Belle

HH, completely agree. Sounds awful but having friends who are having a bad time of it too, if you are, (or just very honest about not loving every minute, if that's how you are reacting) is invaluable. Solidarity etc. I too, early on in fact, encountered some people who not only were sailing through, but also seemed insensitive to the fact that blithely opining on how easy it all was might not be what i needed to hear...I also remember someone saying 'this is SO much easier than work!' - not in my experience! Karter - you're right, the right support is invaluable. People place a lot of emphasis on making new mummy friends with kids the same age etc, and yes that has its place - but I found great comfort in old friends too, who knew the 'pre baby' me, and those who had trodden the same path gave me so much practical and emotional support.

Moses basket mattresses are about ?10. Can't remember how much our cot mattress was, but it was quite an inexpensive one from John Lewis - doesn't have zip off cover but I seperately bought a good mattress protector that is easy to wash. JL deliver, they're v good - we did one massive order shortly before the baby was born I think. When we had problems with the cot about a year and a half in, they replaced it no questions asked.

Ooh - I've got it. A cleaner. If you don't already have one.

Vanthorne - I bought something that sounds a bit like that from John Barnett - it doesn't c ompletely remove the stain but it does help. Might be good once you've masking taped/baby wiped most of it off?

Ooh Karter - suspect you will get different answers on the best t hing, and definitely on the buggy! But popular choices for the latter seem to be Maclaren XT and bugaboo bee ( in terms of looking for one which might 'do' for everything and avoid the need to buy a 2nd, lighter buggy once toddlerhood beckons). Re the best thing to get, I think in a way the best thing is to try to restrain yourself and then buy once baby arrives, as then you'll know what you need more (e.g. if baby turns out to like being upright, you might opt for a sling that's upright rather than across your body type thing, or if he/she is v sicky like mine was, you'll need a million muslins and bibs) - and borrow as much as you can! Then if something doesn't 'work' for your baby you've lost nothing. Most used thing we had (and it was borrowed) was prob the bouncy chair - it had vibro and an activity arch, I couldn't have done without it. Good monitor useful too, think ours is the BT150. Think there was a list on here a while back actually - does anyone remember?

think there is also a baby room at the tate modern. Saffron - sorry, off topic, hadn't heard of the pre school play area there - is it any good? I go there all the time but usually just let little one loose in the turbine hall.

Will pm you details. We also have insurance through husband's work and that fastracked us massively - just recently for e.g. we had the appt where we agreed on reinsertion of the grommets about 10 days ago, then the op yesterday. Brilliant. Smoothies - I meant those Ella's or Innocent ones (the latter with straw - the former those squeezy ones) - so not dairy, just fruity :) - just found it a good way of getting some food into him, and think he found it quite soothing, helps with the sucking/swallowing action you mentioned. I so feel for you, as we've had the weekend ones too, in fact went down to Seldoc a couple of times - worth trying that if you're worried about her, the antibiotics do kick in reasonably fast - the sooner the better really.

Pebbles, I feel for you - we've been through this, at s imilar age and then again more recently. In the end, on the advice of family with similar experience, we pushed for a referral to an ENT specialist. He straight away diagnosed glue ear - amazingly it didn't seem to be affecting our son's hearing but it can, and that's one reason to address it. The other issue was the recurrent ear infections which as you've experienced, create pain that is almost impossible to alleviate. We very quickly (after something like the sixth ear infection in two months, I think) all came to the conclusion that grommets were the best option. They were brilliant - v unusually they recently came out (prematurely - after six months when they were meant to last up to 18 months) - and just yesterday my son had an operation to get them reinserted, after a batch of ear infections over xmas. I'm not saying that's what your little girl will need, just that it showed to me that a specialist was a much more efficient way of dealing with the situation than repeated GP visits which all ended in a prescription, which whilst it sorted that outbreak, didn't address the bigger picture. Anyway, igoring that slight tangent, my point is that you should push for a referral because that sounds like quite a high frequency of ear infections. I also think if you suspect another ear infection, take the antibiotics. I talked to the specialist about this, and the stories he told me put my fears about too frequent antibiotic use to rest, and instead made me realise it's far safer in this instance to use them - ear infections can get very nasty and complicated without them. Afraid I don't have any wives' tales, as you can see in our experience it was conventional medicine which won out, but I do have masses of sympathy for you, as I know how horrendous this is for everyone concerned. Does she use a dummy? My son did at the point they first started happening and that helped. Other than that, he usually had high fevers with them, so we would strip him right down and just let him curl up near us watching cbeebies to ride out the worst. Will she drink a smoothie? That might help too. edited to add, there are other things in between antibiotics and grommets that can be tried - we tried some special granules the ENT specialist prescribed first off, in the end they weren't enough to stop the infections, but worth bearing in mind there are other medical options.

