Fidgetsmum

A friend of mine is looking for a nanny for her two children (soon to be three children). Can anyone tell me how the pay works? Is it per child? We're in a brilliant nanny share but I wasn't sure if a full time nanny worked per child too?

They are delightful. Just call them - they'll be able to answer any query you have. I had my last baby with them (I was at home though). I know that Home, or mental health is their focus. It depends on your circumstances - they'll be completely honest about what they can or can't do for you. Good luck

Brilliant. Thanks everyone. I'm heading towards BLW - he seems to love baby rice too so I'm doing a mix of rice, purees and blw. I'm delighted to say that he shows no signs of having the same allergy my daughter had - HOOORAY. SO much easier and SO less stressed that I was this time, last child!

Years ago I had this but with builders who were working for my landlady. She went off abroad on business, I was left alone in the flat, came home late on my own and the place had been carefully done over. Key items were missing, but there was no mess (other than my underwear drawer and the 'kitchen drawer' - the one that had all the junk had both been totally outturned). I would say if you have ANY doubt, make a kind and genuine sounding excuse to your cleaning lady as to why the job is finishing (change in personal circumstances, or finances etc) and get someone new, with references. My landlady didn't do this and I never felt safe until the builders had finished and handed back the keys - even so, I still worried that they might have had some cut and could return at any point. It's just not worth it in my opinion.

Just weaning my son. I know I should express for baby rice, as he's been exclusively bf up to now, but frankly, I've tried but just get really stressed as I haven't really got the time with a three year old as well. So, should it be cows milk or formula in baby rice? Thanks!

My friend is using thumbguard at the moment having tried other avenues and so far, so good. It's expensive, but she says completely worth it.

You poor thing. Having a new baby is tough enough without any extra challenges for you both. So, I would strongly recommend Cranial Osteopathy (Simon Turgoose at the Vale Practice is the best I've found - and I've seen a few over the years). Also, there is no harm in trying infacol - although I think there's a lower age limit? We used infacol with both our babies and after three days of administering it, they both got better - not perfect, but certainly less crying. I'm not an attachment parenting mum, but my sister, who's a Doula, swears by its abilities to help colicky babies. Obviously this is hard if you have a CS scar trying to heal, but have your baby close to you, skin to skin ideally (just whack the heating up if your house is cold - the world will survive) and I found that even if my son was screaming, if I held him on me, skin to skin and breathed slowly and deeply (and ignored the noise!), he would settle. The last thing I would say is its easy to only see the crying and pain your baby is in - but I found early motherhood a lot easier when I made a big point about celebrating the good bits - that 10 minutes of peace, that good poo, that comfortable feed. Then you can remember them better when the tough bits arise again. Good luck. It's hard but it does and will get better.

My daughter hated public loos ever since she by mistake stood right underneath a dryer and set it off on her head. 30 minutes later and I was still trying to calm her down. After that, each visit to any loo out and about took a lot of persuasion. However, I never gave up at each time. I learned to plan ahead - 30 minutes before I needed it, or she would need it, I would say 'let's go!'. I always reassured her that I would never set off the dryer and I would promise her that we would spot where they were on the walls as soon as we entered a loo so that we couldn't by mistake set it off. Also, whenever anyone else in the loos set one off, we would hold hands as tight as we could and say a special secret saying (actually my mum used to say it to me when I was little). Somehow, that distracted her enough and over time, there were less and less tears. And now, she waltzes in to a public loo, and tells everyone they're not allowed to use the dryers whilst she's there!!(she's 3.5yrs old!). She still, however, flatly refuses to use one herself. But given time, I can see that will change too. I hope that experience helps.

Clothes delivered this morning. I must say, the centre is immaculate. We'll be popping along for activities too now as it all looks great. Nice people too!

Brilliant. Thanks everyone.

Want to drop off some clothes for their nearly new sales, but want to call before dragging 5 month old, 3.5 year old and a large sack only to find they're not there! Oh, and have tried 020 7274 4944, which I found on the internet but it's someone's house - she said the previous owners had some thing to do with the centre, but not her!

Definitely get on waiting lists now. The good nurseries tend to have at least 12 month waiting lists. There's lots of choice, but there are a lot of families too, so I'd take nylonmeals' advice, check out Southwark's website for a list of nurseries and then trawl the EDF for recommendations. Although, in all honesty, you'll only know when you go and visit the place if it's right for you or not and you'll always have happy and non-happy parents at each nursery! Good luck.

My knees have been terrible after both births and two things have helped - firstly, accepting that your body is different after giving birth and the relaxin hangs around for a while (after my first child, it took a year before me knees were back to normal). Also, core exercises are important for everything, particularly backache, leg joint aches but even for your arms - if your core muscles are strong, the angle you stand at is different and puts pressure in different places in your arms. Do check that you're not anaemic with the GP and if you can afford it, go and see a postnatal physiotherapist - I did, only for four sessions, and it really really helped. Good luck.

Onefifty - you poor thing. Terrifying for you. Thank goodness for those kind people.

I noticed people parking their buggies in the cloakroom last time I was there - can you securely tie them to something? And do I need coins? Thanks.

Good ideas - thanks very much!

Yep - GP visit, if only to cancel out the potential eczema situation. Hope it's all ok.

Great - thanks Fuschia!

In about 6 weeks time, we're getting a new kitchen fitted so therefore our current kitchen is leaving us. It's in very good nick so we want to sell it (obviously at a good discounted price - just something that'll ease the pain of the cost of the new kitchen). Has anyone done this before? How did you coordinate removing it with someone wanting it at the same time i.e. when should I advertise it? Sorry - never got a new kitchen before so no idea how to work this out.

Great. Thanks very much. I pureed and pureed for my daughter but my son is so different and at 5 months is just grabbing things out of my hands whenever he can - I'm stopping him from getting anything, but it feels wrong, so I thought I'd research some blw.

What's the best book/resource for baby-led weaning? Thanks

Yep - Baker Ross gets my vote every time. Excellent variety, good delivery times and reasonable prices.

Womanofdulwich - do you know who I contact to do that?

Which charity shops in the area accept baby and toddler clothing? Seems a shame they may go to the tip is someone needs them.

Thanks everyone. That powder hellosailor is the one I had in the back of my memory. But I'd forgotten how expensive it was (we'd bought it for my daughter three years ago but never used it! What a waste!)