Gussy

I went the day before yesterday and have been a fair few times, and only once has there been an unruly kiddy there. It's not the place that's the problem (although softplays can get kids a bit overexcited and some mums think they can just sit down and not keep eyes because of the nature of the place), but as others have said, this kind of thing can happen anywhere ie playground, playgroup etc. It does sound particularly nasty what happened to you - I've not experienced that level of persistence before in a little one. I would just ask them to stop and then if that didn't work, find their parents and politely ask them. I would avoid going during the 3-4pm or 4-5pm slots as large groups of school kids can pile in and really whip things up. I left early yesterday for this reason as my two are only very little, and as nice as some of the staff are in there, there's a few that don't do much and turn a blind eye.

So we are waiting to see if there will be any funding for new matting/other new surfacing....I think it will be a long wait then :( I'd much rather see existing faults fixed before they add new things, which of course would be great, but use the money wisely! Surely scraping away all the mud and lobbing on some wood chippings would be a good start (even if temporary), cripes I'd even do it myself if they provided the stuff and I'd happily chuck in some cash for a few bags of chippings. Here's where someone tells me about the logistics and 1000s of pounds that would cost.....

James, I've just been told this has been covered in one of the 41 pages on here, apologies....In that case, is there any update on the situation? Thanks

oh no, sorry melbourne groover! I must have missed it because I did say that I couldn't be bothered to read all the messages on his thread (41 pages!). Oh well, here's hoping a new prompt will help to get it sorted.

I've just posted on the James Barber thread so maybe he can come up with some ideas.... Snowboarder I agree that matting stuff can be very slippy when wet. The other day I did chuckle as a toddler scootered into the middle of it and got stuck. She thought it was hilarious, but the mum was obviously fuming. The toddler refused to move, so it took a few mums to form a line and pull her out. They still all got covered in mud, whoops! Probably wouldn't have been at all funny if it was my little one!

Hi James, I wonder if you can help? I've just posted my concerns about the mud situation in Goose Green playround in the family discussion area and was advised to post here. (Apologies if this has been brought up before, I'm new on here, and I didn't have the heart to go through 41 pages on this thread!). In short, there's a huge muddy area in the playground which a total nightmare for kids and mums. Its been there for a few months now and is steadily getting worse as the weather deteriorates. It looks like a drainage problem, but I'm no expert. I've seen loads of kids falling over and lots of mums too. In fact yesterday the area was almost inaccessible and I got very worried about my 2 year old who got stuck over the other side on a piece of equipment with no easy way to get to her (with baby in tow). However I should just add that the playground is fantastic and we are regular users - I just wish this slippery muddy area could be sorted out. Thanks

Hi all, anyone else getting frustrated with the muddy area at Goose Green playground? I go there a lot and thankfully my 2 year old has been quite good at listening to me shouting 'NOT IN THE MUD'. But yesterday it was almost impossible for me to get to her quickly enough as she was hanging off the rotating circle thing with 4 kids twice her age. I legged it around the back rather than attempt to cross the 'bog' whilst holding my baby. So not only is it unsafe - I've seen lots of mums fall over as well as children. It's really dirty and I could do without a cold wet dirty toddler to deal with when we just popped in for a quick go on the swings. Anyone know who I can contact to see there's a plan to improve the situation? I expect it will get worse as the weather worsens...

That's excellent Knomester, well done for getting it all down and for continuing to breastfeed, amazing! I really think we should get all this out there somewhere, in a blog or something where it's all in one place and easy to find. I so wish all this information was freely available BEFORE you have a baby, so you at least have some idea of how to approach problems if they arise. I think I would have rather talked/known about this kind of thing than the 4-5 hours of info on labour that you get in ante-natal classes. Its good in a way that Google picks out the EDF in the first page of its results normally, so people searching for a key word can usually stumble upon this forum and its invaluable advice.

