Pickle

Such a hard question - my kids aren't even close to being at that stage yet (I'm hoping I've got at least another 15 years before I need to think about it!). I remember having "boyfriends" at around age 10 - 12, however they really were in name only, I wasn't allowed to go out anywhere with them, so used to literally just see them at school. My parents were very strict (which I thank them for now, but didn't appreciate at the time) and I wasn't allowed to go out on a "date" until I was around 16.

Update from me - today I feel fine, however despite our best efforts 20 month old daughter started vomitting at 5am! Feeling surprisingly positive about it though, as at least it means we'll all be clear of it by Thursday when we leave, and after dealing with son and myself for the last few days I'm a bit of an old hand at the cleaning up part of it! My little girl hasn't been sick since 6am, and has managed a bit of water, some dry shreddies (her brother was having breakfast and it felt wrong to deny her when she was asking for it) and some apple - so hopefully she'll improve gradually over the day. Thanks all again for your advice yesterday, very much appreciated. P x

It depends! My first induction took well over a day (and more than one pessary) to work. Went into hospital noon on Friday, didn't have baby until early afternoon Sunday. Second time round only one pessary was used at around 11am, had baby early hours the next day. Hope it all goes well for her!

Thanks all for your responses, as usual some great words of advice. I haven't been sick all day and have managed to tentatively eat an apple and keep it down, so hopefully that's the vomitting side of it over for me. Struggling now with a terrible headache, which I know is dehydration, but finding it difficult to drink water, so Mr Pickle is downstairs now making a can of lemonade go flat (bless him!). From the screaming/yelling and general boisterousness happening downstairs it sounds like the kids and hubby still feel fine! Agathoise, I'm not nursing my daughter anymore, but wish I was as I'm struggling to go a day without cuddles! My son understands why Mummy is staying out of the way today, but she doesn't and keeps coming to look for me :(

Here's the story so far... Saturday afternoon our 3yo started being sick, continued to do so for about 12 hours (although if not eating he seemed OK). He was fine all day Sunday so we thought the rest of the family had escaped. Early hours of this morning it struck me, so I'm now laid up in bed feeling rubbish and trying to avoid the rest of the family. My dilemma is that we are flying to NZ on Thursday afternoon. So far today I've left all the childcare to Mr Pickle (who has thankfully been able to take the day off work) and have stayed away from our daughter who so far seems fine. Should I continue to stay away from her, in the hope she doesn't get it, or should I "expose" her to it as much as possible in the hope that she gets it quickly, and it's over and done with by Thursday? I'm just a bit worried that she may get it on the day we leave, making an already stressful plane journey a WHOLE lot worse! What would you do? Of course there's a high risk that Mr Pickle will get it too, but he's a big boy and not as likely to throw up all over the plane! Help!

Hi Reren, You could try the Southwark & Lambeth booking secretary - Alison Johnson on 0844 243 6921 or [email protected] (got this contact from a post by Sillywoman - who I think may have something to do with the NCT... teacher? Might be worth dropping her a private message) I went to NCT classes run by Maria Pinter in Effra Road - at the time we were due the local classes weren't running as it was close to Christmas. Due to time constraints we did the "intensive" course which ran over a couple of days, and while it was good for information it wasn't so good for making friends like the longer courses are. Maria wasn't at all evangelical - although I think NCT as a whole has a focus on the "natural" way of doing things. That said, I was booked in for an induction due to medical reasons, and because of this she spent extra time talking us through how the induction process and any resulting medical interventions work which was very useful. Other things you need to book... - as ridiculous as it seems, I know of people who put their names down on nursery waiting lists while pregnant. Not relevant to me as I'm a stay at home Mum, but might be worth looking into if you're planning to return to work while the little one is still tiny, as baby places are few and far between P x

I have heard of this happening before, although tend to forget myself and often go down the big slides with my kids. I hope she's OK, and that you are doing OK too, as I can imagine it would have been pretty horrible for you. Take care, P x

I've just sold my Hug-a-Bub, that's bad timing. They're excellent from newborn stage and will last you a decent amount of time - technically they can be used right up to the age of 3 in various ways, although I've never seen it done!

Congrats Millsa :)) My gap is smaller than yours (just under 17 months), so we didn't really do anything to prepare our son for the arrival of his sister. And to be totally honest he didn't really notice she existed until the point that she started pulling herself up to standing and stealing his toy cars! There is a really sweet book in the "Miffy" series about a new baby which someone gave my son when I was pregnant - if you can wait till Easter I'll dig it out for you (it's packed away at the moment). P x

Embarrasingly hubby and I have had the Valentines conversation, which went along the lines of "shall we agree not to get anything as per usual this year?". Terrible, I know, but we've never celebrated it :-$

:)) However due to my ongoing addiction you'll all log on in the morning to find I've been talking to myself on threads all night! Reren - don't worry about the noise, you may not be noisy in labour... having watched every birth-related programme I could find on TV in the run up to having my first I was convinced I would scream loud enough for my Mum to hear me in NZ, however I was the complete opposite and was very quiet!

