Pickle

I also still use bottles for my 19 month daughter - it was such a battle getting her to take the d*mn things I feel mean taking them off her! My son continued to have 1 bottle at night until he was over 2, at which point I switched to a cup and he then stopped having milk altogether. I'll do the same with no. 2. I think as long as you're careful about brushing their teeth, and don't let them chew away on the teat or dawdle too much over drinking the milk it doesn't do any harm.

Here's my beautiful boy Mika

Claire, I didn't start using them until around the time I was starting the weaning process, so at the stage that things started to firm up a bit! I probably wouldn't use them earlier, they're great after that stage though.

Agree that Italian is the good option. Either Si Mangia or Locale - we've been to both with our two kids and both are very accommodating.

Hi Mrs Wiggle, There was a great post on this subject about a year ago where I and all the other nappy addicts came out of the woodwork and discussed what we used etc. You can find this post here: http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?25,207468,207478#msg-207478 Basic advice would be not to buy a bulk pack of any one type of nappy before trying them first, get in touch with Molly Dilnot (who I'm sure will post on here anyway ;-) ), who is "The Nappy Lady" on the forum - she runs sessions where you can find out about different nappies and get good advice on what will suit you and your baby the best. I've only got one child in nappies now (bought back memories reading my old mammoth post on the thread I've put above!), and we're still using the exact same nappies I mentioned above - Itti Bitti D'lish and Blueberries - so a year on they're still going strong and I'm pretty confident they will continue to fit right through to potty training. Have fun - and be warned that the world of cloth is a very addictive one! P

Wow, gorgeous! What point is Saffron? Seal or chocolate? My Mum's got two Siamese - Tiffy is a lilac and Luka a seal. Such brilliant cats, we're considering getting a Siamese, but not sure how our existing moggy would adjust.

Don't worry Iain, that's quite normal in a breastfed baby. If she starts showing any signs of being uncomfortable or her nappies aren't wet then take her to the doctor, but nothing to worry about after only a couple of days (other than the fact when she does go you just know it's going to be one of those up the back, down the sleeves poos!). My daughter did her initial tarmac (great description!) poo in hospital, then didn't go again for nearly 2 weeks in her early days! I did take her to the doctor, who referred us to A&E, but they weren't worried at all - she'd been once, she would eventually go again. Lansinoh cream is great for the sore nipples, they should start to improve shortly, but if not it's worth seeking advice from a midwive or breastfeeding counsellor just to check the latch etc. P x

Sleeping 12 hours is not a mystery in my house, and for many of my friends it's the same. I can honestly say that my children (3, and 18 months) sleep 12 hours a night, often more, without crying. Of course they have the odd blip, but I can safely say that 99% of the time they sleep. My son, from birth, only woke once in the night for a feed at around 3am, and once on solids (at 6 months, don't even get me started on the weaned at 7 weeks that has been mentioned above!) slept from bedtime at 7pm until at least 7am. My daughter followed a very similar pattern. I have never used "controlled crying" of any sort to achieve this. Both were breastfed (son till he was 11 months, daughter until 15 months) and weaned at 6 months. If I follow JoJo's advice, our trip to New Zealand in Feb/March will be great fun - as I will never wake a sleeping baby, hence they will sleep all day and be awake all night, thus missing out on all interaction with their grandparents ;-) To me, day/night distinction is one of the key factors in bringing up children. As adults we are expected to be awake at day and asleep at night - surely it's best to get this sorted in a child earlier rather than later... otherwise the routine of starting school etc. will be a huge shock!

I always used to take my son out for a walk late afternoon for the nap he had at that time - meant I got out for some fresh air and exercise in the park while he had his sleep, and I used to meet up with other Mums at that time for a walk and chat. I've got blackout blinds in both of my children's rooms, but they certainly don't block out every chink of light, and it doesn't seem to matter. I think it's good if they are able to sleep with a bit of light, as that way if you go on holiday it doesn't matter so much if there's not adequate curtains. P x

I hope you have some luck - I'm a tea host in SE22, however haven't been contacted for the best part of a year to ask whether I can host, so it seems as if it's ground to a halt in this area. There is an NCT run tea group at the Goose Green centre on a Monday morning which you could try (not sure of times, but I'm sure it would come up in a search). P x

Canadianlisa... I used to get them up and then put them in a sling - more often than not they'd then settle back down to sleep while I was sorting dinner/doing washing etc/watching TV, and then gradually both babies got better at sleeping past one sleep cycle in their cots. Otherwise just go with the flow, try to relax about it, and start afresh at the next nap time. Good luck x

Jojobaby, most people on this thread have approached the debate by saying what works for them, but also accepting that what works for one doesn't work for all. No one has attacked your parenting style, so I don't understand why you're being so aggressive in a "my way is right, you're all damaging your children" way to those of us choosing to use a routine? It's great that your way of doing things works so well for your family, why can't you accept that other approaches to parenting also work for different families and aren't "wrong"? For the record, I was bought up in New Zealand at the height of the Truby King way of doing things. New Mums were given (by the Plunket Nurses, who are similar to Health Visitors) a schedule, which they followed as that's what they were told to do. This is the method that recommends leaving babies outside in the garden in all weather and has a strict no feeding before 4 hours is up rule.