Hi Mak, I had a doula with me for the homebirth of my son and she was worth every penny. I had a horrible experience in hospital with my daughter and I was too scared to go back, but I also lost trust with the whole system, so I badly needed someone on my side and to give me confidence. I also had no family nearby and a toddler in tow, so needed daddy to look after toddler while I had someone with me. We (husband and I) interviewed 3 doulas to make sure we got the right person. I went on the doula.org website and did a search for people within a mile radius from my house (you can extend search). On there, most of the doula's have a personal profile so you can contact them if you like what you read. The interview is free of charge so you can decide if you like one another. It's funny, but I knew as soon as I saw the third doula that she was the one for us. She said the same too, which was nice. We had another 2-3 meetings before the birth to discuss the birth plan and I spoke to her on the phone a lot in the last few weeks as I was anxious about quite a few things, and she was great and put my mind at ease every time. We built up a trusting relationship. I called her to come out to me when I was in active labour and she turned up within 5 mins and began to massage my lower back (was amazing!). She also used some essential oils and homeopathy. It was wonderful to have another woman there, it really seemed to centre me and give me comfort. My husband was great, but I did ask him to leave at one point to look after toddler, while I was just with the doula. Thankfully the birth was really straight forward and fairly quick so she didn't need to 'do' much, but had things gone wrong I knew she would have made sure that my wishes were carried out to the letter (we went through every possible scenario before hand just incase). In short, I could totally relax and concentrate on the job rather than worry about what everyone else was doing! Afterwards she also made us tea, got me some food, cleaned up everything, looked after family that turned up a bit earlier than planned and was generally a star while I sat on the sofa with my new baby. She made sure the midwives checked everything and supported me while I tried to breastfeed. So I would thoroughly recommend getting one. I would give you the name of my doula, but sadly she's moved away from London. Some doula's offer post-natal packages so they stay with you for a few weeks after the birth to look after you, ie cooking, tidying, help with breastfeeding and newborn care in general. Good luck x

Countjc we are very similar to you and our story is very long and it has been very stressful time. Managing my sons tongue tie has dominated our family for the past 6 months and been extremely hard. When I have more time I really want to start up a blog or webpage for information and support for mums. I spent hours on the net trying to get answers, and while there are a few good websites I really think first hand experience is lacking given how common tongue tie can be. I was fortunate with my son that I knew straight away that something was wrong when he wouldn't latch after birth. I had a rocky time bfeeding my daughter and regretfully stopped after 2 months. This time I was SO determined to make it work that I called the midwife to check him straight away as we had a hard night of him crying for food but unable to maintain latch. I was v.sore already after 24 hours. I remember asking the mw to check for tongue tie but she said,no, it wasn't and to keep going. The next 24 hours were the same and my nipples began to deteriorate and split it was so painful. I knew something was wrong so I called a LC and she said straight away it was TT. Within 24 hours I had a private TT lac consultant around to my house and she did the procedure on my 3 day old boy. I was so relieved, but to my absolute disappointment there was no improvement in his feeding and it was still very painful. I was told to massage his tongue and do sucking exercises for the next 2 weeks. I did and it made no difference. Well, after another week my nipples had had it. Baby was sicking up blood and nipple and I got mastitis. I was distraught as I didn't want to stop, but the mw's were all saying to give myself a break and give a bottle. I ignored this and purchased some nipple shields and I have to say they SAVED THE DAY. I managed to continue feeding without pain and my nipples began to heal. I kept trying without the shields but it was too painful. LC no.3 said my son had posterior TT and it needed cutting again. Now here's where I start really stressing. Why do it again if it didn't work the first time? He was now 3 months old and very alert and the thought of another tongue cutting filled me with dread. Add to this that baby Gussy was V.V.windy - like colic, but not continuous crying, just griping in pain all night and wouldn't sleep. I was convinced he was windy because of his poor latch and he swallowed an awful lot of air. In the meantime I took him to a paediatrician to rule out any other 'wind-related' problems. I did a dairy free diet for 2 weeks (grim!) and saw a speech therapist to assess his feeding. He advised holding his cheeks when he was feeding from me (it didn't help!). Both said to me that 'I'd given him a good start' and to think about giving formula. The paediatrican wanted him to go onto Nutramigen. I still wasn't giving in! We were managing on nipple shields and I was enjoying feeding him as he was, even if I dreaded how windy he would be after a feed. I then went on to see a LC at the Royal Free who wanted to clip the tie again, but I hesitated and didn't go through with it. In this time I did a lot of calling to various people - Mervyn Griffiths (trailblazer of tongue tie based in Southampton) but he was away on holiday and I would have to wait for 3 weeks.....a consultant in Oxford (he used local anaesthetic but refused to see my son as he was now over 4 months old). This then led me to Dr Patel at Kings. It took me 3 weeks to get an appointment with him (as everyone was on holiday), so now my little man is 5 months old. Their cut off time for the procedure is 6 months old, after which time they recommend a general anaesthetic. Dr Patel was excellent and he totally knew his subject and put me at ease, I wish I'd seen him earlier. He told me my son still had a degree of TT but he wasn't happy to carry out the procedure on him as he was 5 months old and too alert. He said that it should improve as he gets older. If I was happy to continue bf with shields then I should, or just think about stopping (NOT an OPTION!). So I came away relieved that my little man didn't have to go through it again, but also upset as there didn't seem to be any solution to his latch problems without surgery with anaesthetic after 6 months. By this point I was on my knees with exhaustion and only managed to sleep by feeding him and then going into the front room to sleep on the sofa so I couldn't hear him griping with wind :( So, my goodness, I've gone on so much, sorry, but to bring the story up to date, baby G refused to feed from the shields around 6 months and just wanted me. I was secretly pleased, but it continued to hurt and to this day it can still be a tad painful, especially now he's got 4 teeth. BUT, we are still going and I'm not stopping. My nipples seem to be used to being squished, and occasionally they blanch and bleed a bit, but the pleasure we both get from feeding is like nothing I thought. I love bfeeding and appreciate it more for what we've come through. His wind has got 100 times better since he can sit up and while he still swallows a lot of air from me, he just lets out gigantic burps afterwards and is fine :) One other thing I wanted to mention was that my little boy also has an upper lip tie. I diagnosed it myself when I saw his top lips curl under when latched to me, rather than out (fish-like I think is the phrase!). I showed a LC and she agreed with me. It is quite rare, but apparently more common if the baby also has posterior TT. Now there is VERY little information on this, particularly in the UK - dentists in the US seem to diagnose and treat this fairly frequently, with a snip, but everyone I spoke to didn't know how to handle it. I was convinced this contributed to his poor seal around the breast and subsequent air swallowing. Poor chap really wasn't designed to breastfeed!! :) Anyway, I've typed far too much and feel very selfish for this outpouring, but I wanted to express that tongue tie can be a tricky thing to deal with, especially when you are passionate about breastfeeding and you are faced with many health professionals who don't know how to spot it or support you, especially emotionally. My heart goes out to all of you that have gone through it and come out the other side or have sadly had to stop. I think you are amazing and I just wish there was more support on this topic. x