I was about to respond, then saw Molly had beaten me to it :)

Hi again! At your 12/13 week scan they do some basic tests to determine your risk of Downs. These are non-invasive and done as standard. Depending on the results you then have the option of further testing if you feel it's right for you. Once you register your pregnancy you'll get "booked in" which will then result in you getting letters from Kings regarding scan dates etc. I remember being at your stage with my first and finding it all VERY confusing, so I know exactly how you're feeling at the moment! P x

Congratulations :) I think it's simple to change GP's... certainly when I switched from one on Lordship Lane to Dulwich Medical centre years ago it was just a case of walking in and filling in a form. Forest Hill Road, or Dulwich Medical Centre would be good options, as both have midwife practices attached (the Lanes group operate out of Dulwich Medical Centre). I think the Gardens has one dedicated midwife, however she simply does your checkups while pregnant, and you'd then have a "random" midwife when in labour. You also need to think about whether you want a home birth, or whether you'll go down the hospital route. If you want a home birth you could stay with the Gardens but register with Brierly Midwives who would then do all of your care and be with your during the birth. They fill up fast, although waiting list places do come up (I was offered one when about 34 weeks pregnant, having enquired about it at about 16/17 weeks which was very late to be thinking about it - but it just goes to show you can leave it late and still get the care you want - although illness on my part had dictated a hospital birth by that stage so I couldn't take the place). I had both of my babies under the care of Dulwich Medical Centre, before they had the Lanes group up and running - so saw one midwife for all my checkups but then had the Kings midwives during my labours, and this was absolutely fine, so don't worry about it too much if you can't/don't change from the Gardens. P

I think it's all still go... although I'm going to have to bow out of this one as we leave for NZ next week and I'm struggling to get everything done (I have to pack our entire house up ready for renovation work to begin the day after we leave!). I was hoping to be on top of things by now so that I could come, but it's not happening! I know Molly & Lorraine were keen - any others?

Mr Pickle struggled with the concept of the son being there, but I don't think there's anything wrong with it. He wasn't there to look at his Mum's bits, and seemed to move away from the "business end" every time an examination or anything took place. I think the only time he looked was when they said the head had crowned, and I don't think he would have seen anything other than baby from the angle he was on.

I use a Patapum, basically the same design as an Ergo. I find it quite easy to get my daughter (20 months, but we've been using it since she was about 8 or 9 months old) on my back without help, but it took a bit of practise. Best done in the privacy of your own house where there aren't any old ladies watching and gasping in horror as they watch you bounce your child round... I've previously used a borrowed back carrier (with an aluminium frame) and found it really uncomfortable to use for any length of time, the soft carriers are much better to use for longer periods of time.

Just been looking at the new MacLaren - some cool features. Although might be worth bearing these comments from one of the reviews on it (which I'm sure you've seen already): "The Maclaren Grand Tour LX is a monster of a buggy. It weighs 14.2kg and as a result it is hard to push. It doesn?t roll particularly well and pushing it up kerbs took a lot of effort. It is also wide ? 65cm ? so small doorways and narrow shopping aisles could be a problem" The weight thing could be an issue combined with your heavy baby... especially the comment about getting it up kerbs - you might need to be careful as this could make your bad back worse? My Phil n Teds Vibe is 64cm wide, and it's a bit of a nightmare when it comes to fitting through shop doors etc (for example, going into John Barnett this morning I had to wrestle both doors open to fit in), and we don't fit round the aisles in the Co-Op!

Cross posted with Mellors :) I suffer from ongoing back problems, yet can use a Patapum (like an Ergo) with no problems - I can still carry my daughter now, she's 20 months old and weighs close to 2 stone. Might be worth a try? Once your son is around 7 months or so you'd be able to carry him on your back which is much better than on your front once they get bigger/heavier.

My honest opinion is that it's silly money to be spending purely to get parent facing. Both of my kids switched to forward facing at 6 months (in a Bugaboo for #1 and a Phil 'n' Teds for #2) and hated not being able to see the world from that point onwards. Keep your techno XT and go on a nice holiday :)

You poor thing! I didn't have actual sickness apart from very occasionally, but the nausea was constant. It stopped for me at about 18 weeks. The only things I ate (and craved like mad) that seemed to help was salt & vinegar crisps, and zinger burgers from KFC - a super healthy diet for early pregnancy! I hope things start to ease up for you soon.

Interesting about the "holistic" approach... from a purely personal point of view I would have hated it if the midwives were touchy feely with me during both of my births. I wouldn't even let my husband near me, my way of dealing with it was to completely withdraw into myself and deal with the pain - I found being touched made me lose my concentration. So for me, a midwife getting on with her job was exactly what I wanted. I really felt for the young couple who's baby needed surgery to correct his bowels, they were so scared, and not being able to cuddle the baby must have been so hard.

Technically Magic Moments only take from 2 years, although have a few that are about 18 months old. They don't take young babies unfortunately.

I've just got to the end... fab viewing, and Molly you're right the midwives were amazing. When watching it on your sofa it's obvious there are things to worry about, but they really do keep things so calm.

Ha ha, Mr Pickle just said "if that had been us, you would have hit me with a blunt object". So true.