Gina Ford fans?

[chantelle]

i think that's the bottom line - different things work for different babies, particularly in the first six months. I thought my son would never get on a good sleep schedule but over time each thing slotted into place. First, he finally succumbed to one long nap (compared to none or two brief and unpredictable ones), and then started sleeping 12 hours a night (around 12 months). At 18 months, he absolutely thrives on routine, and even settled right back into his normal hours within a couple of days of being in a 7-hour different time zone on holiday recently.

I respect Gina Ford a lot, though I scarcely followed a thing her book said, and it doesn't bother me at all that she didn't have children of her own. My son's nanny has only the one child herself but 35 years of experience and I draw upon her knowledge all the time. Gina has worked with 100s of babies (including a friend of mine's) and I think she has picked up a trick or two along the way.

There's no need to plug our babies into a one size fits all approach - we can all try different things to find what works, and share the experience.

[Polly D]

I just didn't have the energy to read all these books at the beginning, and I had loads of them, working for a publisher. I would leaf through them - usually sobbing - at 2am, 3am, 4am desperately searching for answers or more, wanting the books to tell me I was doing it all right and that the baby would eventually sleep at night, which he did of course. To be honest, we found the best advice came from the midwives and from our own mums.

Re Gina Ford particularly I remember thinking she sounded too regimental and that if I was to follow her strict ideas, I would never be able to leave the house. And that if it didn't go according to plan, I'd feel like a failure. But then I hate reading the manuals whether it's about a baby or how to make the new boiler work...

[ClaireinSE22]

I read Ford's book when my son was 6 weeks old and like many young mothers, I was very sold on the promise of getting some sleep, despite being rather suspicious of her contention that breastfeeding should/could be incorporated into a routine. On the first night my baby boy cried on and off for 3 hours (I was sobbing too for alot of that time), on the second night he cried for 45 mins....maybe the third night would have cracked it but I just didn't have it in me. Also, the book didn't cover this eventuality - it only said that most babies would settle in 20-30 mins - so having embarked on the Ford plan, I was then left stranded. I found the experience extremely gruelling emotionally as it went against every instinct and I still feel guilty about the experiment; the ugly truth is that it was motivated by what was convenient for me and not by what the baby's needs were. Despite acknowledging my own culpability - I still feel sort of cross with this woman for every creating the expectation in me that such a tiny baby could be pushed into such a rigid system and for taking advantage of a desperate first time mum! Now that I have more confidence as a mother, I know that I wouldn't be persuaded to try anything that felt so counter-intuitive. My baby is now 14 weeks old and has gradually fallen into a pattern of his own devising - sleeping from 9:30pm to 9:30am with two night feeds and 2 or 3 day time naps. As Polly D and chantelle write, they do sleep eventually....I realise I didn't stick with Ford's strategy but I can't help feeling sorry for those co-operative 'Gina' babies! There are probably no quick, text-book solutions when it comes to babies - I guess parents need to do what feels right, remember to SUPPORT one another and wait for their little treasure to get abit older before expecting their regular 8 hours.