Molly - don't worry about 'Fussy' I guessed it was a typo :) Womanofdulwich - as poppy says 2.5 tog sleeping bags for babies is the winter rating and the highest tog you can get. As he's only 7 months we're a long way from using a duvet. oilworker - I see your point but we're not in the 1960s anymore. I grew up without central heating and recall it wasn't very pleasant. For those of you with oil-filled rads, which is the best one? Also oil-free rads seem to be an option. Is an 'oil' appliance safe in a baby's room? (don't start oilworker! ;-) )

Great thanks Pam and Molly will take a look at both options x

This happened in our last house with my daughter but this time it's my little mans room. Down to 13 degrees last night and while its cold outside its hardly full on winter yet, so I'm concerned about heating his room. He's already in a 2.5 tog sleeping bag and I set the heating to come on several times in the night, but it obviously didn't do the job. Annoyingly he also wakes up everytime the heating comes on. It's partly because we are north facing and the back of the house gets no sunlight in the day....not much I can do about that. I can't have the heating on all night or his room will over heat as its very small, plus the rest of us are warm in our rooms. Its a tricky one and a bit annoying constantly having to tweak boiler settings and trying not to look at the monitor temperature constantly! Anyone else in the same boat with some novel ideas?

I think its pretty hard to find any decent nursing clothes, but I guess that depends on your style. I think that most of them are very samey and quite old fashioned. I wish H&M or Topshop or someone would do some, but I guess there just isn't the market for it. Anyway, apart from basic tops, like vests, camis, which you can get from Mothercare, I quite like Mamaway and have bought several tops from here, all good quality and easy to feed in: Mamaway

This weather certainly makes the day drag. We did some painting this morning, but that's fairly high risk as it lasts all of 5 minutes and then the paint seems to make its way off the paper and onto clothes, hands, table top etc etc. I always find libraries are great for rainy days. Even if toddler Gussy does everything except read a book at least we are out of the house....

