mouseysarah

Just a warning - think about whether you would prefer Jessop to something much further away. In the even (sounds unlikely in your case but still) that you don't get a place at any of your preferences the council will allocate you somewhere. I sometimes see people on here saying "why have the council given me a place somewhere miles away?" - well, if you don't tell them you would rather go to Jessop if push came to shove than go three miles away, the computer won't know that. Definitely don't leave any spaces on your application unless you are truly indifferent at that point between all the schools in the whole of Southwark.

I've got a Graco travel cot to sell at the moment on the classifieds! Can't link to the post but search for Graco and you should find it. It's the size of a normal cot and very sturdy, suitable from birth to about 2-3.

Roast in Borough Market is great - very kid friendly, delicious breakfasts served until late on a weekend, and great views over the market. And cocktails if you want them!

Hi sglanzer I take my 3yo to a playgroup at Malham Road Christian Centre on Fridays 9.30-11.30, it's ?1 including a drink and snack for children and coffee and cake for adults; a mix of ages attend but always a few 3-4yos. Very friendly and welcoming.

Gently Elephant in Brockley are absolutely delightful - the staff are all charming, helpful and will work with you on budget or colour preferences and they have lovely shoes and also books, clothes and gifts. One of my favourite shops in all of London.

Have a look at SE London Dads http://selondondads.weebly.com/ who run various regular and one-off events for dads and male carers, including a regular playgroup on Tuesday mornings at Hatcham Oak Children's Centre in Brockley which I can guarantee is friendly and welcoming - my husband runs it!

I pay for the whole day because I'm taking up a place all day, since my childminder can't take someone else for the three hours my son is at nursery. Also she is on standby to get him if he should fall ill at school, and she has him in the holidays all day. I think that's pretty standard and seems reasonable to me.

catgirl Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I'd say she's definitely trying it on with the > bank holidays if you're only using her on Mondays. > As Fuscia says if she's only working one day for > you then she's only entitled to 1/5 of the bank > holidays. Not really though - childminders are self employed, not employees, so they are entitled to set their own terms and conditions for prospective mindees and it's then up to you whether or not you think they are reasonable! I'm not disagreeing that it seems unfair that in the circumstances you describe you would end up paying for 4 Mondays when you can't use the care, but you have to weigh up the disadvantages in terms of price against how much you like her and decide whether or not it's the right care for you. I agree that ?64 a day is at the upper end from my experience, although again different childminders set their own fees and especially if they know they work in an area with high demand and they rarely have a space then they can charge more. We currently pay ?45 a day in SE23, half pay for 4 weeks holiday per year. If you're freelance then unfortunately you won't be able to claim childcare vouchers from your employer which would allow you up to ?243 a month from gross pay, saving a bit on the tax. If you are entitled to tax credits you may be eligible for some help towards childcare but that depends of course on total household income.

I had my second child at the birth centre in December and it was a really positive experience. The environment is obviously great - very new, smart and comfortable rooms that don't feel like hospital - and after the butt it was wonderful to have my partner able to stay with me overnight. But the best thing is the care; the midwives there were lovely and really committed to making sure you have a good experience. I really recommend it. They do regular tours so it's worth going to have a look round and talk to them. They have specific criteria for admission, all based around being low risk eg normal bp, normal iron, not v overweight, no growth issues etc. They do the risk assessment at about 35 weeks. You also have to be full term (37 weeks or more) and you can't be induced at the birth centre. As Jo says if you have complications, or indeed if you decide you want an epidural, you will be transferred upstairs to the normal labour ward at Lewisham. I had my first baby there with an induction; the care and treatment in labour were fine, post natal care was a bit sparse as it often seems to be in busy city hospitals as the midwives are stretched and have to prioritise the women in medical need. That said I hear things have improved since then (2008) and in any case you would be in good hands if you were to suffer complications as the high risk medical care there is v good.

You might find the National Childminding Association website helpful - some info there for parents about choosing a childminder. Mine charges us if she is open but we don't send our son because we are away or he is ill. We don't pay if she is on holiday or sick (only happened once). The fees include food, groups and other activities. Her rule is that she won't take children with d&v or with something infectious like chicken pox, but she will happily take him with colds etc as long as we are happy to send him. Our notice period is 4 weeks. As far as I know those are all fairly common approaches but as childminders are self employed they can set their own terms and so it does vary.

