sillywoman

Both very very cute. Could the pink one be a bit longer so it's like a little knit dress? would probably be more inclined to go for that than a vest, but think it would look cute either way. ?12 vest & ?15 dress?

Fuschia Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Tully Oooh, I've got one o' them!

There's a group of Mums with babies who meet at the Nuns Head every Monday at 11am I think?

Does anyone have one that I could come & look at? We had huge success with a 12ft one for 6 years until it finally gave up the ghost. Now, after a year without a trampoline, we'd like to replace it, but our garden is quite small so we are wondering whether we can get away with a 10ft and tighter people restrictions? Everyone I know seems to have a 12footer so I was wondering whether there is anyone in ED or surrounds with a 10ft trampoline that they would be happy for me to take a look at? Thanks, SW

Hv's tend to be based at & connected to your GP practice. Personally my experiences have been a mixed bag. Our first one was just lovely, lovely lovely. Took a personal interest in all my children (she probably didn't, but I felt that she did & that's what counts) and even delayed her house/job move to another part of the country so that she could be the one to do the baby checks on baby number 4 after he was born. She said she felt that she was 'completing the circle'. She was just very reassuring & 'on my side' as edanna says. Her replacement has been worse than useless. I didn't bother with the baby clinics as I could see he was putting on weight & was healthy, he had his innoculations though but I do have a history of PND which our first HV was at pains to explain to the replacement. I was struggling badly when baby 4 was about 6 months old & left several messages on her answerphone asking for contact & to see her. No reply. None. Thanks. Haven't seen her since. As everyone says they're a mixed bag. Take whatever advice they give you re weight & feeding with a massive, huge, enormous pinch of salt. Some of them (not all mind) have very outdated views that simply aren't backed up by current research. Do your own research & ask around your friends with babies before making any decisions. HV's can be very useful as link people though, can connect you quickly into other services if there are any developmental issues that you would like to have explored further.

luuurve TV. All hail cbeebies.

Umm, yes KateW, the older ones are, but the youngest is 7 and has been regularly sleeping in until 8am (when allowed) from about the age of 5. So take heart. :)

Jesusa Ricoy-Olariaga is, I think, on Doula UK. She's an extremely experienced Doula who lives in West Dulwich. She's warm, reliable, friendly and funny. I can highly recommend her. Would also recommend Ellen Patterson as I have done previously on this forum, but I know that she won't be around in September as she'll back at college studying Midwifery. She'd be an ideal choice though for anyone due before the end of July.

Poor you reren, it is all very confusing. I did BLW with number 4 and kicked myself the for time I wasted pureeing green & orange stuff for the other three. Essentially I worked on the basis that baby 4 could eat anything I was eating (watching salt intake though) as long as he was with me the risk of choking was so small as to be non existent. He gagged a bit but I'd learned by then that babies do this and usually whatever they're gagging on pops right out. Mostly it was finger food, a bit of cooked carrot, or potato, some cucumber with bits of bread or toast to chew on. Once he got the hang of it I found a high chair with a tray was essential. Initially I would just put his food onto his tray (generally selected bits of whatever the rest of us were having), then we progressed to bowl once he was old enough not to tip it all out constantly. It's possibly coincidence - who can say? - but out of the 4 of them he is by far and away the least fussy, & most willing to experiment eater.

Just wanted to share with those of you currently suffering the hell of the 5.30am wake-up call. It's now 7.45am and none of my children are awake yet! Nowadays this is not that unusual. This will be you too, you will sleep in again. Take heart and be patient, it will come. I aught to add that I have actually done my time in the "it's still dark(ish), it's not morning" years. So this post is intended to give you hope for the future not mocking your present predicament. All sympathy to you. SW

50p for baby teeth, only ?1 when eldest son had to have some massive back teeth taken out under anaesthetic. ?2!!! - do you know how many teeth those kids have!