I seem to remember my Mum used to put it in the freezer, then it was easy to pick off. Good luck!

Randomv, I've also re-read your posts after those comments were made and don't think you've said anything to warrant it. The hard thing about an internet forum is that it's really easy for comments to get taken the wrong way... I too am a big fan of winking smiley's ;-) We've done well on this thread to discuss the dreaded routine topic and not get out of control - I remember a similar "discussion" on my Babycentre birth board back in the day and it was horrendous! Hope everyone's enjoying the snow as much as me (which is NOT AT ALL! GRRRRRRRRRR, go AWAY snow).

Great photos. I used to live very close to the Ecological Park, was a lovely place to wander round in the weekends :)

I've seen them in the Toys 'R' Us on Old Kent Road, they had them in stock just before Christmas

I'm at home all day with kids at the moment, and am very guilty of keeping the heating on non-stop. Do feel a bit guilty when Mr Pickle gets home from work and changes into shorts and t-shirt though (not sure he buys it when I claim the heating only just came on at 5pm) :-$

I can't see anything on the HMRC website, it would seem surprising if you could claim before the child was born?

Hi there, I never managed to find decent nursing tops, so simply used to buy cheap strappy vests (Primark are ideal) which I could stretch a bit and pull down from the top, while pulling my normal top up from the bottom. Achieves the same thing as a nursing top, and the added benefit was that the vests were generally long enough to tuck in, thus hiding the dreaded wobbly belly! P x

Jojobaby, Gina Ford has nothing to do with controlled crying, that's in other books (not sure which ones, but definitely not GF). Please thank your mother for her input, but perhaps it would be be constructive (?) on a thread about controlled crying!

They were so busy when I left after having baby #2 I don't think they even noticed we were leaving, let alone what the baby was in!

Just to add to this - while I followed Gina I also breastfed on demand, so the two can go hand in hand. We didn't even attempt a routine before about 6-8 weeks with either baby as I fully believe that in those first few weeks it's pointless even trying, with both it just made sense once they'd got past that totally helpless newborn eat/sleep/cry/poo phase ;-) We also kept our babies up in the evening with us in the early weeks, it was only when they became more alert and aware of light/sounds that we started with a bedtime routine. What I found was that by the time I followed Gina, the breastfeeds had naturally started to spread themselves out anyway, so it worked well. I remember the early days with my son - I was amazed that he was 5 weeks old yet staying awake during the day for stretches of 5 or 6 hours, grumping and crying the whole time, I kept trying to feed him, we both got frustrated. It suddenly made sense when I realised he was actually tired and life got a lot easier. Wouldn't it be nice if each baby came with an instruction manual?! Highlighting things like I do/don't like dummies, bottles, sleeping swaddled, sucking my thumb etc.!

Jet lag is always so much worse when you get back from a holiday! Stick it out, I've always found it takes a good week or two for sleep patterns in the kids to get back to normal. Try to stick to a normal routine as much as possible, it'll gradually get better :)

Ha ha, Lorraine that's classic that your parents do that - M would look at me in disgust if I presented her with a plate of puree!

Hey R&A... GF doesn't do controlled crying, certainly not in the first 6 months. And as others have said, it's pretty unlikely that you'd ever need to go down the CC route later on if your baby is happily in a routine. I've never had to use it with either of my babies (even though I didn't follow Gina to the letter), and our strong bedtime routine means they are always happy to go to bed in the evening. The way Gina's books are written is probably the main reason why so many people are against her methods. But once you get past the "you must do this" writing style she's really all about doing the best for baby and the best for Mum. I remember reading the book before I had my first child and remarking to my husband that it scheduled in food for Mum, drinks of water etc, which seemed ridiculous at the time - but once the whirlwind of having a new baby hit our household I realised it was actually quite sensible :) One thing I found really useful in her books was her advice with regards to expressing milk - I used to express so that my husband could do a bottle in the evenings and her advice on timings etc. was really useful. Also her advice for helping to increase milk production really helped me when my son's tongue tie was corrected and we were re-establishing breastfeeding.