Ruth_Baldock

Seb is 13 months and we have been UMPTEEN times; half for accidents (anyone remember the scalding fiasco? I certainly do...) and half for illness (novo virus and asthma related things). I always feel bad when he goes in for accidents but everyone is so lovely and one snr nurse commented that I'd done well to avoid even MORE accidents in the time he's been with us, after seeing his 'energy' and 'fearlessness'. (at 8.10am on a Saturday morning, lord help me...)

I think I know the one you mean, and I think it's cheaper than a P+T or equivalent because like Keef said, it's not a known brand name and it's no-frills, really. Also not as aesthetically pleasing, some might say. We looked at that one too and it didn't have the options we liked in the p+t- different seating options (can put carseat on the top for a newborn if you want to turn it into a travel system) and can't convert into a single buggy in due course.

Gussy; COULDN'T agree more! However, if someone had told you how hard it would be- would you have listened? I wouldn't have, that's for sure. I remember feeling very over-whelmed and lonely in the early months; I thought I was the only one! Turns out, it wasn't just me crying everytime her baby cried. What I did feel was it got so hard, that I went full circle and suddenly, everything was quite easy. Like I had been pushed to the edge so far that I just...got a lot more confident and it was not so awful anymore. Relationships changing; totally agree. My ILs and myself have had to find a new...way of being in the same family and loving little Sebastian. I also think you never really know your partner until you have kids with them. This past 13 months have been a massive eye opener. In good ways and bad ways. It can't have been that bad, though, as I am typing this with the netbook balanced on my bump (Hubster took Seb out so I could have a lie-in i.e. sort the bedroom out and SHINE THAT BLOODY SINK)

Good for you, Knomester! It gets easier, these boob lark in public. I have fed everywhere now: walking around topshop, walking around Sainsburys, on the 12 (didn;t like this one), in a swimming pool, on a ferry... FWIW, the law protects your right to BF bubs anywhere really. In central london is easiest, I find. everyone is so busy that no one ever notices what you're doing :)

Any Nero/Starbucks/Costa/Pret would do me. Slink off to the back with Bubs and a blanket, get a hot choc, off you go. I've done it millions of times, no one bats an eyelid.

Same with me, Gussy. Yesterday I cleaned the kitchen floor with Seb 'helping' with his jaycloth, total miracle. I managed to scratch our ceramic floor tiles in the kitchen yesterday. Husband practically wetting himself he's so distraught. There aren't any big gouges but the top layer of matte black seems to have come off. Apart from paying to have these tiles replaced, is there anything else I can do to get rid of the scratches???

Yep us too! Only acceptable foods are: yoghurt, biscuits, ellas kitchen fruit pouches, special k (mummy's breakfast).

Laying flat on a bed seems like the most ridicolous position to birth a baby in, it didn't help me progress at all, but labour IS knackering. I'm gunning for a Water VBAC this time, have told Husband we may need to bring our own paddling pool with us because of all the opposition we're up against. My Mum (of Kibbutzim/extended BF forum fame) is an Obstertrician and attends high risk births. Or she did before she retired. She was very much 'Come on, lets get the baby out and have a nice cuppa'. She was always very gung ho about it, she wasn't there when Baby Seb was being born but I spoke to her on the phone and she said 'Don't think about 'opening like a beaaaaaaaaaauuuutiful flower' but do think about him moving down and the lovely Nandos burger you can get Husband to fetch for you afterwards. You like a nice burger!'. It was really helpful actually. 10/10, would recommend to others.

Gina; I'm doing it through the BFN in Wandsworth; the course leader is Zoe Chadderton. Really looking forward to it. I was still breastfeeding Seb when I applied and got accepted onto the course, but he weaned when I was 8w pregnant, so bribing him with boob won't help. I may just let him sit with me on my lap/toddling about the room as he pleases. His penchant for throwing screaming tantrums 50,000x daily may put a damper on things, but sounds like everyone will be understanding. Next hurdle: getting to Tooting for 9.15am on public transport.

