Bumpkin

Have been meaning to post again re Andy - had an emergency at my rental flat hrs before new tenants due and he was round within 1 hr of me calling him (in the evening) and was a very reasonable price. He's definitely my no. one choice of plumber in the area.

That picture made me so cross for an entirely different reason. Whatever the arguments for and against breastfeeding in public / private / past a certain age are etc, one very definite fact is that that boy is going to have that article held up against him in school for a very long time and is never going to live it down. He's going to be bullied and laughed at and I can't believe that any sane mother would do that to her child. Why are some mothers so stupid and selfish to want to make a political point at the expense of their child? In fact, how dare Time do that to a child, surely that's exploitation in a way, selling more magazines at the expense of a 4 year old who can't consent to an article that's going t make his life a misery.

I really empathise, I was always a good sleeper until I had a baby. I went to my GP last year after a year of insomnia and got some zopiclone. They were great sleeping pills that actually got me to sleep, you sleep for 6 hrs (min) and wake up feeling refreshed! You're not meant to take them 2 nights in a row I think or very often as they are addictive, but just getting a couple of nights decent sleep put me back on track and I haven't had any for ages now. Bizzarely it's even harder to sleep when you're really over tired. Also, having them in the house helped psychologically as I knew I could get a good night's sleep if I really needed it. Tried nightol etc and absolute rubbish. Also, in case you're worried, I did get woken up by screaming child when taking these and was able to get up, settle him down and go back to sleep really quickly, so you don't need to worry about not hearing your child if you really need to! Good luck, I hope you get it sorted soon.

Hi zelda, I've just been offered a place for my son. I had reservations at first from the ofsted results but was very impressed when I looked around (and I looked at a Lot of local schools). I've also heard really good things from a lot of parents and am now feeling very positive about it. If you fancy meeting up sometime do get in touch as it would be great to meet some other children who are starting next year too.

I agree with the straight to pants except that if we had a car journey I put pull ups on and called them 'travel pants' as really didn't want to have to deal with sopping car seat and long journey! Never caused any confusion. Think prob also used them in the supermarket in v early stages. Asked my nanny what he did at the park if little B needed a wee and was initially horrified by 'he goes in a bush' but it is so much easier with boys, you can just go in any vegitation if a real emergency...

Have you tried bribing with chocolate buttons? Worked for us and surprisingly he forgot about the chocolate very quickly after getting the hang of it so it wasn't an ongoing request... Friend recommended it and was the only real incentive he bought into.

I cut out my baby's afternoon milk at 9 months as was still b/feeding and had had enough of doing it in public with a 9 month old at that time and had seen enough advice saying they didn't need it at that stage. He was always grumpy after an afternoon nap so I'd get some fruit / raisins into him fairly soon after he woke up and then he was fine. I don't think they need afternoon milk at 14 months although no expert. I personally don't suscribe to 'if baby wants it they should get it' as they are totally creatures of habit and would carry on forever with some things if you let them. He didn't miss it at all from what I remember, I thought at the time that it was better to get into eating more veg / fruit / protein and he always seems to have eaten well at meal times. Everyone has different views, but I'd go with what you think and don't feel mean, your baby will be fine if you're happy with the decision.

The Florence pub in Herne Hill does decent food and has a children's play room. Think the Victoria might also have a play room?

It is a nightmare, I had well over six months of refusing toddler but it was one thing I wouldn't give in on, I just threatened with no bedtime story and fought him every night until he gave in. Now he's 4, he gets up and goes and brushes his teeth first thing when he gets up in the morning everyday unprompted! Some things are just worth fighting with them for..

I would be interested, my 4 yr old would love it and I've been keeping an eye out for something.

I guess the present request should also be taken in the context of what they think you can afford as if you were on low incomes then rather cheeky, but if you were say corporate lawyers then not such an ask really.

I don't think you can take too much notice of these. My dad measured me and my sister regularly and plotted the points on a graph (yes extremely sad, he was a train spotter too...). According to his detailed predictions, she would end up 2 inches taller than me as she was taller age for age all the way through. She's now 2 inches shorter than me.

I'd definitely be interested in hearing about other events please. We were not around on Sunday, but would have come if we were and would do in future. Thanks

Where's the nearest place to get helium balloons for a kids party? Need large number, so somewhere that sells the canisters.

Mine's up loads in the night at the moment as his dad's working away for 3 months. Best excuse so far was at 2am in a very calm voice saying 'mummy, my finger nail needs cutting'. Given he fights like anything not to have them cut at a reasonable hour of the day I didn't think that was the main reason!

Nouvelle Images do great stickers for kids rooms. We got a load of underwater ones (fish, submarines, seaweed), painted the wall by the cot blue and stuck them on. They peel off easily if you want to replace later. They sell them in various places around here (ED / Horniman have some) and have bigger outlet at London Bridge with the full range.

