melbourne groover

I would really recommend seeing a specialist. With both our kids we have been referred to a specialist who has sorted them both out really quickly after months and months of nothing happening at the GP's. (My poor son was basically an oil slick as all they kept saying was moisturise more often. I had to insist on a referral even though it was on insurance. The first referral letter basically said I was making a fuss over nothing but at least we got there and the specialist was unfazed by it. Good luck!

Ah yes, just noticed the delivery date from Amazon - 5th Jan approx... oh well, something for the new year then...

Have just bought a couple of books on amazon with free delivery for ?3.93 each...

I had the P and T footmuff but found it really small. Barely made it through last winter when my son turned 1 so no hope for this year. Would go for something else definately. (also zip head broke on second child but think that was my yanking rather than zip issue...)

I had a home birth on the snow day in Feb 2009, and was most concerned that the midwives wouldn't make it. They were absolutely amazimg, and after being in and out all day were back in no time when we really needed them.

The Nuk are free flow which is good and if you are only using for milk this is ok for teeth (according to my dentist) Juice we stick to cups - those doidy cups are great also for when they are learning to use a cup. Good luck, sometimes I think it is pretty much trial and error on what works for each child but everyone gets there in the end!

I really like the NUK ones, the soft teat is an easy transfer and they can keep on using them. On the transfer from formula to cows I just started mixing the two and adjusting the ratio over about a week I think until was just using cows milk.

Hi there, I have a smallish butterfly cake silicone mould you could borrow if you want. We were deep in a butterfly stage last year my recommendation regarding icing is not to pipe if you don't know how (based on my own disasterous attempts - you may be much more skilled of course). In the end I iced the cake and stuck on appropriate sweets as decoration, smarties etc.... I then also made butterfly fairy cakes (where you cut the top off and put wings in the icing). All seemed to work well. PM me if you want to borrow the mould Amy

Good grief I could have written your post mumof3 our youngest also is a non sleep througher and at 22 months I am with you at the end of that tether. We have had some success recently with: My husband being the one to get up (this is good on two levels!) Cutting afternoon nap to no more than 1 hour - think this has been the most instrumental in acheiving the extra sleep Only shushing and giving his cuddly toy back if we do go in Leaving to grizzle as long as possible - although he is pretty tenacious and will go on for hours if need be and after nearly two years of hardly any full nights sleep I am weaker willed than I would like.... Good luck and let me know if you hit on any magic remedy! Amy

I did post on James Barber's thread, he was looking into it and thought there was funding to do something about it. More messages can't hurt...

If you have a babydan play pen (or similar) these work brilliantly. We gated off the tree last year, easy to remove when you have guests, kept the presents safe from sticky fingers and made life easy (did not have to worry when I was in the kitchen and he was in the lounge). Sold the playpen this year so will be going au natural this xmas - so will probably have slightly stripped down version by xmas day....

Not much to say but sending some sympathy. Good luck, hopefully that baby plays the game...

My son loved the Wow Ambulance and still does actually. It was my daughters orginally but he has pretty much appropriated it. He was forever shuffling around with one of those WOW people in his mouth (visible only by the feet.), nothing to swallow and the older ones use also. He particularly like putting the people in and out when he was little now whizzes them around. The wow stuff is good and has varying price points (from around a tenner) and appears to be indestructible - important in our house... Just williams sells it or can get online. Or Ebay.

I thoroughly recommend it, I used one for my daughter and it was fab. She loved it and it was the one thing that got her sleeping on her own - she was the same as your son, only sleeping on someone not being put down etc. However am sure like anything, there is no guarantee that it will work but I found it to be great. It does say on the website that it helps colic, and she was quite unsettled and windy so it may do. I do think it possibly depends on the child though. My daughter loved being swaddled and also loved the hammock, my son (a much chunkier number) didn't like being swaddled and found the hammock too small - although he may have got on with it better if a 3 week hospital stay in a cot from 3 weeks hadn't set his preference for a larger space. If you can get one second hand then probably the best bet, the mattress is only a piece of foam so easy to upgrade.