Seb has never been to a creche. I am about to start training to be a breastfeeding counsellor, and the course is for 3hours a week, with a creche provided. S is VERY attatched to me (even at playgroups he has tantrums/epic meltdowns if I am not right by his side every 10 minutes) and I anticipate tears and his dying swan act. Has anyone had a baby so attatched that they couldn't put them in a creche? How else can I get round this? What do I need to send him with? Extra dummies/sippy cups/organix biscuit bribes? Nappies? Gin? Whiskey? Barcardi?

LEDF: Kibbutzim is the plural ;) Never saw massive spiders, I did see lots of lizards and apparantly one day found a dead snake and kicked it into the house from our garden. My Mum had a FIT and was so out of sorts that our neighbour had to come and calm her down.

SW: You would make a FANTASTIC midwife! Hold on, I'll tell Baby Baldock 2 to stay put until you've finished your training ;) I cry at all of them, LOVED the waterbirth- didn't Lydia look LOVELY? Very pretty lady, and she made it look so easy :)

My Mum was bought up on a sort-of commune (the Zionist Fed. in the very young state of isreal) and for the first 8-10 years of my life, we lived on a Kibbutz where everyone mucked in with childcare, housecare etc. All the cooking was done in a big communal kitchen, and we ate together in "l'chadar ohel" which was a mahooosive dining room. Sorted. Mum said when she came back to the UK, lived in a house with a job offsite (she was a medic on the kibbutz and worked at Guys when we came back) and had me, a house, a husband, a cat and then a teeeeeny baby to look after, she felt she would go mental. Moral of the story: live on a kibbutz. Forever.

Gussy; I set mine and Baby's clothes the night out before but it's still a miracle if I have myself dressed/fed by 10am. Baby = dressed, clean, fed, watered, happy. Me = psychotic baglady. I had a bag of minstrels for brekkie today, Baby nabbed a couple. Organised? No. I haven't done ironing since Fifth Form (nasty kilt and blazer, yeuch!!!). DREADING school when I'll have to do the children's uniforms. Buggeration. I am good with getting the washing and drying done, but it sits about for an age before I finally get depressed and put it away.

I was looking at photos of our living room BB (before babby) recently and remember thinking how clean and neat everything was- our carpet was stain and wear and tear free. Amazing. I am a TERRIBLE 'home maker'. I can sew, and bake, and all the rest but never have the time/energy for it. My son has always been 'spirited' and even now won't let me leave the room without and epic meltdown and if he's in the same room, will occupy himself for about 10 seconds before he starts pulling at my legs and asking to be carried. I'd do all the housey stuff when he's asleep but he won't nap without me there, and I need the 2.5 hours sleep that we have together everyday a LOT. It drives my husband mad, I think he thinks I am lazy. I suppose I am to a certain extent but even the simplest tasks are mammoth amounts of effort with Bubs around (I had to call N-power the other day and it took almost all day to get 'round to doing it, and Seb was screeching and writhing and lunging for the phone the entire time. Hmph)

I'll join you, Pickle. A glass of red is FINE during pregnancy surely? Seb is only 13 months and OH MY GAWD. The tantrums, the looking me in the eye as he throws food off his highchair, the tantrums...did I mention THE TANTRUMS?! Someone remind me why I thought 2 under 2 was a good idea? Am sending Seb away to the Peace Corps when he's 2-3 if he's still a terror.

http://www.copenhagencyclechic.com/2008/05/with-child.html Aw, lovely! And what great, unconventional pregnancy portraits!

Seconding the maxi cosi priory! We've got three- one for us, one for IL's and one for my parents. Baby B loves it, thinks it's some huge arm chair and hasn't made a fuss in the car since we got it :)

I had ear aches a LOT as a kid, and it was due to dental problems (much later on, when I was 20, it was linked to molars and wisdom teeth which were all taken out. Nice). So if it isn't an ear infection/porky to get out of school, it MIGHT be worth a trip to the dentists as well?

