mima08

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.

Hits, the local leisure centres have great baby swimming lessons - if you go to Peckham PulsePulse, they have a lovely warm pool. We have been going since my son was 4 months. They can be tricky to get signed up to, but once you have renewals are simple. Mx

Hi susypx, I am a local mum and have recently started my business as an independent web designer. You can check me out at www.designedbymima.co.uk. As a small business myself, I really appreciate the difficulties involved in getting started and that keeping costs down is a must. I always aim to give unbiased advice as I would rather have happy clients than make a quick pound. I am currently building a couple of websites for local businesses / individuals and can get you references if you'd like. If you fancied a coffee sometime we could have a chat about what you need/ want - I am based in ED/Peckham border, but can easily get to most places nearby. Drop me a pm if you are interested. Kind regards Miriam

reading all the comments, I feel less silly for blubbing... will definitely make sure I'm in more pics with my son - I have so few of my parents...

Hiya, I've read the phrase "under one, food's for fun" many a times while weaning my LO (now 20months). We did go down a baby lead weaning -ish route, but it was that phrase that kept me sane :) How about offering a bit of finger food (I seem to remember a thread on here about some babies liking it more) as well as other food? I know it's easy to say & hard to live by (I'm still struggling) - try not to worry! mx

I can sympathise: dropped little one (20month) off this morning and had to peel him off me - his dad usually does the drop off and apparently he is happy as larry then, bouncing into the childminder's house! Not with me: even though I tell him while we get ready and he seems quite excited about seeing his "wohoo" (name & sign for childminder), the tears started outside her door... It does upset me enormously and I need to remind myself that he is fine in less than 5min of me leaving... hope it does get easier! mx

Very funny!

Yep, ours did this for ages, but since loosening up the straps (as he takes his arms out of them immediately anyway), this problem has gone away...

Hiya, we have the same problem.... I have resigned myself to just watching him carefully - thankfully he is old enough not to launch himself out of it (actually, I think as long as the bottom ones are snug, it is unlikely that he could....). You could try experimenting with different height settings, but it did not help us... mx

Sorry to hear your son is feeling so bad. I cannot comment on the meds, but we just had the same cold it sounds. What helped a bit was baby vicks for chest - and in my desperation I even followed advice to put it on his head and soles of his feet (!!!). Don't ask, but he slept through (I am sure that's just because the cold had gotten better by that time, but when it comes to sleep I have become very superstitious....). Anyway: baby chest rub, olbas oil on a bib near by, and although I know that milk causes even more mucous, smoothies helped with getting something resembling nutrition into him.... Good luck, at least it didn't seem to last too long mx

Hiya, I second a footmuff - but if you have the new bee, make sure the holes for the straps are in the right position. Annoyingly they moved them just enough to make using some footmuffs a right old fuss & tricky with a wriggly baby. Am sure they did this to make you buy the very expensive bugaboo one! However, there are lots of footmuff makes that still work, I got one from ebay that covers the whole back seat & can be used as a seat liner alone or footmuff combo and LO was / is very comfy with it.

Hiya, I had very bad PGP towards the end of my pregnancy - could hardly walk. I saw the Dulwich Chiropractic Clinic, they have lots of experience with pregnant ladies and sorted me out within 2 appointments, plus one top up. Very helpful, when I explained the problem they fitted me in as an emergency appt. link to details: http://www.allinlondon.co.uk/directory/1855/65275.php Good luck, hope it gets better soon! mx

Apparently there has been a 50% increase in these type of robberies in the last few months: snatch & run, not (much) physical violence (thankfully). But the "successes" seem to attract more attempts - which is why the police is trying very hard to combat the problem. In terms of worth-while: apparently about ?80-?100 for a smart phone....

Hiya, I was walking along Adys Road this evening just after 8 o'clock when two youths came up behind me on bicycles and one of them snatched my phone out of my hand. It happened just outside the Church - opposite side of the road. The guys (I assume) then cycled off towards the playground, splitting up to go around the playground on each side. There were a number of people along Adys Road and I wondered if anyone saw them? I have reported the whole thing to the police but cannot give much of a description, other that they were slight in build (which made me think they were teenagers) and wearing hoodies. Any more description would be helpful. I was VERY impressed with the police response - given that I was not hurt and it was not a physical attack per se, I did not expect them to take it very seriously. But they did, and I was impressed with their efforts. Which is mainly why I am asking here whether anyone had seen the two (youths) on bicycles this evening. Also, the police did mention that there had been a significant increase of these types of robberies lately, and the area around the Goose Green playground seems to be a hotspot - so please be wary! mx

Hiya, here is a website which I find quite fun to look at (and then only do about 1% of what it recommends): http://www.brillkids.com/ They sell rather expensive software (I tried the free trial, it was fun but in 10days with a 9months year old, what did you think the results would be like? :)) Anyway, there is a forum & a fair few free resources, which are quite good. When I was little, my mum used lots of games build into normal days to get me learning stuff, e.g. having numbers "races" while walking the dog, etc. mx