Gina Ford Routines

I didn't follow the Gina Ford routine as strictly as in the book, but I did do the 3-hourly day feeds and then left them as long as they wanted to at night,the theory is that if you top them up regularly during the day and get them into a good, settled routine it will be enough to sustain them thru the night.

Worked brilliantly with Maya and Chiara, not at all with the gremlins who woke 2-3 hourly for the first 4 months no matter what I did.

I have not heard of the Gina Ford routine however it looks like that is what we did.

My MW advised to feed 3 hrly from 2 weeks as DS had his days and nights mixed up. We fed 3 hrly day and night until he eventually lengthened his asleep periods thru the night himself. He has slept through the night ie 11 hrs from 8 weeks old and continues to do so. ( The last couple of weeks he has woken up once a night but he is teething.)

Routines have worked well for us.

thanks ladies, the book does seem super strict and i don't want to become obsessed by the clock.

Do you count the 3 hours from start of feed to start of feed?

Sue very interested to see how you get on - we can discuss over some tea later in the week perhaps?

Finley seems to be waking every 3 hours for food anyway which is good and this is day and night, so i think i should be grateful.

ha ha, no probably not!! It'll be our secret

Fiona, Jackson has been on this "routine" since he was a week old, and it is working really well.

It's a little more complex than just a three hour timetable, as there are some shorter and longer times in there, which is designed to wear baby out so they sleep better.

We have just taken the basics and run with those. And we are flexible - last night we wanted to go out to a friends and knew the routine may be effected, so we just started fresh today. A lot of the strictness is purely up to the parent. So, we are pretty relaxed, but it also allows us to plan things as we know things will be pretty stable. It's working well so far - particularly at night.

We bath Jackson each night, at about 6pm and he is always asleep in bed (his own bed too) by 7pm. He then self wakes at 10pm ish (earliest has been about 9:30pm), has a feed and then goes back down by 11:00pm (11:30pm latest). His night feed varies, but he only wakes up once in the night for a quiet feed, lasting about 40 minutes, and then is back up again about 6:30am - 7:00am.

We've had very few nights where this hasn't worked so I am quite pleased with how it is working out.

The three hours is supposed to be from start of feed to start of feed, but as I said there are some longer gaps. One example is the 7pm sleep, and then he also goes to sleep at 11:30am after a small top up feed and gets back up at 2pm.

If you can be pretty relaxed and not get caught up in the days it's not going to work out, then this works really well. I am a strong advocate of the book.

Am happy to discuss when we see each other next. Congratulations by the way - can't wait to meet Finley!!

Wish I'd started implementing a routine sooner (didn't try until DS was 3 months old) . I did read Gina Ford's book, but ended up also reading the Baby Whisperer & The Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Problems (Tracy Hogg) and going with her advice as it worked for us. Still based on routines, but not as strict - you learn to read and act on baby's cues aswell. A compromise between strict clock-driven schedules and "following" baby.

thanks for all the comments ladies, in my emotional state i got all teary at the support and help this website has given me since i joined, its such a great place.

well  he has just gone down again now after feeding at 3 hour periods throughout the day, he woke at 3 hour periods for a couple and i woke him at one so kept it going.

I did it and think they are great as long as you don't let yourself get stressed if things aren't working (I think sometimes I did!) It is great as a guide and I think it helped with getting O to sleep through the night. Like some of the others he needed a bit more sleep during the day than she says to do.

we started using Ginas routine from day 1 & it has been gr8. Jade is already sleeping through the nite. & is such a contented baby.
we have changed some of the times to suit both us & Jade but genrally its well laid out.

I follow it but not strictly, I think you can get way too caught up in sticking to the routine. A friend of mine follows it religiously and won't feed her baby unless its at a 'Gina' time, I feed Jack if he's hungry. Also it says that the first block in the morning should be 7-9am awake, there's not many babies that can do that.

I also highly recommend not doing anything that is going to be annoying if you're out. Like if your baby begins to rely on being bathed to go to sleep etc and then one night you're out, you may be completely screwed. Do what feels right but take guidance. Nothing is meant to take over from a mother's intuition, but like I said one of my friends basically consults the book for everything and doesn't think about the child.

Good luck, I really enjoy Jack being in a routine, works well for both of us!