The Contented Little Baby Book: The Simple Secrets of Calm, Confident Parenting

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding
Review: Baby's love routines and it's great for a mother to know when she can have some time for herself. The schedules she suggests are excellent. It's a must for every mother

Rating:
Summary: She likes to go to bed!
Review: I wish I had this book for my older two children. We tried demand feeding and co-sleeping with them. I ended up nursing every hour for 30-40 minutes, rocking them all evening listening to endless screaming, and I was exhausted!

I came across this book while pregnant with my 3rd child who is now five months old. I was searching for something similiar to "Babywise" by Gary Ezzo and "Baby Whisperer" by Tracey Hogg. I wanted something with example schedules and more structure. Gina Ford had exactly what I was looking for!

There are good tips on getting your nursery and layette set up, sleeping, and feeding. The book provides detailed schedules for every month of your babies life.

I started using it as soon as my baby was born. I did let her go to sleep earlier if she wanted to but I always woke her and fed her when the book said. By 3 weeks or so she was right on track with Gina's schedule.

My baby has never had to cry because she was hungry. The feeding times seem to be spaced perfectly. She has also never had to cry it out for bedtime. In the early days she would occassionally spend maybe 5 minutes "complaining" but never screaming. Now she is happy to go to bed and smiles at her mobile or sucks her thumb until she falls asleep. My friends are all begging to know how I do it. My mother had to come see for herself because she didn't believe me, but it's true!

I hear so many other mothers with babies this age complain of 20 minute naps or feeding every 45 minutes. They are just now starting to deal with their babies sleep problems and resorting to crying-it-out. I am so grateful that I was able to prevent these problems before they started. Thank you, Gina!

Rating:
Summary: Teaching granny to suck eggs??
Review: Okay so I didn't believe that scheduling a child could actually work as good as they write; it does. Ethan is 7 weeks old and we started at 3 weeks because he had his days and nights confused. The first day we saw a noticeable difference and by the first week he was sleeping until 4 am a week later and he was sleeping until 7 am! Not only does he sleep well, he is more alert, eating well and gaining great weight. I thought Gina was a crazy brit, but in fact she knows what she is talking about! I recommend this book; buy it and do yourself a favor.

Rating:
Summary: Gina Ford is a Godsend
Review: I can not believe the critics of Gina Ford! Can you not see how important structure is? Human beings by nature look for structure in their lives. It's all around us and has been since the dawn of recorded history. What amazes me is that with any important endeavor in life - writing a book, constructing a building, composing music, producing a television show - if we want to do a brilliant job, we start with a plan, an outline, a blueprint, and we structure it right (all great creations are well planned and structured) yet with a child, easily the most important endeavor one could ever undertake, many of you prefer to go with flow, let the chips fall where they may, feed on demand, let baby dictate when and how long they sleep. This is madness! If a good book merits planning and structure than why shouldn't a child? To the smart parents out there who want a truly happy, healthy baby, I highly, highly recommend this book. It worked beautifully for our little girl who started sleeping through the night at 8 weeks. She is the happiest, most peaceful baby we could have ever hoped for. To the rest of you, I have only one word - idiots!