new name is funny, as was just thinking this thread indulges the same part of me which loves to read my mum's Gd Housekeeping... Pebbles - one thing I do always try to do (much harder since becoming a mum) is tidy the house before going on holiday. Really helps combat the post holiday blues if you come back to a neat and tidy house. This is a completely out of character habit btw. Off to check of flylady. There's somethign I never thought I'd say on a friday night.

Just found out to my great annoyance that Addison lee have randomly stopped their babyseat service. This was only suitable for 1yr and up but SO useful( esp annoying as booking a cab for six am tomorrow - gah!). Does anyone know if there are black cab firms that can be booked? I know some minicab firms round here say they provide carseats but we've been shafted by them in the past, so I think black cab poss best option. Must say am gutted as I rely on AL loads, grrr.

LB if you get a book published I would def buy it, and buy copies for my friends. Good luck!

Keef Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- u! > > I don't know, I suspect there are a fair few > fellas who watch it because their other halves are > watching it. I do actually like it, and what are > the alternatives? (Glee... WTF is that > about!?!?!?). erm, actually, Monday nights are a big tv clash for me because I do like Glee and America's Next Top Model as well...:-$ - I like to think OBEM compensates for my otherwise shallow tastes. I can't help but well up at each birth, must be a sort of primal thing reaction. I love the way they edit the programme, and the interviews are often genius, I'm so glad they didn't keep up the ill-advised xmas format.

ooh, interesting background info Keef! Love it. Agree - thought in fact all 3 were nice couples, and it was really nice (and reassuring) to see some less stressful looking births. Plus funny how we were commenting on all the women on hteir backs last week - t here was far more on all fours action this week! It was actually suprising to realise they were so close with each of them, when it came to pushing time, you wouldn't have guessed. I loved it when Maxwell was really reassuring about the epidural, I was a bit worried for a second he might remind her that she'd wanted to do it naturally, like the annoying policeman from the first series.

That's so funny - I did the same thing, a bit later after I'd been moved away to another bed I think, but didn't get as far as opening the carton as my community midwife advised in deeply sorrowful tones that 'it would be a terrible mistake now to put that baby on formula' - so I carried on with the expressing hell and begging for donor milk at King's till we got home from hospital. I remember the utter relief of giving a bottle as opposed to a cup, and looking at the cartons knowing we had enough food for our baby, instead of thinking he might get ill again if I didn't pull of bfing. it's really interesting that those who wanted to bf didn't always get the support, and those who wanted to use formula didn't either, just shows there's as much diversity in the opinions of the professionals as there is among us mums.

This issue makes me very sad, as well as angry, and I won't repeat points I've made in the past (I hope). I think someone mentioned the apparently common cases of newborn babies who end up dehydrated or jaundiced through early feeding issues - I personally know of about four of five, including one whose baby was in hospital with a lumbar puncture. Only then did she start giving formula (having been told sternly not to by HVs etc), and subsequently managed to breastfeed for well over a year. What I do believe, with regret, is that if only I'd broken out of the myopic 'must be breastmilk' haze I was in during the first week, and given my son some formula, he'd have thrived and so would I, and perhaps breastfeeding would have been achievable as a result. The irony. I know there are women out there who have tried and tried through blood, sweat, tears, and near continuous expressing, and made it work, but not all of us are perhaps emotionally equipped for that struggle in those tough early days. I think generally on this forum we do manage to strike a balance of expressing our differing and strongly held view; and not judging others. Never is this more important than on such an emotive topic.

