mima08

My husband and older sons have been going to the Reach for a couple of years now and love the place - really friendly, they keep changing the routes to keep it interesting, have a nice bouldering area and even a cafe :) definitely recommend. mx

Hiya, if you have a look at the fab EDtots website, there are lots of activities for ages ranging 0-5yrs, hopefully you find something that takes your fancy: http://www.edtots.co.uk/directory/monday-activities Personally, I have not been to Cheeky C's but heard from others with older kids (3-4yrs) that it can be fun. Good luck and welcome to the area! mx

I am not sure that they are always much more expensive in all things? Having looked for things a number of times, I found the differences (on those occasions) within ?5 or so... my comparisons have mainly been with toys on amazon, and yes, of course, for the large items, it can be worth it to shop around but I don't think its fair to call Just William's prices "poncy shop prices".

Done! mx

Excellent!

Hiya, I've got a lovefilm.com instant subscription. I stream filsm on the laptop which we hook up (one cable) to the TV. Their library seems to be growing a lot at the moment. I am not sure about kids films as my LO is too young to watch films, but having had no tv in the past (and thus always went down the boxset route), it is nice to have such choice & cheaper too. You do need decent internet speed, though - if it drops below 4mb, the streaming does not work very well.

How is everyone doing? Any amazing stories of success... please? Had my 5th fast day today, I think I went slightly (15cal) over the 500 cals - but I really needed that banana! Weightloss seems to be happening, slowly so far but only started exercising last week. Although the fast days are a bit of a pain (I don't normally obsess about food that much), I do really enjoy healthy food the next day, and am starting to eat better overall... hope all is good mx

In a past life I included very short sessions using body weight in my daily routine: squats / sit-ups/ press-ups, that type of thing, before breakfast and again in the evening, just 15 min each time. It did really help on the toning front and to maintain muscle mass. Needless to say that I haven't managed to fit any of this in since LO arrived, and I only have one, but the theory is good... Have successfully managed 3rd fasting day, and find I do best if I consume most calories in stages between 12-6 in regular intervals-don't seem to miss the evening meal...now just have to stop compensating on the other days and start exercising tomorrow!

Sorry to hear and cannot give any real advice as my experience is (so far) not as extreme. But I can appreciate how distressing it is when your LO doesn't want to eat: mine has been an intermittent eater all his life (some days loads, some days next to none).... which means I sometimes resort to less-than-ideal eating scenarios, i.e. pretending to have a picnic or going out for food. Would maybe shifting the scene (as in location) help to divert her? Good luck mx

Second fast day here - going ok so far. I did the opposite on the first time, ate little meals throughout the day and was really hungry mid-morning till late afternoon, because I had kept 350cals for the evening - then I didn't feel I needed them. Seems everyone is different, will eat more during the day to see how it goes... It did feel lovely to eat the next day, though :) mx

ohhh, what are the 10 cal jellies? mx

Hiya, obviously it is down to individual experiences but here are my two pence worth: I was with the Lanes team for all my appointments, it was great to have a contact phone no and I felt very well looked after, especially after the birth, where I got a huge amount of practical and emotional support from my lovely midwife. By sheer coincidence, however, none of the Lanes team could be with me during the birth - but I had 2 wonderful hospital midwifes during my time on the labour ward and in labour... As for switching surgeries - that is not necessarily a guarantee that you get a midwife team anyway, I believe... Good luck mx

Hiya -I have been lurking on the thread and finally thought I'd jump in. I have run out of the excuse that the excess pounds are baby related - they are really chocs, cakes and wine related...so it's first fast day today! Well done supergolden on your 4th day already - reading about the diet it appears that there is little difference in the results between those who ate a low fat diet vs those who had a high fat one; althought that might be more about the health benefits rather than weight loss.... Does anyone feel the "increased energy" benefits? mx

Hiya, I liked the baby whisperer because it suggested a pattern (i.e. an order to follow) rather than a routine of set timings (but as Pickle says, those dont' have to be rigid either). From various threads on here, personal experience and friends/family it becomes clear that there is no-one solution that suits everyone. We never managed to get the proper EASY pattern going but a lot of other things in the Babywhisperer did really work - I know others who it worked for fantastically and others again where it did not. A good tip we were given is to try things for a week and see how it goes. Good luck mx

