During the first few weeks of Elyse's life, I pretty much took a baby led approach to looking after her i.e. fed her when she wanted to be fed and let her sleep when she wanted to sleep. Needless to say, this led to me feeling worn out to the extreme and having had no time to get anything done, my house was looking in pretty bad shape. I think babba basically got her daytime and nighttime mixed up, so whilst she slept like angel during the day, it was near impossible to get her to sleep at night and this is when I started seeking desperate measures! I was determined not to put her on formula so began googling away for solutions to improve sleeping patterns and that's when I came across a few people recommending Gina Ford's Contented Little Baby Book.
In a nutshell this book advises putting baby into a strict routine and whilst I definitely believe it's vital that children have a set bedtime routine, I think this book takes it to the extreme and beyond! Don't get me wrong, there are handy little tips here and there but I don't think it's necessary to follow the routine to a tee. For instance, I think the timings Gina suggests for awake and nap time are handy to ensure you don't let baby sleep too much which usually means less sleep for you at night but on the other hand it also feels like she dictates when baby should be changed...now I'm not being funny, but surely you should change babba's nappy when it's needed otherwise I'm pretty sure you'd be working through hundreds of nappies per week! And she also firmly believes in ensuring baby is swaddled at every nap time up to a certain age, unfortunately for me swaddling is something Elyse clearly didn't appreciate aside from the first few days after she was born when she was still adjusting to the big wide world.
Overall, as much as I've just slated the whole strict routine bulls*&^ I do think this book kind of helped me ease my lovely, nocturnal baby into a normal sleep and wake pattern although she didn't enjoy going to bed before 2am at one point, whilst she was on the routine! On the other hand, I think I'm just a bit lucky that Elyse has slept through from around 2 months old and lets mummy & daddy have lots of lie-ins! In a nutshell, take the routines with a pinch of salt...the suggested window of time in which your allowed to go out is friggin ridiculous, what a life your going to live if you only leave your house between 2-4pm! If you don't have a clue what I'm talking about, read the book lol. I can't remember how much I paid for the book but I bought it off eBay and it was really cheap like £3 or something so if you do want to see how the routines work for you, I'd try eBay.
Much love,
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