Lochie Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Its probaby > normal to be weepy e.g. cry at the andrex puppy > advert after you give birth, but its not really > normal to feel an acute sense of anxiety or total > despair. > However it is normal to feel this if you have PTSD, which is something a large number of women experience after giving birth. Particularly if you felt any part of the labour was frightening, out of your control, or you are unsupported by friends and family. It's much more common than is recognised and consequently many women suffering from PTSD are misdiagnosed as having PND - particularly when the diagnoses is an early one, e.g. before 8-12 weeks. It's worth doing a little research on the symptoms, and the differences between PTSD & PND, particularly if you are pregnant and/or think you may have it, or be prone to PND (i.e have a history of mental health issues). Personally I don't have much faith in the 'Edinburgh PND scale'. Its usefulness is severely limited - research suggests that it fails to pick up many women who suffer badly - and its effectiveness is largely dependent on the skill of the person using it.

LOL at 'shite horses' F - iphones sometimes know what we mean better than we do. Golden nuggets - mmmmmmmm I too once fell asleep at the wheel whilst waiting to turn right off East Dulwich Grove. Didn't drive until I got more sleep after that - very scary.

Though you have to watch out they don't push themselves & chair off from the table, thus tipping over backwards - not good! Also ours drive Mr S mad cos the legs stick out & he still, even after 10 years, trips over them. Still, 10 years on & they look as good (food particles aside) as the day we got them.

Yes, Otta some are friends, but most are acquaintances & work colleagues. I'm obviously not describing accurately what makes ED a strong community for me. It's knowing that, for a time, my life and that of many other people around me ran in parallel. They know things about me & I know things about them - some good, some not so good, but none the less we have knowledge of each other. And because of this knowledge - however small - there is a bond between us. And having that bond with people who share the same geographical space, shop in the same shops, read the same forum, or use the same local resources makes ED a community - more than that. For me (and possibly only me!?) it makes it MY community. Yes, I could move a bit further away, but I'd lose, or weaken what's taken me years to accumulate - the sense of community, and so would my children. What I have here is too valuable to me to risk it's loss without very good reason. Bigger garden & another bedroom aren't quite reason enough for me - yet. Different strokes for different folks, and ED isn't for everyone I know, but I felt I must challenge those who said it doesn't have much of a sense of a community because my experience is that this is far from being the case.

Errr, then that sentence doesn't make any sense Lukedaisy? Otta, that's a great shame for you :(. I have found the opposite. I've lived in 24 different places and several different countries through my life and have found more of a community here than anywhere else. I feel very rooted, and though we could do with more garden space & another bedroom I won't be moving because of the lovely community I have here in my road. This extends into the rest of ED at large - I love to walk down LL, cos I never know who I'll meet, from which area of my life, but I always see someone (you know who you are!)I know and will stop to catch up - that's what community is to me. I think it helps that I have had children whilst living here. A large part of my more intimate community has been made through playgroups, nursery, neighbours & schools. I notice that those in my road who don't have children tend to leave for work in the morning, come home in the evening and maybe use the bars on LL on the weekend. A few can barely pass a civil 'good morning' to their neighbours. When they start having babies they always seem surprised at the depth of community life & support that there is here in ED. I don't know if my face 'fits' - somedays I think it does, somedays it doesn't. I think it's more a case of 'you get out what you put in'. Maybe it takes being here day-to-day to really see it? Or maybe I've just been lucky? I don't know. I'm just Thankful that we came here and feel very lucky to have been able to raise my family here so far.

