Another Gina Ford's Routine question

I am planning to follow the Gina Ford’s feeding schedule when my baby is born. I have some questions and hope that experienced mothers can help me. I take as example, the routine for breast feeding at week 2 to 4 weeks.


1. The expressed milk at 6:45am, 10:45am and 9:45pm, I store them separately in the fridge right and not in the freezer?

2. When do I use this expressed milk?

3. If I decide to do give the bottle of expressed milk (in stead of the breast) at the 10pm feed, how much ml. do I feed the baby?

4. By the way, giving the baby the bottle already once a day in the first week, will that not cause nipple confusion?


On another note, how important is it that the room is super dark? I have wooden panels in my bedroom and during the day, light will be coming in through the gaps. What is your experience?


Thank you.

Please do not follow GF if you intend to breastfeed.

Her routines are not designed for the mothering required.

She has no qualification in child care and is not a mother.

Hi,


Thanks for your feedback. I am a bit surprised to read this; I have heard from some people that it is a good routine. I am a first time mom and I thought it made sense and I like having a structure as I will be going back to work after 10 weeks and this way, I can instruct the maid exactlty what to do.


What part is not good about her routine? It is the times of feeding? The waking the baby up to feed? The expressing? I really would like to know before I start to do this.


Comments from other moms are appreciated.

Hi yuy, It is a great routine if followed with a grain of salt. Use it as a guideline. You have to tailor it to your baby, learn to listen to your baby first rather than the routine first. It is the first mistake a lot of moms make... "but the baby is not supposed to do so and so"..... baby hasn't read the book, right? My friend's baby has always been a big eater/ milk drinker and was always hungry more often that GF routines stipulate and then the nap times got all screwed up and it was a big mess. It was very hard on both the mother and child.


On the other hand, my child eats nowhere near (which I agonized over for months with my paed) what she says a baby has to have but is a perfect GF routine baby except that he always wakes up at 5:45 am. After trying every trick in the book to the letter (not including black out curtains- couldn't spend money on it!:)), I have resigned myself to early wake ups. But I love that fact that he has a routine for the entire day like clockwork- it makes life so simple.


Have your baby first- then think of expressing- your boobs have o get used to a lot of baby first. Expressing times are a bit over the top. Express when you can- you are going to be so tired. You have no idea what your milk supply would be like at 9:45pm- I couldn't get a single drop out at that time. Other times I had an over supply issue! if I followed what she wrote, I would never build up a stash for going out.


Re: blackout curtains- I never have and never will. To me its not a natural way to sleep but some people love it. We leave the blinds open all day and he sleeps well. At night I bring them down but there is light out and he is off to sleep right on time. So you have to relax... little bit of light won't matter to the baby if it doesn't matter to you more.


Every woman is different, every baby is different- just keep that in mind.

For me the GF routine got a lot easier when the baby gets older. In the first (at least) 6-8 weeks, you are both finding your way and you will need to tailor it to your particular baby. The hospital I delivered at recommended feeding the baby every 3 hours and that is what I did for the first few months. The expressed milk in the GF routine is for a top up if the baby is hungry at a particularl time and your body is not ready to feed again. The expressing also helps to get the milk supply up. Her book is pretty quiet on what you do with the expressed milk and I was confused too!


Pixelate - I found the GF book very condusive to a breastfeeding aproach and usuing the routine was able to almost exclusively breastfeed my baby to 11 months despite going back to work part time after 12 weeks (baby then had expressed milk while I was at work). Have you used her book at all? It is certainly not to everyones taste and I found it very regimented but when you are a first time mother, it is good to have some guidelines to try and follow. I always thought the routine starting at 7am was hilarious as my baby just woke whenever he liked and that was when the day started! Defintely can use the 7am wake up routine once they are sleeping through.


Good luck. Sounds like you are doing lots of prep before the baby arrives. I only seemed to read about this stuff when the baby was here ...!


SB2

Dear all,


Thank you so much for all your replies. I will definately try to follow her routine as much as possible. Of the few books I read, I find this one most clear to follow as it tells you exactly what to do. As I first time mom, I need something. I understand that baby associates to things so I try as much as possible to do it the way I would like to have it in the long run. This of course will not always go as planned and I keep an open mind toward everything. At least I will say that I have tried to plan as much as possible and did the best I can.

Hi there,


I'm still breastfeeding my 11 month old, and I returned to work when she was three months. I chose GF routine because I thought it would be easier to hand the baby to another carer if there was a routine to follow. Just to reiterate what others have said:


1. Use the routine as a guide. Waking a baby, or making a baby go to sleep is not easy but you can just try your best, but don't stress out if it doesn't work.


Miraculously, the first day I returned to work, my baby followed the routine exactly!


2. I personally would not pump milk in the first few weeks because your body is regulating its milk supply. If you breastfeed and pump, you will have so much milk.


Alternatively, GF recommends doing this so that those mothers who have a low milk supply will have more!


But... you'll be very tired in those first few weeks so don't add extra pressure to yourself by trying to pump as well.


3. I was afraid of nipple confusion, so I didn't introduce a bottle until three weeks time.


So at three weeks, I tried my breast pump in the morning, when there's more milk. I only got 1 - 2 ounces at first. It's normal to have tiny amounts when you first start pumping.


So you can try pumping for two mornings and store in fridge. (Milk loses certain antibiotic properties when frozen, so it's always best to put in fridge if you plan to use within 3 days.) Then you can warm up both these two portions and add together and try giving baby 2-3 ounces for a night time feed and see how he/she likes the bottle, and see how much he/she drinks.


Eventually, if you start pumping more and more milk in the mornings - you can store in the freezer for up to three months. You can pump into a bottle, and then pour it into a bag. I recommend "Boots" breast milk storage bags which I bought online - much cheaper than other brands but really good!


When you pump, you can add the pumped milk together in the fridge as long as the pumped milk is added within 12 hours of the first lot, and is a smaller amount than the first portion of pumped milk.


Remember if you are replacing a nighttime feed with a bottle feed - you must pump milk, otherwise your body thinks you don't need that milk at night time and you will reduce your night time supply.


4. I have never had a super dark room. But now I find that if the room is dark and the lights are off, it helps my baby settle down for her sleep at bedtime. But for daytime naps, it doesn't matter.


I recommend the GF routine if used as a guide. For first time mothers, it's comforting to have something to follow. It gives you advice on how long your baby should be sleeping during the day. If you can actually get your baby to follow it, then it gives you freedom to know when you can nap or have time to yourself if baby has a two-hour lunch time nap.


Good luck! I found all the breast feeding and pumping and storing milk so daunting at first but now it's so easy. You'll find it easy too!


And if returning to work and BF - must buy a double pump! Must!

Hi Slammy,


Thanks a lot for your reply. It is very useful. Yes, I have the Medela breast bump (double and electric).