I am having issues with a Southwark council owned tree in the garden next door (Council flats). It blocks all our light from the garden in the mornings and when I initially discussed getting it trimmed or actually, I offered to pay for a more suitable tree to be put in (It is a self sown sycamore) they said "We never take trees out" but then proceeded to cut down every tree in the garden bar the one causing the problems. Arrggghhh.... Now they are refusing to maintain the tree which is now taller than the houses, and refusing to let us get it done. They don't have the budget to maintain trees not on the road - even though they are on council property but will not let us pay. Entirely ridiculous situation to be in but am not sure what to do now. Does anyone have any suggestions?

My daughter has decreed the thing she most wants in the world for her birthday is a computer, she is about to turn 5. Does anyone know of something reasonably priced that is suitable, I was thinking laptop type. Am floundering slightly and not sure if they are worth it. Has anyone bought something like this they would recommend? Thanks Amy

We went to the one above Lloyds on Northcross - I think they are called the Northcross rd dental practice. The dentist we saw was a really lovely Irish lady, but I can't remember her name sorry... Was not traumatic at all!

I would second the amby hammock - my daughter used to be quite windy as a baby and she slept brilliantly in it, am sure it helped her. If you do try it, you do have to persevere for a week or so as it takes a little bit for them to really get into it.

I put my daughter into one at around the same age, I kept finding her with her head in the corner of the grobag that she had got off - most alarming...

Hmmm well, my seat was a little sticky to get on and off but not impossible and probably not helped by the fact I hardly ever took it off. I think it would get easier if you did it more often and it all loosened up a bit but couldn't guarentee that of course. Is a simple process of taking the handle bar off and sliding the seat off. It was fine to use for just one child with the seat on, in fact the seat was v handy for putting shopping in...

I did have one of these and can whole heartedly recommend it. Saved all the drama for nursery pickups as she loved going in the seat when she was tired. I had a phil and ted originally but found it a pain to push (in fact was having tendon pain in my wrist and that was just with one child). It was really easy to push with two kids in and very robust. Super simple setup but admittedly not the smallest when flat. I didn't really take it out in the car much, so if you are looking for one to take in the car regularly then possibly not the one for you. It has a huge basket with heaps of room for everyone's stuff (was quite traumatised when we downsized as could not fit all my fruit and vege shop underneath, now rock a bag lady look. They do come up on ebay sometimes so worth looking on there.

I put mine in together at around the same age. No 2 not a great sleeper but No.1 sleeps through most of it. Their morning and evening routine has synced up now and did so quite quickly although there was a period where one woke the other up. My daughter is good at sneaking out though if her little brother is still asleep, sadly this does not work brilliantly the other way as he just shouts, but mostly it is fine. They really like sharing though and both are sleeping better. I give the little one a beaker in the dark sitting on my daughters bed. She quite likes this, we do separate stories though so I can do some reading with my daughter and a more grown up book and then the little one gets to do baby stories in peace also. If it is just me putting them to bed then stories are together but slightly less focused...

Come Outside caused us no end of trauma, there was a storyline that went something like this: Aunty Mable is cooking, goes to cupboard to get something, pippin accidently locks her in the cupboard, pan catches fire (Mable still in cupboard) Pippen goes to get fire brigade, Mable rescued. I was making tea (not in cupboard) so didn't see it properly. Cue weeks of nightmares for my (obviously fire-sensitive) daughter... Up until that point I particularly liked it due to all the above reasons. Not been watched since...;-)

Hi James, That would be great. Thanks

Hi James, Sorry if this has been raised already but I was wondering if there were any plans to lay some matting or the like down on the formerly grassy bit on the new Goose Green playground. It seems such a shame to have it basically a mud bath for the whole of winter. Kind regards, Amy