Tickle1978

Get you brothers wife something, nice shower gel, handwash or a fruit hamper or massage. Mummies are too often overlooked and they do all the hard work, have sore boobs, no sleep and a toddler to deal with!

This is big on our agenda at moment as we plan to move back. We have a house in Killara on North shore. As mentioned abo ve there are lots of good public schools of a primary age such as Lindfield East and Killara primary, all have enrolment policies on their websites. Rental rates are quite high checkout realestate.com.au zip code 2070 and 2071 median rentals around 1000 pw for 3 bed, and competition to rent is quite fierce particularly on east side of pacific high way, which is where train is, v diff to here.

Enjoy, weather makes such a difference, make sure you take kiddies to reptile park in Gosford

We just bought a bed from Warren Evans, pocket sprung mattress is so comfy, if you do go with them quote coupon code 'FRIENDS' and you'll get another ?30 off

Hi all, planning on coming down to the Victoria for 3pm also (toddler also in tow), only thing that may scupper my plans is i'm currently waiting on the delivery of a new bathroom sink! Hopefully see you all soon

Shall we just do a rain check? we only had four confirms so now down to potetially two, let's arrange for another time x

Hiya, i just booked at table at the Actress for 7:30pm tomorrow night for 6 people under 'winter babies', if there is more of us free then that is fab and i'm sure we can add on (just based this number on original confirm and guessed really but didn't want to be sat at an empty table!)

Look forward to chatting x

I can still make this Sat - do we need to reserve a table? I hardly ever make it out the house after 6pm these days, so will be an adventure!

Use MyHermes as well, good value and they even come and pick the parcel up from your house for about 50p more.

I hadn't even thought about using one of these but with a 19 month constantly fiddling with the knobs on the oven temp it makes casseroling a bit of a nightmare! So i'm off to Argos to get one to try at 13.99 can't complain if you only use it a few times.

Please can people let us Know the best recipe spots xx

I can do 11th or the 18th - perhaps as people respond they could update tally below on their response which will be easier to track

Tally so far:

11th Oct - 5 definites

18th Oct - 5 definites

Tuesday 23rd during day would be good for me and toddler. Another weekend/evening would also be great to catchup with the working mums to be, pizza at Actress sounds like a fab idea or Vic Inn again.

Couple of dates to get it rolling, purely pulled out the hat if they don't accommodate people other suggestions welcome Thurs 25th Sept or Sat 27th?

Mon, Tues and Fri are good for me also (with toddler) perhaps Fri 19th Sept?

Look forward to meeting you all at Vic Inn on Sat from 10:30 x

Can make Sat morning, Vic Inn or Duck Egg fine with me, will be leaving the toddler with his Dad!

You poor, poor woman Anya - what an awful experience.

First baby was born by a scheduled c-section at 40wk due to being breech, at the time i was all for a natural birth, did Calm birthing course etc but the decision was really made for me. I found it to be a really good experience (although it was in Australia so may be different protocol here this time), caught a taxi to hospital for 7am and had my little boy at 9am, I recovered well, and had no issues.

Mainly due to this experience but also the fact and baby no 2 is due round Christmas, organising child care etc, I have requested an ELCS, however because these are usually done a week before due date it means I will be in hospital over Christmas, so currently opting to go to 40wks and if baby arrives before, then I will cross the VBAC bridge, but still waiting on my Obstetrician appoint so we'll see how it unfolds ...

Go with what you feel comfortable with and you feel is best for you xx

Hi! Another second timer, baby due end of Dec, first born little boy will be 22 months. Unfortunately whiling away the hours leisurely eating cake with a bump/pre crawling baby are a distant memory but would love to have a park catch up and cake on the run!

We are having the same dilemma! We have put our little boys name down on a couple of nurseries no more than a fifteen minute walk away with a start date of around 6 weeks before the due date of no 2, whether a space becomes available as he won't yet be 2 is another question but we have flexibility and fundamentally don't know what it will be like until no2 is here!

Interestingly I was talking to a Mum last week who's babies were around 2 years apart and she said she found it more stressful getting the 2 year old to/from the nursery than the toddler being at home with them, so took him out in the end as she felt she had a routine with the two of them at home.

Only time will tell, we'll play it by ear!

We have the Motorola MBP 16 Digital Audio Monitor with LCD Display which is around 35, it does have a light on and lullabies which we have never used other than to entertain 15month old so he can press the buttons on it! Our house is fairly small 2 bed but we've taken it to parents/ friends also who have a four bed house where baby was at opposite end of house upstairs to us and in both these instances it has been great

I just took part in an about boys course which was really useful.

Apparently boys love challenges, you mention it takes ages to get ready so challenge him e.g. set the timer on your phone for him to see and say something like l bet you can't get ready in under 10minutes, this worked a treat for a couple of the girls little boys on the course, he may take up the challenge and want the time reduced the next time !

Parents want what is best for their child, however, Vaccines such as MMR work via herd immununity in that for it to be successful people need to have the vaccine.

Parents choosing not to have their own child immunised are relying on other parents taking, what could be seen as a calculated risk to immunise their children and thus protect none immunised children.

If the effects of diseases such as measles were rife would parents be making the same decision of non immunisation?

we just moved back from Sydney after living there 5 years and although we plan to go back as my little boy is half Australian and partner is also. We were worse off in Syd than in London because our salaries remained the same but cost of living was more, huggies nappies for example cost 34 dollars a box (around 22 GBP), here they can be picked up for 14 GBP or less, electricity was really expensive, we paid 270 dollars a quarter for a one bed unit that had no air con or heating

Although the pound has improved against the dollar, it is still expensive for people visiting and as mentioned previously it's a long way Esp with children to travel.

The weather is fab out there and it's a great lifestyle for children, camping, beaches, parks.

Personally though I don't think Syd offers anything more than the U.S except an extra 10 hours on the plane!

How exciting! Think I would choose U.S probably San Fran or New York state, it's near enough to home so people can afford to visit you and the cost of living is reasonable. Australia is very expensive to live - food, housing, child care and is a long way for people to visit. Other places I would consider for a two year stint, Hong Kong or Singapore, low tax, cheap child care options, ex pat community so you would meet people much more easily and there's so many countries nearby where you can go on long weekend trips, you could also visit Oz from there.

Best of luck in your adventure

Would recommend taking a pillow, pain to carry with all other stuff but a god send for our flight from Syd, if you have turbulence/seat belt sign is on, you cannot put bub in bassinet, so on our flight , baby slept on pillow a lot of time due to turbulence.

My 9 month old wears the same, but i also tuck a sheet over him and under his mattress (sometimes i double the sheet over, if i think it's really cold), you could perhaps do this before you go to bed/once heating is off, or put heating on a timer to come on for half an hour at one or two in the morning to take the chill out the air....