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There has just been an Office of Fair Trading report on school uniforml with guidance for schools, says that as much as possible should be generic. I didn't think that schools were legally allowed to insist on uniform?! Or maybe that was just when I was at school.....

Dulwichgirl, we won't agree so won't get into a debate on here. recommend prof lesley regan's book on recurrent miscarriage and her clinic at st mary's to anyone going through it.

Also, it is not ungrateful to wish for a second child, or to seek medical advice on secondary infertility: of course there is nothing wrong at all with just one child, or just waiting to see if you feel OK doing that, but if not and you would really like another and are unhappy then medical advice might be useful. It isn't a straight choice between relying on "nature" and full-on intervention like IVF, there are many options in between.

The test for scarring is called a hysterosalpingogram (HSG?) or something!), it's dye and x-ray. I had it at St Mary's m/c clinic: King's m/c clinic didn't provide it (I suspect on cost grounds). Ultrasound can't pick it up (kings dr said it could, st mary's said not). Symptoms include pain and / or lighter periods. Dulwichgirl, sadly there are not "simple remedies" for blood clotting / immune problems. It is actually better news in terms of future chances of a baby if no reason for mcs is found. sounds like the OP's problem is conception, so general fertility tests for both partners might be most appropriate? Secondary infertility is hard, but there are a fair few of us on here with happy eventual outcomes!

Damn, this thread is making me broody, have two girls already! Stepping away quickly.....

It is worth warning work in advance about likely unplanned time off or arranging family help if that's possible. We used up lots of annual leave.

My eldest daughter was in nursery 3 days a week from age one to 2.5 and in the first 12 months time had 18 days off sick, and many more minor bugs etc. The worst was croup. It settled down after a year. One of the biggest drawbacks of nurseries! My younger one has a childminder and at the same age/time has had 2 days off sick. ofsted don't ask nurseries about sick absences, and nurseries don't make data available on this.

Bear in mind that the most popular schools have a ridiculously tiny catchment area (likely to shrink further for those schools that recently had "bulge" classes, since in subsequent years many places will be taken by siblings), and there is a hefty additional cost of housing v close by, both rental and to buy. As well as ofsted I also looked at sats results and other data(DfE publishes tables so you can compare local schools), went round etc. in my new area (outside london) the "outstanding" school has a tiny catchment, infants only (with no guaranter of a juniors place), class sizes of 35 in some years and no sibling policy, so ruled that out, didn't want to pay the premium for housing. The "good" schools had v different features, eg some were church schools (lots families attend church to get in, didn't want to do that), some had a challenging intake, some had nice new pfi buildings others decrepid ones. One of the "satisfactory", undersubscribed ones turned out the one we liked the best, they had addressed ofsted's concerns (report was a few years old), had improving sats results, strong focus on writing, good value-added data, did a good open day etc.

Ooh yes, and mum says the worst thing was the studying late at night, after completing tea, bedtime etc (we were younger) dad would sometimes take us away to visit relatives so she could study in the day at weekends.

Sillywoman, it'll be fine! I was a latchkey kid for many years, was great, my brother and I enjoyed having some space and our friends often came round etc. Mum got us each to plan, shop for (or add to the week's shopping list) and cook one family weeknight meal from around 14, meant she didn't have to do it every day and we got good at it well before leaving home. Some of the worst meals are still remembered, and sometimes standards slipped (my brother once served bread and jam for tea, to much complaint from me, mum was too knackered to care), We also had hoovering, dusting etc chores, this went less well! Ww had a cleaner sometimes, when money allowed. Mum served many "instant" meals too, and never cooked on saturdays. Guess what am saying is don't try to do everything you did before in addition to working! Mum worked in the nhs too, with children, and we always understood that what she was doing was important, that's not to say we didn't slack off the chores/homework (my brother) or get up to mischief while the house was empty (me), but no kids are perfect!

Just hand into chemist for disposal?

We used Dr jay gordon (online, american) to cut out milk in the night at 12 months, it is about co-sleeping without night breastfeeing but might have a couple of tips for babies in cots. It took five hellish nights for us, but she stopped having milk at night and was able to carry on b-feeding in the day and co-sleeping.

Saffron, totally agree, unsolicited advice from family and friends is the pits! It's also upsetting when people state or imply that the bad sleeping is because the parents are "too indulgent" "have created a rod for your own backs" blah blah (we had / have lots of this). Even if it's true (have spent much time worrying about this) it's not nice of people to say.

Eek, sounds v hard. Hang in there. It will pass, it will pass!

My current boss is not at all understanding, I once mentioned that was tired (when being criticised for a mistake), she looked disgusted and made a sarcastic comment. So have never mentioned again to anyone at work. Show no weakness etc. [sad]

Poor you. Have two tricky sleepers (littlest coming up to two and not great, eldest is four and has been OK sleeping since 2 or so but still has bad patches sometimes, and disturbed by the little one). And commute / am struggling at work. So feel your pain. Some ideas. cut out his daytime sleep completely, and make sure those providing childcare do likewise (they sometimes don't follow requests about sleep). Give him something calorific that he likes for tea. take turns to look after both children for a few nights at a time, so at least one of you gets some sleep sometimes. Go to bed ridiculously early. Don't keep him downstairs with you in the evenings, he will enjoy it and want to do it again. some people do the supernanny thing of putting back to bed with a cuddle the first time, silence after that (not tried this, but it may come to it with the little one!) i imagine most sleep courses will be some variation on that / crying-it-out (not tried) Or rewards of some kind for sleeping all night.

Is over two years since we used it, but we didn't like Bright Horizons, mainly due to a poor manager (probably gone by now) and high staff turnover meaning frequent changes of keyworker.

Sympathy, have been there. Are you feeding on-demand at night? My two wanted feeding loads in the night at that size, apparently cluster feeding in the night happens at certain stages to stimulate the milk supply, and takes a good couple of months for the supply to build up etc. It does pass! Don't think a night nanny would be useful if you want to bfeed, as no-one can do that but you if there're multiple feeds a night. The other forms of help mentioned here might be better, also agree with getting checked for reflux if extra feeding doesn't work.

My friend has just left chiselhurst, didn't like it there at all, said there were BNP supporters throughout her street, was v expensive etc. she'd been attracted by the "village" thing. she was a true londoner but has now gone to tunbridge wells!

Lushmummy that dress looks fine for slim people with great legs (not me sadly). But dry clean only for a nursing dress, really?! I did separates, camisole and (normally hated, but handy for this) pashmina.

Dulwichgirl, when I said "you should do as you like" I meant the OP, in this instance.

But sunil is not being selfish and there are particular circumstances. Obviously people can't all do what they like but the current policies are draconian IMO.

You should do as you like, it's ridiculous of the school, nanny state! Not a lot they can do given that she's leaving, I would just have her at home as planned and say so. Grrr. doubt they can require NHS doctors notes for stuff like this.

If you do decide to move, "booking in" was straighforward and quick, I visited for a ward tour etc, then phoned up and went to be booked in at 35.5 weeks, had baby came just short of 37 weeks!

(had first baby at kings in 2008 and also went there for pregnancy and gynae stuff in 2009/10).