KQ-There's such a lot of ignorant scaremongering about raising kids in SE London. I didn't want to come here, and actually cried the first time MrS drove me down LL! However, 16 years later I am very glad I trusted him & did raise our family here. We're nowhere near out the woods yet, & so I wouldn't presume to say my kids won't get into any trouble due to living here, BUT . . . so far it's been great. They've all been to the local state schools. They all - from the 7 year old to the 15 year old - have lovely, lovely friends some of whom they've known since babyhood. They don't seem inclined to get into trouble or join any gangs. I don't even think they know of any (I'll have to ask to be certain though - maybe it's not something they'd tell their Mum :-S). And the few times my eldest son has done stuff he shouldn't (cycling very badly on the road) he's been spotted by a friend or neighbour and I've known about it within the hour. You can tell your colleague that they shouldn't believe all they read in the red-tops! Really, Ratty has the right of it. Otta, you are right of course. You do get more for your money in Forest Hill and Sydenham, but I guess you're paying a premium to buy into the 'community' here which doesn't seem to be quite so cohesive in those places. Of course that might be an attraction in itself to some :)).

Thats cos the housing stock is better here, particularly for families, than surrounding areas Otta. There's always a reason isn't there? It's just whether you want to/ can afford to buy in to that reason. Personally I feel house prices here have maybe (surely?) reached optimum level now. I don't/didn't deny snobbery, just suggested that it's no more or less prevalent here than anywhere else - especially not the places mentioned, Chislehurst, Beckenham, Lewes & the like. Think you might be the deluded one if you think there are places where there's no snobbery. Sorry if you feel your experience of snobbery in ED has been greater than other places, thats not my ED experience at all, but maybe I move in earthier circles than you?

Snobbery is everywhere, I personally haven't found ED to be any better or worse than anywhere else I've lived. Houseprices?Well it's what you get living this close to London innit?

"Pulmonary embolism (PE) is the leading cause of maternal death [1]. The rate of PE in pregnancy is five times greater than that for non-pregnant women of the same age and is about 1 in 1500 deliveries; the risks are even higher in the puerperium." BJR; S Mathews 2006 So it seems the doctor at Kings who told you you were 1 in 100,000 was talking rot Minder. But the young woman in the article didn't have this at all, she had an extremely rare condition which should have been spotted but wasn't. Probably due to the chronic understaffing which appears to be endemic on our ante/postnatal wards. Come on Dave - sort this out. We deserve much, much better. Oh, and yes. Of course I know the silly lawyer was just saying "you don't expect a young, healthy woman to die in childbirth (or just after) in this day and age", but was a crass and potentially offensive way to put it. I agree with Saila, it has unpleasant undertones of 'it shouldn't happen to one of us' - the 'us' here being the nice looking and educated classes. Very unpleasant attitude indeed.

What an awful thing to say. I hope someone around her pointed out that we don't expect plain, rather lumpy women of ordinary intelligence to die either! Actually, thinking I've just described self.

We did it a few years ago from Calais to a village near Marseille, with children of 2, 5 and 7. Actually it was OK. We stopped every 2 hours or so for a rest break, exercise and food and made the journey in under 10 hours. 12 and a half door to door. We stuck to the motorways though and just went for it. I had a lot of secret 'entertainment packages' that I just kept bringing out at intervals on the journey. This summer we'll be driving to Rome with the intention of only stopping once en-route. Mr S is a bit hardcore like that!

Ellen Patteron - best Doula in town (according to me ;-)) Also a student midwife at Kings so knows the system and some of the people. Also just completed her doula training & has to attend 4 births before she can charge full rates so currently only charges a smaller 'expenses' fee. She's lovely, level headed, sensitive and sensible. You really can't go wrong. PM me if you'd like her contact details. a private midwife does a different thing (offers clinical antenatal care etc.etc.) but has the same standing in hospital I think.

HI Renata, we just heard this morning that the place we've been offered is being withdrawn as it was offered incorrectly due to a mistake by Southwark Ed. We're now on a waiting list for that school but where does this leave us should we not get a place there? I guess officially now we are without a place at all? How do we go about securing a place somewhere else? Incidentally, I'm talking about a year 3 - Junior place not reception.

@ panmum - "Tcchhhk" There's a freedom in being considered low class :))