Belle

Saw that article - interesting to read the comments, it's always good to be reminded that an article like that isn't necessarily accurate. You could tell from the tone of it how the journalist viewed the issue I thought. However I must say I find the implication of her comment near the end "...inadequately mothered, including not being bfd" a bit insulting (as someone who didn't manage to bf) - but poss me being a bit sensitive.v

thankyou!

The thing about 7pm bedtime is interesting. When our little boy was 8 months we were on holiday in France and thought we'd give the evening meal a try - he actually went to sleep in his pushchair for a bit while we ate, as he was clearly tired. anyway when it came to transferring him at 9.30ish to the cot back in our apartment, all hell broke loose and he cried for the next 3 hours. For us that was our lesson learned - he clearly does need to be in bed (not just sleeping in pushchair out and about) at that time, and it's fairer to him really that we do that. It really wasn't worth our quick dinner for the 3 hours screaming. That's just him - I know lots of babies can cope - but we had a similar nightmare when we attempted to have him with us at a wedding (throughout the evening too) - he ended up totally overtired and upset, and was very difficult to calm down when we got back to the hotel. If we do have another child and they are similar to him, we'll just have our evening meals in on holiday etc, no great hardship there.

Does anyone know where i can get one of these? (preferably not involving having to drive out to Ikea!) - have looked in the usual ELC, ToysRus and Argos type places but can't find just a simple tunnel like you get at playgroups etc and really want to get one for my son's 1st birthday in a couple of weeks time.

I'm wondering the same thing about some Scots dialect words (not that I use many - but the sort that make my husband look at me like a crazy lady) - I really want my little boy to know some though. Still can't get my head around the fact he won't have a Scottish accent!

No it's not a Gina t hing as far as I know - but think the point is that even experienced parents can get overwrought in certain situations. I did find Gina useful up to a point, for all the reasons people have already mentioned, and ignored some of the stuff I thought was ridiculous - rarely woke the baby up after the allotted time, as I felt I should count my blessings he was sleeping for example. I too had no idea what babies need etc and had none of the instincts I was assured would come naturally so it was useful from that point of view. Though I didn't get upset and try to follow it to the letter like Nick Clegg, I can understand all too well the notion of being brought to tears because your baby isn't doing what you think they're meant to be doing, so I wouldn't judge him too harshly for that. It's all just very hard and everyone copes in different ways I guess.

Aw such lovely news, well done to you all!

oh so true about old friends and I go into town too for lunch - to see working friends, which they seem to like as gives them a chance to see the baby and it's great as really breaks up the day.

Hi - am going along to the Copleston playgroup which is I think at the Coplestone Centre on Coplestone Rd - mentioned on another thread - tomorrow, think it's 10-12, sounds really good, might be a good thing to take a 1yr old too so they can have the run of the place and you can have a cup of tea?

Before we got into any sort of routine ie knowing when baby might sleep, I got into the habit of showering last thing at night so it was one less thing to do in the morning. Now though I do it when he has his nap in the morning - briefly went to just one nap around midday which scuppered that but back to normal service now! I so clearly remember the first few days of my hubbie being back at work , it is daunting as others have said - can you line anything nice up for the first few days eg friends who are able to visit or family? It's nice to kind of smoothe the transition. Also second the vibrating chair vote, I used to leave my baby in the chair when i went to the loo etc - am glad I did as of course now he's mobile there's no way I can go on my own so at least I had a few months of it! Also if someone offers to cook for you accept and freeze it and/or get husband to be in charge of dinner for a while (erm to be honest my husband still cooks 3/4 of the time!). So true about getting decent food in - stuff like pitta and hummous so you don't have to worry about going out for fresh bread etc to get a healthy meal - I remember far too many breakfast of maltesers because they were all I had to hand!

yes! i have eczema anyway and this week it got so bad on my hands had to get steroid cream- i think the constant anti-bacterial handwash/dettox spray etc is not helping at all. the nurse told me not to be so OCD (not in as many words) and said to clean highchair etc just with water and make sure it's dry, and use dove or something similar rather than antibacterial handwash. Andconstantly moisturise basically.

I really want to try it but at the moment my wee boy is pretty reliably napping at that time...if he changes his routine tomorrow I'll be there!

think I can do all but the 6th, but again, whatever suits the majority.

ha ha pebbles - i'm doing exactly the same thing!

I wrote to Tessa Jowell when I complained to PALS and got a v standard letter type acknowledgement - got the impression her office were just not interested and v much not wanting to be seen to criticise King's (understandble in one way, in that my complaints were unproven of course) - just not v helpful. However I found King's exemplary in there response, they took lots of time to go through my notes and identify the errors and reasons why they occurred where possible at every step. They also apologised a lot which did make me feel better!

There's a male midwife in Private Practice (the spin-off of Gray's Anatomy...yes, i watch too much telly). I think I'd be ok with it.

What about 13 Feb? A family room valentines night... ;-)

I can't come this time as my brother's coming to stay that night, but maybe we could arrange a Feb date for those who can't come in Jan?

We found the rules vary quite a bit - generally we've been able to take a bottle of milk on with us and taste that, then of the mini cartons of ready made stuff, quite often they seem to say you have to taste 50% - v annoying to have to open a carton, but what you can do is take a sterilised bottle with you to decant it into, if you have a cool pocket in your change bag or bottle holder thing. We hedged our bets and took loads of the cartons on, and quite often they didn't even look at t hem. Admittedly we've only gone shortish flights - longest was 3 hrs - what a lot of people do is buy the ready made stuff in Boots once they're through security, I think you can even ring to reserve it, or take powder in one of those little tubs that you can carry ready-measured amounts in, and buy mineral water on the other side.

If you do book a seat for your baby, what happens with seatbelts etc or do you still have them on your lap with the belt extension for take off and landing?

What sort of age do babies tend to cut down to one nap? My little one always had three - quite gina fordish times (not intentionally) then recently it's been more like two but they are such a battle (has coincided with major nightime problems - poss separation anxiety I think and/or nightmares) - and sometimes I feel not worth it, eg just now it took him half an hour or more to go to sleep, protesting all the way although clearly overtired - and then he woke up less than half an hour later. And he's grumpy so I KNOW he's still tired. He had a nap this morning, less than an hour. I'm just wondering if it'd be crazy to just aim for a one chunky post lunchtime nap instead. He's almost 11 months. Trouble is I rely on a morning nap to get stuff done including my shower etc. Argh. Why is it that just when one routine is established, everything changes?

it's not just women though...our IT man regaled me with a blow by blow description of his wife's terrible labour when I was about 7 months pregnant...

I found cab drivers in particular were very critical about my decision to find out the sex - they would always ask, only to have a massive go at me for doing it. We had about 3 names in our minds I think with the one we chose being the main favourite, and we told people - most were cool but of course there were some people w ho didn't like it. I didn't care - not their baby!

ooh yes the chanel classic ( is it the 2.55 or something?) - my friend's bloke bought her one and it's beautiful.

Great evening and thanks to Pickle for organising. Really nice to put faces to (user) names and look forward to next time! The only thing is I now have two names in my head for everyone - their real ones and their user ones, v confusing! x ps wasn't delighted that baby boy got up at 5.45am today - at least was my husband's shift though! I was later 'rewarded' by a dirty nappy leaking all over my p-js, why is it on the one morning I'm a wee bit hungover that this kind of thing happens?!