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anyone else using gina ford? help please.

  1. #17
    LeahH is offline Registered User
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    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?


  2. #18
    onesarah is offline Registered User
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    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


  3. #19
    AndreaY is offline Registered User
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    Quote Originally Posted by onesarah View Post
    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.

  4. #20
    AndreaY is offline Registered User
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    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.


  5. #21
    LeahH is offline Registered User
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    thanks all, he's desperate to get his little thumb in his mouth and keeps trying but cannot keep it there yet. I think this might be the answer..


  6. #22
    Shenzhennifer is offline Registered User
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    LeahH - Wait another week or 2 - all of a sudden he`ll be sucking on his whole hand!
    I was so relieved when my son found his hands. He was such a better sleeper after that. And it is quite adorable, though I don`t know if I will be saying that if he is still sucking his thumb at the age of 5!
    By the way, I have a hammock too - I rock it all the time. i thought it would be more for him rocking himself back to sleep but that hasn`t happened. So I give it a push or two when he`s falling asleep and especially when he can`t settle himself. Don`t know what will happen when he`s too big for the hammock, but I bring him into bed with us in the morning so he will sleep more(so I can too) and he seems to have no problem without the rocking. We`ll see~


  7. #23
    hipy is offline Registered User
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    Out of all the books, its the easiets one to read as its very concise,I tried it on my children, but it did not seem to help. Having spoken to some other friends, we all agreed overall we did not think it really helped us


  8. #24
    joannek is offline Registered User
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    every child is different & also the mom. my first had a mind of her own & eventually fell into her own schedule. i pulled my hair out trying to put her on GF. it was impossible to put her to sleep, we did everything from sh.. pat.. rock... putting my nightgown on her so she smelled me (it worked for 4 days), she would never sleep for longer than 30 mins. even at night she used to wake every hour or so & had to be carried & rock to sleep (for 30mins+) every time. it was a nightmare. she even kicked the person who's carrying her when we started walking back to her crib. we finally had to rock her until she was 3, too heavy to be carried & only last week (she's now 4yr3mths), did we not have to pat her to sleep.

    the 2nd who is 10 weeks now. is the opposite. i tried the GF, first to the spot, didn't work. now i use the GF as a guideline - letting her stay awake for 1.5-2hrs between naps; napping in the dark. but we have to feed her more often, there was no way she could thrive well on a 5 feed/day. so i try to feed her every 2-3 hrs during the day & just give her ebm at night. she wakes usually once or twice between 7pm-7am. which makes us happy already. i tried to get her to drop the night feed but didn't seem to work, so i'll just let her take the lead.

    one more thing about dummies, is that the orthodontic ones NEVER stay in their mouth. the cherry ones do. but it's more difficult to find, cos i only found the cherry ones at mothercare. i use the mothercare cherry latex ones, which seldom falls out.

    good luck.


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