We had them banging on our door last night. A big-ish, rather forceful chap managed to convince my husband to buy something. He picked out some tea towels, then my husband came inside to get the money - he was told/asked to make a donation, when I saw them I turned them over and there was a price of ?4.99! I was like jesus love they ain't worth a fiver, they are rubbish! He still paid for them, I think he thought they were legit charity. I just hope they don 't come back as I'm certainly not answering the door to them again. And they better not bang on the door and wake up my kids.

It's definitely going to take a few days maybe a week before baby Gussy adjusts to the new time. Also me as well. It felt really odd this morning.

Ok so last night I was in bed by 9pm and think I was asleep within 30mins or so. Hubby came to bed around 11.30pm and then baby Gussy started crying. I thought, no, I'm not feeding him at 11.30pm (not done a feed before 3am for about a month), so I sent hubby in to settle. This made him worse. He went in another 3 times...baby G finally stopped crying after an hour. I think I drifted back off around 1am, then baby stirred and woke me around 1.30am....then I turned the monitor off!!! Sounds awful but I've had it. I went back to sleep ok but then woke myself up at 3.30am and looked at monitor - no lights flashing, phew. I think baby had tired himself out from crying earlier to bother waking again....Then I think I went back to sleep ok until around 6am, so that was a good night for me! Maybe around 5-6hrs in broken bits? Possibly the not getting out of bed helped as I didn't lie there for hours trying to get back to sleep. So, I think this marks the end of night feeds, we'll try the same again tonight. I can't go on much longer like I am, so we are going to stick to this strategy. My boobs were killing me this morning and I drowned poor baby, as such he wasn't hungry for his breakfast :-S As an aside, do any of you ever think that you can hear your baby crying when they aren't? I think I'm going mad sometimes lying there thinking god no he's started again, but he hasn't? Or is that all part of the sleep deprivation? :(

Thank you everyone for your replies. I saw the doctor and it made me cry on the way home as there were no real answers. She wasn't that great and was hurrying me along. She just said its exhaustion and I need a break and more sleep - yep I know and I can't take a break, no help, family, cash for childcare. So here I am. She told me to let my husband feed baby at 3am. The trouble is I would still get woken by him crying and also when he stirs every few hours on the monitor (with it on the quietest setting). I need a night away from the house!! Thanks Vanessa3, yes he's on solids (not huge meals though), and so I feel a little unsure if he's genuinely still hungry. It's difficult, with my daughter I knew she wasn't hungry because she wasn't interested at all in her breakfast bottle/cereal. Baby Gussy still loves his morning booby/any booby on offer! He did go about 4 nights of no feeding recently and we decided to not feed when he woke up a few nights later but BOY OH BOY did he protest. With both of us going in and trying to settle him I gave up after about 2 hours and fed him. So I need to build up my stamina before attempting to cut the feed again. Doesn't help that he's been ill recently. So tonight I'm going to have a cammomile tea and up to bed by 8.30pm (what a life!). My poor hubby, I feel like we never spend any time together anymore :( Having kids is the hardest thing on earth!!!

Hi this happened for a few weeks with my dd when I went from breast to bottle. I agree with pp'ers, I think its a combination of the sudden large quantity of milk in the tummy and the change to formula. She was on a slow teat as well, so it just took time for her tummy to adjust. I used to have to put a large towel over my knee and half way over the sofa in case it all came back up. Took around 3 weeks to settle. Also try to get a decent gap between last meal and bottle. HTH x

Hello, ladies, I wonder if you can help? I'm experiencing some quite bad insomnia recently and its crippling. I've been breastfeeding my son for 7 months now and obviously I'm tired and not slept a full night since he's been born, but more than that once I've been woken up for a feed (around 3am) I can't get back to sleep. It can take me 3 hours and then its time to get up with baby and toddler for a full day. I can get off to sleep ok and go to bed early every night (9pm ish), I don't feel particularly stressed and don't lie there thinking of stuff for hours. I just can't sleep again. I've Googled insomnia and breastfeeding and there's quite a lot of other similar stories out there, but not many answers. Strangely it seems to occur when you start weaning. Well that would kid of fit as the last month has been really bad. I'm going to the doctor tomorrow to discuss this but I doubt there is anything safe to take whilst feeding. I really don't want to stop though and I'm the only source of comfort when baby is ill, teething, and I've been on one hell of a journey in order to get this far. Just wondered if anyone else has experienced this, how long did it last, or if there are any alternative remedies available? Thanks

