Why Gina Ford Worked For Us

We followed the Gina Ford Contented Little Baby routine. There. I said it.  

Not to the letter – I couldn’t be doing with the ‘It’s 8am, eat a piece of toast’ bollocks. We did what my husband referred to as ‘Gina Lite’ with both my children.

For those who have read my previous blog on being a new mum, you’ll know that it wasn’t something I found easy.  The first two weeks were blissful, whilst my husband was on paternity leave but as someone who enjoys structure, his return to work heralded the start of a difficult, unstructured time.

I had a ‘good’ baby (I use the term loosely as I’m not actually sure there is any such thing as a good baby). He would regularly go four to five hours between feeds and slept well. My issue was that I never knew quite when that sleep would be. Whilst I know that is par for the course with a new baby, I was beginning to struggle with the lack of structure.

I’d read a number of baby books, and none of them resonated with me.  When a friend recommended Gina Ford as something that had worked for them, I decided I had nothing to lose by giving it a go.

Immediately, I was happier. I knew when the baby would need feeding, I knew when he would be ready for sleep. We both fell into the routine with surprising ease and I felt like I got better at anticipating what my son needed. He rarely cried with hunger (and if he did, I fed him) and he only got overtired occasionally.  There was no question that we would use the routine again with our second child three years later.

And so we did and it worked just as well for us.  

I fully understand that Gina Ford doesn’t work for everyone and that many people dislike the routine.  I don’t like everything in the book, but a ‘lite’ version did work for me and my family, and I would follow it again.

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About Wendy

Outnumbered. Wife to one man. Mother of two boys. Owner (slave) of one cat. Sales Account Executive.  Football nut. Follower of cricket and occasionally golf. Lover of American TV dramas. Once an avid reader, now occasional peruser of books I’d love to read. You can follow me on Twitter