Just re-iterating other posts on here about Steve (07921 777428). Rang him up, he was round within the hour and everything fixed within another half hour. The drain pump had gone on my AEG washing machine and he had one in the van. Amazing. Great service.

Saffron, what are the benefits of the delayed schedule in your opinion? Just curious, but little B has already all the injections as advised when advised and no adverse reactions.

littlemoo, again thanks for sharing and so sorry to hear of your loss. I fortunately had a positive outcome and little B and myself are fine and healthy. However I had very late onset pre-eclampsia which didn't manifest the day before so I thought all would be well with the home birth with local well regarded community midwives. The fact that my blood pressure had suddenly sky rocketed to very dangerous levels was only picked up as my partner begged the midwife to come out and give me some pain relief and had to be quite forceful. She wanted to have her tea and wait another couple of hours as I was only 4cm dilated at her previous visit (they don't stay with you the whole time you are in labour until you're established). She reluctantly came, didn't give pain relief and took blood pressure as an afterthougth. As it was extremely high she told my partner to drive me to the hospital and park nearby, she wouldn't come in the car with us or drive us in her car. We couldn't find a parking space outside so had to walk quite some distance which pushed my blood pressure even higher. As soon as I got into hospital, the fantastic emergency team took over and I was so relieved to be in professional hands. The aneathetist came to visit me the next day to check I was ok and said I was very high risk of having had a stroke or major organ failure... I really don't want to just scare people, but I strongly feel I was very naive about the risks espcially being an older mother (post 30) and feel very lucky everything turned out ok. I personally would never recommend any one to have their first birth at home, but everyone has their own view coloured by their own experiences.

Don't worry Lochie, I know there's no one answer to this. Just thought it was an interesting view as I was very uninformed when I chose a home birth and really had no idea what I was letting myself in for. Obviously it's great for some people, but I was quite shocked and surprised when my midwife told me very near the end that around 50% of home births end up in hospital anyway (or something like that, can't remember now, sure someone will correct me!). I hadn't even properly packed my hospital bag as I was sure it would be ok..

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/nov/27/barbara-ellen-birth-marilyn-monroe Did anyone read this at the weekend? I definitely fell into the 'heartbreakingly naive women' category (not a hot shot though in anything!). I had last minute very bad complications and the late journey to Kings having started with a home birth didn't help at all (probably made things a lot worse). My baby needed to be rushed to ICU straight after being born too and if he'd been born at home, I'm not convinced his problem would have been picked up so am extremely relieved we ended up in hospital for the birth. Definitely worth considering if you're thinking of a home birth. Also the comment that this pulls midwives away from hospitals is one to bear in mind.

We're applying this year and live in catchment for G Green and probably St John's. Given previous poor performance of G Green, I've fairly exhaustively looked round all the local schools including all the ones on your list apart from Goodrich and spoken to quite a few parents. We did consider moving if we were not happy, but I have to say I agree that Goose Green does look to be the most progressive in terms of reading schemes / maths schemes, feedback to parents and the Headmistress seemed to have a much stronger vision of how she's going to improve the school than the other heads (exept Fairlawn). I've looked round a couple of times and the kids in all the classes seem to be focussed on lessons and joining in well (not the case at all the schools). It's music and art facilities were definitely at the top end of the schools listed and the fact they had a number of male teachers is great. Honestly, Fairlawn would be my top choice, but it's almost impossible to get into and I prefer living in East Dulwich to that part of Honour Oak. Based on what I've seen and heard, I'd put G Green above all the others. Fingers crossed!

New mother, re your point on your bottle fed babies having fewer bugs than contempories, one of our NCT mums bottle fed from around 2 weeks whilst the rest of us breast fed for much longer varying times. The bottle fed baby definitely had less bugs! My son who was breast fed for ages caught chicken pox a while back and the day before the spots broke out when he would have been most infectious we played with bottle fed friend and they shared a water cup, but the other boy never caught it. So much for the breast feeding is healthier stats!

at our first nursery, it was a different thing each week, headlice, norovirus, chicken pox, scarlet fever (we didn't get that one thank god, changed nursery the week after!). Took ages to get rid of the lice!

I started weaning around 5 1/2 months and it went ok if slowly until 7 months when I introduced meat as well. At that point, baby B just refused to eat, was complete nightmare until had holiday in Italy with baby boltholes and all the kids had their meal at the same time. For the first couple of days, my son still refused to eat, but by the end of the week he was stuffing his face and we never looked back. Who knows, could have been we were more relaxed on hols or that he was just having a phase but I think him realising that everyone else ate food just like him helped him get on with it a bit more. Doesn't really help much I guess if you don't have an imminent communal holiday booked! Good luck, I remember how awful it was, but the time does seem to have gone v quickly in retrospect.