Hi all, anyone else's little ones suffering with cold which then goes to chest and then clears up and then comes back again? Both my two have been ill for about 2 months now and its very draining for us all. Sleep has gone out the window and they constantly need noses wiping or hoovering with snot sucking device (for baby). I've done many bottles of olbas oil, calpol, neurofen etc etc. I've had it as well and now my husbands got it. I went to the docs this morning with the kids and they just said its viral (which I knew they'd say), but I've been given an inhaler for my toddler who is also now wheezy. I know this is what its like with young kids during winter, so just having a moan really. There were quite a few others in the surgery with the same symptoms. Looks like a local bug. Who else is suffering? Its odd cos I haven't taken them out loads to groups recently (been too busy), so we must have been unlucky and picked it up in the playground or something. I feel so sorry for my little man (7 months) he is so full of green snot and can hardly breathe. Here's hoping it goes away soon...

Maybe a long shot but you could try pushing it with JL. My chassis broke and I can't remember if it was out of warranty....it was over a year after I got it. But I rang up and said I expected better, put the pressure on that its not safe with my baby and they agreed to send it back to Bugaboo for repair. Could be worth a try?

Hi Helen, my sympathies, my little boy was the same, awful awful, and to be honest it only significantly improved around 6 months, sorry!! I used to cry at night listening to him in so much discomfort it was heartbreaking. We did have a noticable improvement from 12 weeks, but it wasn't until he was nearly sitting up that I didn't class it as a problem anymore. Maybe he is different though as he swallowed a lot of air at the breast (half tongue tied). However, I'm going to try to tell you everything I learned: Try all the over=the-counter wind remedies - infacol (says give before a feed but I gave some before and then another dropper during a feed), dentinox (found the most effective but the dropper is wide for a little mouth, I used a clean dropper from the infacol bottle), gripe water (ok but lo didn't like taste). Nothing cured my little man but they did help. Burp halfway through a feed as well as after. Become a master of your little ones anatomy! The stomach is located on the right hand side with bubs facing you. Its further down than you think. Experiment with tapping, rubbing, over shoulder, facing down on knee and patting. I could actually feel air trapped in his tummy. I found if I leaned my man right backwards (facing me) with head almost lower than body for about 10 seconds and then sit up, I would get a good burp. Tiger-in-the-tree hold works for some babies as well. Baby massage. They teach some good methods (circling tummy, cycling legs, legs over head). Try 2 week cows milk exclusion from diet. I did this and it was extremely hard work. I never realised that cows milk proteins are in EVERYTHING!! I was eating very little, although I did get used to it. You need to be strict and give it 2 weeks to see if your baby has cows milk intolerance. Breastfeeding - the kellymom website is excellent and article posted. I did single-sided feeding for many months to cut down on the gassy foremilk and make sure bubs got lots of hindmilk. Colief is used for babies with lactase deficiency, an enzyme which breaks down the lactose in milk. It is actually quite rare condition and so I wouldn't just experiment with colief, maybe try it last - gp will be able to advise. Plus its a total faff with breastfeeding, you need to express onto a sterile spoon and mix and try to give, not easy in a 9 week old. Homeopathy. There are quite a few remedies for colic-type/wind symptoms. They are easy for bubs to take. Sling. My son would only sleep in the sling, but it kind of lost its effectiveness around 10 weeks....keep using it! Front sleeping - ok ok don't shoot me, i know, i know, but I was always in the room when he slept and I kept an eye on him and the pressure on his tummy helped with the griping pain. Not for everyone I know or recommended.....but I was desperate!! I hope that helps, its really tough, but it will get better. Don't get fobbed off by the gp, yes things will improve by 12 weeks but if you're not feeling they are much better after that go back and insist on a referral. You know your baby best. Good luck! x

I've been in touch with Southwark council and they've replied promptly to be fair, but sadly denied me a blue wheelie bin. I am in a house, so their response is to send more boxes. I'm up to 3 now.....may need a forth. Like a previous poster, I'm not willing to pile up bags on top of my boxes in my front garden, for rats, foxes, and the wind to toss about. They are a pain to faff about with, with lids all over the shop and balancing them on top of each other. My brown wheelie on the other hand is lucky if it gets 2-3 bags of food waste lingering in the bottom of it each week. As previously stated, it seems the wrong way around, for our family at least. Will fill out the questionnaire when its updated.