Pickle

She should be fine - we fly a lot and my kids have never had problems with their ears. Have a drink on hand for her, little sips of water can help your ears to clear, or gently blowing her nose. Have fun!

Agree it would be very difficult (and potentially cause a very awkward situation) to try and get money from her. It obviously wasn't a malicious act, and accidents happen. At school pickup at my kids' school it's a nightmare with children, parents, buggies, toddlers everywhere, and even when parked out of the way buggies can be a real nuisance. You should look into changing your contents insurance, ours covers things outside the house, I reckon it's an essential especially when you've got kids and all the associated kit.

Not at all. Some people feel a bit faint afterwards, but you get tea/juice and a biscuit and as long as you don't go out and try and run a marathon directly afterwards you will be fine.

Try to relax about it - you will hear all sorts of horror stories but it's not always bad. I've had two inductions, both at 37 weeks. The first took a while to work, but once it did I managed the labour with just a tens machine and had a complication-free birth (I was given the prosten pessary and a syntocin drip once my waters broke). Second time it all happened very quickly, and once again I managed a natural birth with a bit of gas and air and my trusty tens machine again. I had been told, by everyone I spoke to, that I would NEED an epidural, and to expect a c-section. I'm due my 3rd child in January and it's 99% certain that I'll be induced early again, so it's a way of life for me now! My advice would be to do as much as you can to have the whole process happen the way you want it to. Walk around as much as you can during the day of induction (I'm convinced that the fact I stayed upright pretty much the whole time helped me), and try to stay relaxed. Good luck!

You can't donate while pregnant (I'm a donor, but currently unable to donate during the pregnancy). Agree that this is something everyone should consider - such an easy thing to do but a lot of people have never done it. I started donating at age 16 (in New Zealand) and have done so ever since.

Oh you poor thing, that sounds horrible. Have you seen your GP? Is it just happening on one side? It is completely possible to fully BF a baby using just one breast, so if it's a recurring problem on one side you could switch to feeding from one side only. It can mean you're a little lop-sided for a while, but I know a number of people who have managed it with no problem. Definitely worth seeing a doctor if you haven't already. Good luck x

Ha ha, I know (but dear God, I would kill for a glass of wine... stupid liver condition!). Hubby is out on Thursday nights anyway so it's a no go, but I think being surrounded by people enjoying a proper drink would be very frustrating! 13 weeks to go, there's a cellar full of wine calling my name.

Boo to being pregnant :( I'll be up for drinks once baby arrives, so count me in for anything after January!

In the actual test I did, one of the questions (multi choice) was "On what date is Christmas day celebrated" :) Granted that was one of the easier ones but it did make me laugh at the time.

Huguenot Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Where are you originally from Pickle? New Zealand - I moved to the UK in 2001.

I had to sit this a few years ago, it is indeed an exercise in memorising random facts and figures that you'll never need again. However on the day I sat it only me and 3 others out of the 20 or so that sat it passed, so obviously you need a degree of competence to have realised that you need to read the book and memorise it! I just did the test and got 15, which goes to show none of what I "learned" has stuck :)

I'm happy to meet for coffee with anyone who's up for it in the mornings (free from 9:15 till 11:45) while both of my older children are at school, or early afternoon (12:30 - 3ish) when it's just me and my (well behaved) 3 year old daughter. We often go straight from school to a cafe for lunch - generally Peckham Park, but could easily do Electrical Cafe too. I think weekly evening meetups are ambitious, especially as we're all prone to tiredness and this time of the year it starts to get busy with various Xmas related social events.

Great news Bellenden Belle, I bet Mr Carnell is thrilled (and already out shopping for tweed?) :)

In our road it happens on the actual day which is Mon 31st, and generally the kids are out between around 5ish and 8ish (depending on their age). I've always found that they only knock if you have a pumpkin or decorations out, which is very courteous, although meant that a couple of years ago I lived on chocolate and sweets for a couple of weeks afterwards :)

I guess it's an individual thing, but I have always preferred Mr Pickle to go home and get a good night's rest, so that he's more useful when we get home! I've never slept well on the post natal ward, and doubt very much that it would be comfortable for partners. Hopefully this time round you won't need to stay as long, fingers crossed for you.

Agree with Snowboarder - my daughter wore one (day and night, bad Mummy, but she survived to tell the tale) for over a year and there was no way she would ever have been able to get it in her mouth.

17 degrees isn't too cold, that's a really good temperature for a bedroom. When I had my first baby I stressed a lot about temperature - too hot/too cold etc., but with my 2nd I relaxed a lot. If a baby is too hot or too cold they will let you know, so try not to worry too much. I pretty much used 2.5 tog bags all year round (apart from really hot weather where I dropped to a 1 tog), with sleepsuit, and a vest added in the winter months. Our heating was on until 10pm, off all night, then came on again around 6am.

I've been lucky and never really had that problem (generally all year round I would put them in long sleeved/legged sleepsuit and grobag - 2.5 tog at this time of year) - but could you try reducing the layers she's wearing and then popping a blanket over her as you're going to bed?

"The All Blacks have been dealt further backline injury problems with Richard Kahui and Israel Dagg the latest to be forced out from Sunday's Rugby World Cup quarterfinal against Argentina in Auckland". Oh dear. Although the replacements aren't too shoddy (Williams, Muliaina), but once again it looks a bit like my team are crumpling at the pressure stage :(

We are in the same stretch of Upland - have you lived in the house long? In periods of heavy rain we find our cellar floods quite badly so I would imagine trying to waterproof it would be tricky. Ours is useable, but we have to make sure things are in plastic containers!

We've had different teams collecting the different types of recycling since the pilot scheme started, so do expect that the 3 types are taken at differing times in the day. In our road I generally find the brown/green bins are taken earlier in the morning, and the dry recycling later in the day.

Another vote for BMF, by far a harder workout and much more fun than the gym (I had been a committed gym user for years). PipD they run loads of classes over the course of the week, both daytime and evening as well as weekends, you should be able to get all the info you need from their website: http://www.britmilfit.com/ Prior to getting pregnant a couple of BMF classes a week coupled with a run or two was brilliant for keeping me fit.

We're a Scottish household - Mr Pickle born and bred, my grandparents were born in Scotland, so although I'm technically a kiwi I consider myself a Scottish one. I grew up in a city in NZ with a statue of Robbie Burns in the centre of town and street names the same as Edinburgh, and we had to wear kilts to school!

:) I only wish that our cat were that smart! You set them up by shoving the microchipped cat through it, and it registers the chip. Then when they come up to the door to get in it reads their chip and opens. This is the one we have: http://www.sureflap.co.uk/

We used to have a problem with other cats coming in and spraying/eating our cat's food - we got a microchip operated catflap, well worth the money.