gufflings

Yes, she was measured in the shop on Lordship Lane and she was an H fitting in Clarks shoes. After all your advice I shall shop around! Thanks for the brand names. One shoe shop I rang said Ecco might be good too as they come up wide. To be honest, I think her feet are also just quite fat and agree that it's the depth as much as the width that's hard to find. Mary Janes seem to cut in, which is why she's been wearing boys ones until now. She's been walking for quite a few months now, so I had to go for substance over style. We're actually moving house to Twickenham tomorrow, so I shall definitely pay a visit to Shoe Station in Kew. Good call. Thank you, ladies, I knew you'd come up trumps.

Many thanks, folks! Some great suggestions.

Does anyone else out there have a daughter with wide feet, and if so, where on earth do you buy nice shoes for her? My 1-year-old is size 4.5H and there's so little out there that'll fit her that I recently had to buy her some boys shoes instead. Not a huge problem as I'm not a fan of pink and fairies and glitter etc anyway, but of course in this weather her feet are now too hot in them. So hot that she removed and disposed of one of said shoes yesterday. She is now shoeless and wearing some too-big baseball boots as a stopgap. Any advice? Hoping for tip-offs about online shops I haven't tried yet, if poss... Cheers!

Hiya Mine did this too for about 6 months and it did eventually stop, even though I'm still breastfeeding. Now I've got a sort of halo of shorter hairs around my hairline, which is a bit annoying, but at least it's growing back I suppose!

No, no neighbours getting up/alarm clocks, but guess it could be heating, although we've been 'pulsing' it at night lately as it's not cold enough to have it on constant and she doesn't wake any other time it kicks in. To be fair to her, she was constantly teething for a couple of months and then she had a really bad ear infection, so things have been a bit all over the place at night for a few months. Last night she went down at 7.30 and woke at 6, which hasn't happened for ages, but she did have a rotten night the night before!

Gussy, I agree - it does drive you totally nuts. Early waking has been a problem for us since we dropped the night feeds (ages ago now). I know this because I kept a log of all her feeds and sleep from birth to about 7 or 8 months (yes, I am a control freak). She never did sleep more than 10/11 hours in total overnight (i.e. between feeds and resettling) even when she went to bed at 6.30/7pm. That's why we pushed her to 7.30pm. I do think some kids are just predisposed to be like this - I vividly remember my sister and I getting up from 5am-ish when we were little, so it's probably all my fault. I'm willing to be proved wrong though. Pay you to come round to my house and show me how it's done! :-)

Charlottep, that's all sounding very familiar. I do think that's the answer for us, too. Am relying on the childminder to make the change though - likely to be far more entertaining than Mummy! How old is your son now?

Aaaand she's asleep - and I'm tucking into my second breakfast. No wonder that baby weight's not shifting... Hooray! Great to hear there's been some progress in your camps, Alieh and Snowboarder. Congratulations! Cor, I dream of 7.30am... Womanofdulwich, gah, the thought of another like this scary. I do go to bed pretty early - 10pm - and days when I'm knackered then it's 9/9.30pm. I feel cheated out of my evening though! [Much brattish foot-stamping.] When my daughter was tiny she would conk out for the day by 6.30/7pm - it took a long time initially to stretch her to 7.30pm - so I have wondered whether we should revert to her 'natural' bedtime and see what happens/hope for the best. It's worth a shot, Alieh. I do remember a few months back, the night when the clocks changed, I shoved her into bed at 7pm (because she hadn't slept brilliantly in the day, I think) and she did 11 hours! Although, of course, because of the time change that STILL meant a wake-up of 5am. Haha. A cruel twist of fate. In terms of the PM nap, we've had to cut the morning one short to make sure she goes down at 2pm or thereabouts. Otherwise it's approaching 3pm, she sleeps until 4.30pm and then bedtime is tricky. I do think (although she's young) the morning nap is on its way out but, like Snowboarder says, until morning wake-up is later - or she can stay awake longer - it'll have to stay. Groo. Would dearly love not to have to think about this stuff any more. Roll on no napping! In the meantime I must look out a sock for that monitor...