If he's settling at 7.45 then try moving his bedtime back a bit? My son gradually moved his bedtime back and it is now 7.45-8, unless he is really tired or poorly. 7pm bedtime doesn't suit them all!

Agree with most of the others, as long as there is steady weight gain and no other cause for concern, dropping down the centiles need not be a major worry. It is worth keeping an eye on but no more. Health visitors sometimes forget that the 9th, 2nd and 0.4th centiles are all perfectly normal and healthy places to be - the 9th just means that if you had 100 babies of 16 weeks you would expect about 9 of them to be that weight or less (ie not far off 1 in 10). Sometimes babies are born on a high centile because their mother had an efficient placenta and perhaps they were overdue and had carried on growing, but once born they settle to the curve they 'belong' on which is lower. Worth a think about you and your partner as well: if you are 5 foot nothing and your partner is 5'6, chances are your children are not going to be in the top half of the charts! How big are/were your other babies? Again, if they were average to small then no surprise this one is as well. If the HVs are panicking about it then I would either a)see the GP and tell him/her you are not worried, and chances are high s/he will confirm there is no problem and you can tell the HV it is all fine, or b) just don't go to the clinic so often!

My son - now 3 - was a spoon refuser from the beginning and so we had to do all self feeding and finger foods. I am on a phone so can't do links but have a Google for 'baby led weaning forum', there is a useful site with lots of ideas and recipes. Yes you have to accept more mess, but you will be surprised how many foods your baby can self feed! Good starting finger foods are any sort of bread or toast fingers which can be spread with good things like hummus, mashed banana, mashed avocado, as well as used to dip into soups and runny foods; omelette, with or without fillings or toppings, cut or torn into pieces; meatballs; falafel; strips of chicken, either plain or dipped in flour, egg and breadcrumbs and fried; ditto fish pieces, or fishcakes broken into chunks; and obviously fruit and vegetables, cut into pieces about the size and shape of chunky chips. Once you get used to it you will feel more confident about almost anything being a finger food, my son used to eat spaghetti, fish pie etc with his hands and would also let me hand him loaded spoons of yoghurt, rice pudding etc to feed himself. You will probably be nervous about choking, and your baby may well gag and splurged a fair bit to start with. Don't worry, the gagging is a normal part of learning how to manage food in the mouth and does not mean they are choking - there is a fair bit about this on the baby led weaning forum or in Gill Rapley's book Baby Led Weaning. Easier said than done I know but relax, this stage is really normal and part of developing independent eating. Just invest in a lot of j cloths and some newspaper or a plastic sheet for the floor under the high chair!

Hi all, just joining in this thread as I had a baby girl on 9 December and would like some other people with new babies to hang out with! This is second time for me too, my little boy is 3. Second time around definitely much easier, the first time it hit me like a bus and I was very unprepared, especially as my son had reflux and so slept terribly, had to be held all the time and really struggled to gain any weight. in contrast my daughter is relatively easy as newborns go, she is feeding well and sleeping at least sometimes (!) and is generally a much more contented little thing. Her birth was easier too, she was born at the Lewisham birth centre which I cannot recommend highly enough and she came fast and I have bounced back fairly quickly despite a second degree tear. Having two is certainly a new challenge though, trying to breastfeed while supervising my son on the loo or settle the baby for a nap while the three year old is playing noisy games is a new level of multi tasking! Wednesdays and Thursdays is just the baby and me so I would be keen to join ant meet ups on those days - I can't make this Monday as I'll have the boy too but I will keep an eye on the thread. (I am actually in Honor Oak but only over the hill from ED and happy to make the trip as I often do!) Wednesdays and

Infacol made my son's reflux much worse, Belle - it clumps the bubbles together to encourage the wind to come up, so if your baby is sicky already it will encourage big rather than small amounts of vomit to come up. We had a couple of experiences of projectile vomiting on infacol before we got a reflux diagnosis and stopped using it straight away. Your GP isn't really understanding what reflux is if he is recommending infacol. Don't feel bad for not pushing enough - it is hard to challenge medical professionals when you aren't an expert. But I would go back to the GP and ask to be seen again. My son had Gaviscon and ranitidine for his reflux and both helped enormously in his case, but all babies are different of course. He came off the ranitidine at about 6 months and off the Gaviscon at about 8-9 months, as by then the introduction of solids and the decrease in milk consumption were also helping. Good luck and well done for coping with it so far, it really is difficult and demoralising when the baby is so clearly unhappy.