Grotty

Relieeeeeeeeeeef.....

and here is the rain. Nice fat plonking heavy rain. i can feel the air lifting as i write...

BBC weather says thunderstorm at 4.00. Here's hoping...

I dreaded going back after ML for the same reasons but actually found it much easier. Once you get over the worries of leaving your baby - which pass quite quickly - you realise that being at work is easier in some ways - you're only having to look after yourself/feed yourself/get through the day on your own. And coming home to your little one is like the biggest treat ever. I've been back at work for 6 months now, but still get butterflies in my tummy every afternoon when i collect my daughter from nursery...

...is one where you don't have to scoop floating stinky turds out of the bath and into the loo whilst retching...

If you live in SE15/Bellenden area you should consider Sternhall Lane Surgery. I think its fairly new - like a few years old. We have been there for 2 years - reception staff lovely, all the doctors we have seen are great and friendly - there are 4 main doctors and we have never had a single issue with any of them. The resident midwife Dionne is lovely, i saw her throughout my first pregnancy and it is a joy that she is my midwife in this next pregnancy. The nurse is also lovely and was very kind/thoughtful at each of our baby jab appointments. Its not hard to get appointments and we rarely wait long to get in - we had to make an urgent appointment when our daughter was very poorly recently - the GP called back within an hour and then saw us an hour or two later.

If you live in SE15/Bellenden area you should consider Sternhall Lane Surgery. I think its fairly new - like a few years old. We have been there for 2 years - reception staff lovely, all the doctors we have seen are great and friendly - there are 4 main doctors and we have never had a single issue with any of them. The resident midwife Dionne is lovely, i saw her throughout my first pregnancy and it is a joy that she is my midwife in this next pregnancy. The nurse is also lovely and was very kind/thoughtful at each of our baby jab appointments. Its not hard to get appointments and we rarely wait long to get in - we had to make an urgent appointment when our daughter was very poorly recently - the GP called back within an hour and then saw us an hour or two later.

Seem to find a new excuse each week to avoid going to Legs, Bums & Pregnancy Tums. Today i've been convincing myself that an exercise class in this heat would be bad for me and baby. Have only been to class once (only 19 weeks pregnant) - can't remember if the gym was hot or air conditioned. Any thoughts?

tricky to keep cool but our plan is to: keep clothes off, keep air flowing, keep out of direct sunlight, lots of drinks, stick with cold food & look forward to the 10 degree drop in temperature tmrw!

Not enjoying heat & pregnancy! Wish I was working in air conditioning or had a paddling pool i could sit in all day... I'm also starting to swell Strawbs - first sign is having to take off wedding rings, then it hits my ankles and feet - toes look like cocktail sausages. yuk!

M4 then M5 then A30 - no contest - have had horrific traffic jams on the smaller roads...

We see a rat in our garden about twice a year and have mice in the house more often. Called the council who came round and the bloke basically said that our decking outside was a haven for rodents. We just have to do what we can to prevent them getting in the house. He also didn't charge us anything as he suggested a) it would be cheaper to do it ourselves and b) with a row of victorian terrace houses/some run down gardens/decking we were unlikely ever to be able to completely rid ourselves of these pests. To keep them out the house he advised putting meshing over the airbricks, filling all gaps/holes in the house with wire wool and laying poison outside and in on a weekly basis! We moved our shed in the garden recently and found 3 large rat skeletons underneath it. Hideous...

Less blistering = less scarring. Lucky you supergolden88. My daughter had a large pus-filled blister which still hasn't healed properly - she had her jab in November. Its going to leave a whopping scar.

the only reason for postponing jabs would be if your baby was unwell, whether from standard cough/cold or reaction to jabs. Otherwise its totally fine to have them one after the other. As bluesuperted says they should do it in different arms if close together. My daughters BCG blister came up about 2 weeks after the jab which is normal.

we have sky and have to admit it sounds pretty similar to all the virgin problems though our TV fares worse than the internet - missing channels, no channels at all, can't record/pause stuff. But internet slow/intermittent and seemingly getting worse. No matter how many times we try to call and rectify the problems there is never any improvement.

Kings had a lot of problems - so much so that they had a massive overhaul this year - more staff/better support/close monitoring and continues to have very close monitoring to ensure standards are kept high. This has led to better mother satisfaction and far less complaints. As a result, now is a better time than any to be having a baby at Kings.

check out this previous post = lots of useful advice: http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?30,444324,444324

Didn't the Gowlett used to do a pub quiz?

There are so many 3 bed terraced houses in ED/PR i reckon the trick is to buy one and do a decent sized loft giving four bedrooms and then extend the long thin kitchens sideways so you have a large kitchen/diner at the back - creating nice size house for far less than ?700,000...

had an horrid experience with ryanair when we flew to France with our 8 month old. At boarding we waited by the desk as you always do with children expecting to be boarded first (have flown with easyjet/BA/qantas/air new zealand/air bangkok - all of whom do this without question) - only to be told that ryanair have a policy not to board families first, we were then told we had to join the back of the queue, which had already formed. we were one of the last onto the plane and were not able to sit together. there were 3 other families with young children in the same position, all united in disgust. amazingly on the way back the french ground staff came and found us and said that although it was policy not to board children first he understood the difficulty of flying with children and therefore let us go on first. It is just down to common sense and good human beingness. Luck of the draw i guess...

I know the feeling snowboarder. My daughter is only 14 months and i've had similar conversations with Mr Grotty with a similar response!

Are we ever going to get Boris bikes?

Just read all of the above. I had an emergency C-section at Kings for my first last year. Am now 4 months pregnant and already under pressure from midwives not to opt for an elective C-section for this one. but every part of me intuitively wants to for so many reasons and its good to read all the positive experiences, so thank you

My daughter is 13 months. She also happily goes to bed at 7 with no fuss, sleeps all the way through until almost exactly 5.38 every morning. She was having 2 sleeps a day - about 45 minutes in the morning and up to 2 hours in the afternoon, but was starting to fuss with one or both sleeps. Last week we dropped the morning sleep. she happily goes until after lunchtime now and still only sleeps 1-2 hours. We were hoping this may have an effect on the early mornings, but it doesn't. 5.38 again this morning like clockwork. She is very happy, eats and sleeps well, so there is no sign that she should/needs to sleep any longer. My husband says he was always a very early riser and his mum agrees. We have tried black out blinds and putting her to bed one hour later. Nothing makes a difference. She seems to have an inner clock that ticks at 5.38 and says its time to start the day. I think some babies may just be like that. We have given in to it and just try to enjoy the 2 hours we get with her jumping on us, prodding us, singing to us whilst we desperately try to catch a little more sleep. I guess we have to enjoy these times, cos soon they'll be sleeping later and not wanting anything to do with us!!!! Good luck x

oh dear. I cried. Putting it down to being pregnant (with no.2) but really really lovely writing. Also smiled a lot, and i'm still smiling now. Thank you