Urgh, resurrecting this thread in the hope that the OP or any of the other posters have some sage advice. My daughter is 13 months, is in bed asleep by 7.30pm and currently wakes at about 5.15am. Like Snowboarder did with her son, I leave her in her cot until 6am unless she is screaming her head off. And sometimes even if she is I send Mr Gufflings in to shush her in the hope that she'll go off again (this strategy never works if I'm the shusher). In fact, it hardly ever works. I seriously believe that she doesn't need more than 9 hours 45 mins tops at night. I have tried: - Later bedtime, say 8pm-ish (still wakes early, thus has less overall sleep) - Moving tea closer to bedtime (makes no difference) - Moving the morning BF to after breakfast (makes no difference) - Paying a sleep consultant for help via Baby Sleep Answers (makes no difference and leaves me out of pocket) I have not tried: - Wake to sleep - Keeping her up super late to jolt her out of her existing routine I am back at work 4 days a week and the situation is now killing me because there's no longer the option of sleeping when she does in the day. Her total nap time is around 1 hour 45 mins/2 hours: 20-30 mins morning nap at about 9am (because she's up so blooming early) and around 1.5 hours at about 2pm. Is it feasible she may actually need less nap time? Will life get easier when she moves from 2 naps to 1? Does anyone else out there have a kid this age who exists on 11.5/12 hours sleep per 24? A straw poll amongst her baby mates makes her a freak as far as I can tell... And, no, she's not discernibly tired/overtired on her current routine - and trust me, I spend most of my waking hours in 'observation' mode. Should I just accept things and Move On? Weep. Sob. PS - She's been walking since 10.5 months and all that expended energy seems to make no difference to the length of her sleep.

Brill! Thanks for the info. Going to Rhyme Time this morning so shall try Sadlers first...

Thanks, folks! Did a Google images search and there does seem to be a baby version. The version I found today in Lloyds said specifically on the packaging that it was for adults, so I thought I'd better not risk it. Will have a look in Superdrug/Boots tomorrow as need to pop that way anyway.

I've searched high and low for this in East Dulwich. Anyone know a local stockist? They only have the adults' version in Lloyds. Some of the chemists had never even heard of it...

Brill, thanks, Fuschia! Glad you said that - much less hassle.

My daughter will be 1 on 20 January and at the moment I'm BFing her 3 times a day - when she wakes, 3pm-ish and bedtime - with water to drink the rest of the day. I want to get her used to taking a sippy cup of milk for the 3pm-ish feed before she starts with her childminder at the beginning of February. I was planning to start this in the new year so she's got time to get used to it and doesn't associate the change with Mummy going back to work when she'll have enough other stuff to take on board. Do you think it's OK to go straight to cows milk or should I do formula till she hits her first birthday and hope she doesn't mind the swap from BF to formula and then to cows milk in quick succession? She already has cows milk on her breakfast cereal, so she's used to the taste, whereas she's not really had a lot of formula. What would you do?

Hiya Good to hear a positive (almost) end to your strawberry tale, Belle. That's brilliant news that your son's has made such progress since your first post. Must make nappy changes a whole lot easier! Good to hear your nephews strawberry's are gone/on their way out too. I agree, it's very interesting that we both had pre-eclampsia. When I asked at GOSH what exactly haemangiomas are, the consultant said they're not really birthmarks, they're benign tumours/lesions, and that one current theory is that they're placental cells that embolize into the fetal tissue during gestation. She said if you were to take a cell sample from my daughter's haemangiomas and from my placenta (if we still had it - thank goodness we don't as that would just be weird) they would match. Also interesting that you were told they're not hereditary as apparently my mum, her sister and my (maternal) nan's brother all had them. I was cursing that side of the family as they're also responsible for my (and my daughter's) fair skin and my allergies! Thanks to MG and ClareC for the reassurance too. I guess a few years isn't long to wait in the big scheme of things. DrDom, I'm more than happy to meet up and compare strawberries if you/your wife and your little one are up for it. I agree, it would good for the kids (and us) not to feel alone with these. They haven't noticed them yet, but it's only a matter of time. Like Belle, I've seen quite a few children around town with haemangiomas but have been too chicken to stop their parents to chat. Especially since my daughter's are on her limbs and can be covered, so I don't have to rebuff stupid comments and questions if I don't feel like it. We've had some corking remarks though - the worst actually from family.