Mrs F: Ooh a fellow single speed user! V exciting. My bike is really spindly (one of those trendy bikes with no brakes, eek) so if I did it, I'd be using my Husband's SE rather than mine, which is like riding a toothpick!

Mab: It's this: http://www.lfgss.com/thread57290.html I believe there is one in Dulwich soon, but I might be imagining that! My sense of balance was not brilliant, but then we realised my seat was a fraction too high and all has been well since (before this, I fell off into the middle of the road on the New X interchange of queens road. Thought I was a goner, but it was just my pride that was damaged. I was pregnant but didn't realise it at the time!)

My Mum always said it was unwise to vaccinate a baby/child when they were ill, and followed this line for me and my siblings (which meant my 1 year jabs were done when I was almost 28 months because I was constantly sickly for a good 15 months or so) Baby B has had colds/coughs/that awful winter bug off and on for months now. We've had to cancel his booster jabs twice and re-schedule his MMR, too. He seemed to be 100% again but woke up this morning with the snottiest nose ever (epic sneezes included). No grumpiness or temperature. He's due his boosters on Tuesday and don't see his snotty snout disappearing before then (because that would be nice and convenient). What to do? Postpone again, or take him anyway? Secondly, there is an epic bike ride going on across London at the end of Feb, some kind of fixed and single speed beano. Husband is going, and I really want to as well. I'll be about 19w pregnant then, so is this a stupid idea? will take time, go at sensible pace and wear lots of protective clothing. Haven't asked MW, not due to see her until second week of Feb. I'll be riding a single speed, and it'll also be a fixed speed this time (am bloody mad). In quite good shape, still jogging (although no longer training for the marathon) and was still cycling up till recently (it's cold...) so I don't think I'd have a stroke or anything. Is this an obvious and stupid question? Probably...

Maki, I have had similair musings recently too. We have a routine/schedule for Seb, but it's no way set in stone (more rituals than timings- especially with the mealtime routines and bath/bed routine) so it's not GF by any means. It only really came to fruition when he was 8months+ What would I do differently? Chill! I exhausted myself thinking he HAD to sleep in his own cot and HAD to not have a dummy. If I had accepted that baby needed to co-sleep (better for all of us, especially as he was partial to lots of night-time milky snacks) and just given him the damn dummy earlier, I'd have been a lot more relaxed. Also, I CONVINCED myself his terrible sleep was forever. It wasn't. I am surprised I didn't lose my hair/have a nervous breakdown worrying myself over everything, although it's easy to say that in hindsight!

I laughed my head off at that Peep Show episode 'remember to get a sieve, for the poo and stuff'. I'm surprised she remebered/cared, I was way past caring during my first labour. P.S. As a 'seasoned' second time Mum, it's not as scary as you think. When you're in labour, it's very unique and different. Even though mine didn't go according to plan, at no point was I scared- I was excited and apprehensive, but never fearful. I hope this doesn't sound patronising. It can be really overwhelming thinking about labour/birth options, classes etc, but the way I did it was to have fortnightly/monthly plans "By the end of this month, I will have sorted...". Doing the organising in bitesized chunks helped lots, even more so now I have a 13 month old cheeky baby to organise/restrain this time too!

QueenMab: I agree with LR on this point "My friend also suggested that both NHS & NCT classes are worth attending as they both offer useful advice, plus give you the opportunity to develop your 'mummy network'. I have also heard that the NHS classes held at Dulwich hospital are geared towards the 'King's experience' so if you're booked there they should be pretty handy." I didn't do NCT last time round, but am this time round, but my NHS classes were really good, actually, lovely midwife who said 'go natural or go for an epidural, whatever you want' (the RIGHT thing to say!)