Belle

yep- basically same as Apenn. we give our son a lot of our leftovers from the night before, for his tea, as that's the only meal when I'm not eating with him so can't just share what I'm having. Admittedly those portions will have salt in but we don't really use much, and it's that lo-salt stuff, and I figure he balances it out with lots of other healthy things like steamed veg (can get handy frozen packs of them), tomatoes - eaten exactly as Apenn describes - carrots both cooked and raw - and any fruit really. I found the stage just after your little one's age - so say 9ish months - was when it all fell into place and I got much more relaxed about it all. to answr your questions though - cream cheese great, philadelphia etc - hard cheese my little boy seems less keen on but I grate it onto baked beans, reheated mashed sweet potato, even peas hard boiled eggs mashed onto toast fingers works well and is perfectly healthy I'd say ditto baked beans - you can get low salt ones, I buy those little snap packs and they just take a minute in the microwave and amazingly cool down quite quickly so are ideal for that 5pm 's**t what am I going to give him for his tea?' moment if you have no afore mentioned leftovers!

hi - not much to suggest - would have thought line drying would make a big difference, and then another one or even two boil washes (for all - babygros too) - that should do it in terms of the w hite spirits. for the varnish, you could try and see if you could get a specialist stain remover - stain devils type stuff, or something more heavy duty maybe. Might be worth trying somewhere like AJ Farmers?

There are some nice clothes shops in Dulwich village for dressier stuff - but also I always find nice stuff in Ed on Northcross Rd and know my mum likes it too.

lovely to meet you all last night, let's do it again soon. Although I am paying for it in headache this morning.

ooh they slightly freak me out. i hate in the night garden too and also caught a few mins of telly tubbies the other morning and thought was awful.

self-referal sounds good. I think def push for specialist treatment where possible - am only now, at 32, getting allergy tests for myself after a lifetime of eczema. My son's is not as bad so am happy to treat with emollient and the odd steriod for a flare up but if it gets worse I'll also push for allergy tests for him. When I think how much pain mine has caused me - I don't want him to go through that.

hooray! really looking forward to it.

I like the fact postman pat doesn't seem to work for the royal mail anymore... V politically topical... And I too actually quite like zoo lane, plus confess to a certain soft spot for the current cbeebies spring theme tune.

Anyone know anywhere that would be suitable to take a baby to for his tea outside on this lovely sunny fri? Mr Belle hoping to be back from work earlyish today so we thought might be fun to take small Belle out somewhere but can't think - park cafes a bit far and poss wd be closed - not sure when blue mountain closes?

TAte modern cafe - downstairs one - v child friendly but not in a giraffe way at all,a nd then you can give him a good run around in either the massive turbine hall or the grass between the TAte and the river - will be drier now. Let mine crawl around there the other day and he ended up with massive mud patches but had a great time! But cleaner for a walker :))

just watching 64 zoo lane with my little boy (like this soooo much more than waybuloo) and am convinced the frog is billy connolly! anyone know if it is his voice?

edmummy - not sure about others but know in my case the forceps necessitated the episiotomy - baby was stuck so didn't get to the 'tearing' stage if you see what i mean. think often the two go together (forceps/ventouse and episiotomy I mean) though don't know a lot about it. I knew nothing and remember the midwives asking if I'd been to the loo etc with concern but nobody explained t hat it might be a bit fragile etc and i remember being really scared when I figured it out, and not wanting to go to the loo! Also had an Obs tell me I could have laxatives to make it all , ahem, easier, but midwives refused!