Yes HH, our boys are similar! You provided some welcome sympathy and solidarity in the tough early months I recall. Going to investigate single beds in the sales, and monitor what he's doing for the immediate future, but think we'll have to get round to it before long. He is still a handful, so am looking forward to the times you describe, without wanting to wish the time away too fast.

I agree it's good to know who's backing academics. But I'm guessing academics often need financial backing, and it's not always going to be from a quarter we feel comfortable with. When you look closely, sponsorship is behind so much, often not overtly - e.g. babycentre is I think backed by Johnson & Johnsons, yet I think does have a useful role providing information on infant development. I think as long as you know the provenance/full story of new reports/anything purporting to advise, you can then make an informed decision yourself.

and the worry is that he might try in his grobag (though hasn't yet) and cause himself an injury. We have a cot rather than cotbed, so can't experiment without the sides I don't think. HH - that's the scenario I'm imagining. Although the fact he rarely stands up and never tries to climb out even when he's yelling his head off about being in bed gives me a bit of hope that he may go the way of not realising he can get out straight away...

I started the ballad of Peckham Rye (Muriel Spark) a while back, and recognised a few places, but got diverted by other books. Did read Camberwell Beauty years ago (Jenny Eclair) - v v dark, funny about the area though. Not local but similar vein to the book you read - I read the rise and fall of a slummy mummy (from the columns in the paper) as it was left at a house we holidayed in last year, and found it suprisingly readable, though admittedly I do have a trashy side :))

I like the moral of that Molly, v nice.

Resurrecting this thread as my son has just demonstrated to us today that he can climb out of his cot. He does sleep in a grobag at night though, so am guessing that would be much harder - anyone with experience of this? But I'm uneasy, and think it can only be a matter of time before he finds a way out. I know it'll be much easier from a bed but at least without the risk of injury, and I guess from browsing the web the main thing is to put a stairgate on his door so he can't traipse down the stairs/into other rooms at will. How have people generally found the transition to bed? I hear so many bad things about it! and gina bangs on about it being responsible for many sleep problems.

My mum is constantly (even now son is nearly 2) asking why I don't use a playpen. We actually did buy one when he started crawling around 8 months, but he would always scream the minute I put him in there - no matter which toys and distractions I put in with him. So we just use it as a room divider now. But I have seen pics of me as a toddler happily playing in one. I know my mum's generation think our kids are too used to being constantly entertained, that's something I hear a lot. Actually wish that were the case with my son in a way, but I can't claim to be brilliant at continous play!

I think Buds is similar, and Oaktree morning session is 3.5 hours I think - so bit longer than MM? Agree the price hike was a shock, had gone up quite a bit from when we looked round. PM me if your son does end up going as mine is starting in Feb.

Moos - I fo und I had to increase teat size much more quickly than the Avent guidelines advised, from memory - basically, whenever we had problems/reluctance feeding I'd go up a teat size, so we got to 4 fairly quickly.

I think I saw something in the Guardian saying the average working parent has 90 mins time to themself each day once they've finished work and family-related chores. Although I'm mainly a SAHM, I thought about it and would say that applies to me and my husband. As you say Gussy, I think I'd rather veg out a bit during that time, or aspire to read a book, rather than use it for more chores/organising. Edited to add, I am only now finding it possible to do the laundry when my son is awake, have found a way to get him to think helping out is fun, but up till now used to have to save all the chores to do during his nap, which was a bit of a race against time. Some kids are just not that easy to leave to their own devices whilst you tidy etc.