dummy and he does the whole stretch without waking - other times he needs resettling after a few wakings.

Any advice appreciated, if I fix the dummy/rocking issue might it fix the 5am - 7am issue or is that something else??

As said, he's on a GF routine so I'm usually good about ensuring he doesn't have too much day time sleep - unless we're out and about and it's impossible to stop him sleeping in the bjorn or stroller.

Doc said it might be silent reflux so he's on medication for that, I also use infacol as he's terribly hard to wind - I'm quite sure it can't be wind at the same time of 5am every night though - can it?

 

[onesarah]

LeahH - is he in a darkened room? Perhaps it could be that the morning light is disturbing him around 5am. Also, some of my BF mums also suggest that a formula feed late at night might help baby settle into a longer sleep - if you were happy to give him that at 10.30am, maybe it would push his 2am feed later and stop the 5am one?
Self - settling, well that would be nice and I remember it so well with son number 1! I wonder if you need to go cold turkey on the dummy and rocking and try and patting at regular intervals? Or just wait and see if he gets better as he gets bigger.
Sarah

 

[AndreaY]

Also, some of my BF mums also suggest that a formula feed late at night might help baby settle into a longer sleep

Actually I found no difference in feeding formula to ebm in a bottle, both of mine had equiv amount of ebm, still sleep as long. The only difference was no need to increase ebm after drinking is round 25-30oz a day.

At first, my 2nd was also harder to settle, tended to cry and whimper a little before sleeping and woke earlier than 7am, unlike my 1st who immediately went to sleep when I put down and I had to wake her up in the morning. I was also worried that my 2nd would not follow the routine at the time. But I stuck by the method, after about 2 months (on GF from day 5 straight out of hospital), she slept much better than my 1st. For the past year and half, not a sound from her from 8pm-8am, sometimes almost scary. So there is hope.

Maybe cos I had them on GF from the beginning and they were used to it from the start, but I have never found the routine to be coldhearted with babies screaming and crying.

 

[AndreaY]

I used dummy too to help them sleep, but once they found their thumbs 2-3months old, they would not take it and for me much better, cos they would never lose their thumb. ;-P

The rocking to sleep may not be such a good thing to continue, unless you are really lucky and yours learn not to rely on it. I know a few friends who still have to rock their 2-3 years old to sleep for an hour and cannot put them down until fast asleep.