Hi there, not much of use to say except that I had the same and from memory it did take a little while for things to gradually feel better and 'normal' again - I do remember just being aware as you say, eg when I coughed or laughed too hard! poss more relevant early on but something I did get told was that doing the pelvic floor exercises is great for healing down there as gets the bloodflow going. I was pretty religious about these and apart from one flare up needing antibiotics around 8 weeks post partum, I found it did just gradually get better. I guess there's no time limit on this as it'll vary from person to person but worth checking with your GP if you're worried. I was annoyed nobody checked the healing until I complained about the flare up I mentioned, but was then reassured it was all fine. Still think they should do this at the six week check though! Just to reassure you - I feel totally normal now and have done for months and months (baby 14 months old). I agree though that there isn't much in the way of preparation for t his - I too thought forceps was just a slightly mroe complicated natural birth - didn't realise the potential complications etc. It can be a little traumatic I think.

Def take the offer if they're paying, I find space the main issue with flying and so think biz class worth it if you can. Good food (and drink!) too.

ahh - funnily enough, the other day I got the train to herne hill and got the lift down as had pushchair. There was the most charming wee boy going down in the lift (was v polite to me and an old lady also in the lift) and was clearly spending some time going down in the lift, then running up to the platform and doing it again. Anyway, I noticed that as he ran, he skipped, and I was really pleased that schoolboys still skip!

Oh kristymac1 you sound like a much more patient mum than me! My little boy is v much as CanadianLisa described her little one - not bad, not great*, one or two shocking nights a week. From 3-9ish months he was pretty great on sleeping but it's been up and down since then for various reasons: separation anxiety poss, teething, endless bugs, early waking, nightmares etc etc (or poss all just different labels we try to put on just plain 'bad sleeping' to explain it).I wish I was accepting but even one bad night turns me into an angry, irritable, upset monster and I find it does get in the way of the enjoyment of parenting I see other people experiencing. This might sound awful but I do resent sometimes it just being that he needs a cuddle, I'm just awful when tired I guess. Hmm maybe we all just have different strengths as parents - not quite sure I've discovered mine yet though! *sleeper that is! ;-)

blankets good for naps too and out and about with buggy/pram - i preferred in newborn days to be able to layer up/down according to temperature (makes life easier if going from freezing cold into boiling hot doctors' waiting room for eg) with blankets rather than having the baby in a big snowsuit/jacket that I'd have to try and get off them when they might be asleep. Sorry slightly off topic as you meant night-time I know! I still dont' really know about the sheets/vests/sleepsuits thing to be honest - we just muddled through and took our cue from him, and always erred on the side of being too cold rather than too hot as safer. Grobags all the way, after swaddlng for a few early weeks, have worked with us. Also we only bought about 3 /4 sheets but our baby was very pukey (!) so had to buy six more! Sometimes had to change them several times a night. So worth getting some cheapie extras.

maybe we could combine the buggy try out with a sling try out! I bought a wilkinet sling and we couldn't get on with it...then got a second hand baby bjorn on the forum and it did us for a while until as others have said the weight was just too uncomfortbable. We now have a patapum which we don't use a lot due to the bag issue someone else mentioned, but it's good to have it and not too dear - and may be used more if we have another baby. But I'm glad I never bought one of the newborn slings that have your baby more in a lying position - from day one my son preferred being upright plus had reflux so I know he'd have hated these. i'd love to try one next time around but think would wait to see what the baby in question preferred in term of position.

maybe it'd be a good venue for the witching hour - afer afternoon nap, before tea?

Yes, it's all the rage in the Family Room. my little boy had it, then my husband, then both grannies after two separate stays, and lastly me. Luckily was over it (and half a stone lighter for two blissful days) in time to be bridesmaid for my best mate but god it was horrendous, I was pretty much throwing up every hour for 12 hours. Judging by our experience it's highly infectious.

My little boy has just started picking his nose...he doesn't get it from me!

hurrah - really excited about this and also about similar happening to the wishing well by the same people, having been moaning about the lack of such places it's great we're getting two nearby.

My husband calls my son 'the small demon'...

on a slight tangent, what is the difference between the vibe, dash and sport P&T buggies? ryedalema do you find the sport has a lower back bit then?

hmm..think perhaps I've overused 'no' and def overused t he telling off voice already! Will need to be selective in the future I think.