Hiya, if you fancied a bit of "customising" you could get cheap-ish adult furniture.... e.g. paint the front of a basic wardrobe with blackboard paint and your LO can have hours (ok minutes) of fun with chalks, add funky knobs to a basic chest of draws etc. I also remembered this from Pebbles thread: http://pressiesbypebbles.com/my-crafting/very-cool-childrens-furniture/ mx

Hi Hollie, I don't know if it is night terrors (I seem to remember some other threads on this subject here: http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?29,934002,935054#msg-935054 but I can say that my little boy (now almost 2) had (and still sometimes has) various phases of waking up screaming the house down - generally at 3am. It does not usually go on for hours, but has done in some cases... At various stages things that helped: - dream feed at 10/11 pm (we did that till he was almost 12months) - baby chest rub is even the slightest sniffle - offering milk/water when he wakes up - toys in the bed (but they can also cause the waking up as he rolls on them) I really hope it stops soon, because I know how distressing it is - you have all my sympathy! mx

HI - we have the Avent movement monitor (not video) and loved it. I was pretty paranoid when we moved him into his room so it gave me extra piece of mind. In the whole time i used it (for about 9months) it only went off once or twice with false alarm - because he had moved off the pad (but always with "real" alarm when we took LO out of the cot without turning the thing off....).

There is a Christmas Fair at the Surrey Docks Farm on the 8th of December and they are supposed to have a Santa's Grotto then...

Hiya, not strictly ED, but I find it full of nice ideas (although my LO is a bit too young, yet) is the Hopscotch newsletter (http://hopscotch-online.com/) hope this helps mx

Otta Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > "He's a fairly typical 18 month old boy at the > moment, obsessed with trains and trucks and > diggers " > > Is that not because he's been given trains trucks and diggers to play with? In my (admittedly limited) experience, kids of preschool age will play with anything. I have 2 girls, and I am shocked that when the older one's preschool had a "pirates & princesses" party, she was the only female pirate. > I used to think that gender specific preferences were just a reflection of the environment, until I had my son- he's 21months and car/train mad. He has tons of other toys, mainly animal/farmyard/zoo type, and always had heaps of cuddly toys, but things with wheels win every time. Similarly, my friend's little girl has been mad on dressing up and "baby" (doll) and another friend was dismayed at her little girl's preference for pink and princesses (She would definitely prefer her girl to be a female pirate). No idea how this happened, but it seems more than just down to the toys they are given...? Saying all that, my son loves his cuddly toys, chats with them & feeds them etc. He has a baby doll as he was interested in pictures of babies for a while, but has now limited interest in it. Thanks for the link to a cheap buggy: that has been on the xmas list :)

Hiya, I think this is a great idea for providing more support - as most posts point out here, the post-cs support is a bit lacking (actually, the support for the issues some of my friends with vaginal birth experienced also seemed a bit hit & miss). I was lucky with my personal experience: despite extremely rushed decision to go for a CS as LO was distressed & I was exhausted after almost 2 days, I physically healed very quickly (could move around easily within days) and have a very neat little scar. I was told this was due to the fact that muscles were not actually cut, but "pulled" aside - I don't know if that is a procedure (apologies if I am not describing it correctly) that can be requested / is the norm now? There was an emotional fall out (originally I had wanted a water-home birth - turned out quite differently :)) and I did read at the time that sometimes CS can impact on how easy/hard you find breast-feeding, not the least because of pain and awkward holding positions, but also because of the drugs & different pattern of hormone release. No idea if the latter is correct, but I did go on to having horrid problems with breastfeeding, so I clutched at any explanation. 2 years on, I am just grateful that Kings hospital staff was so amazing and brought my LO safe and sound into the world :) good luck with your book!

Wow - that is quite a difference! We are paying about ?260/year, but I do know that it is worth checking on price comparison websites as they attract cheaper offers. In fact, when looking for car insurance I got ?100 off by going through a comparisons site as opposed to the company's own site - when I spoke to them, they told me that it's not unusual...

I do understand that the vouchers expire (meaning that you are not getting the tax benefit) after 15months - regardless of the format they are in...

Hiya, yes you can use the old footmuff with the plus but it's not an exact fit. Bit of a stretch and I seem to remember you end up not using all fasteners but it worked fine for us last winter.

No, but I saw there was a tent like marquee over an area at the bottom and the Police were be speaking to a lady. Didn't want to stare but wondering what happened as I walk through there every day.