GillianHG

Does anyone have any recommendations for books that are good for preparing a toddler to become a big sibling? My daughter is nearly two (will be 2 and a quarter when new baby arrives). She loves books and tends to talk about them a lot even when we aren't reading, so I'm hoping to find a few good ones about being a big sister to try to best prepare her. I'm not sure how much she understands of the situation at the moment, she knows there's a baby in my tummy, but I'm not sure she understands that it will come out! (To be fair, that's a pretty crazy concept!!). Any suggestions greatly appreciated!

Hi all, I'm due on 3 Feb with my second (am I the first February baby?). My daughter turns two in October and I met a wonderful group of ladies through this forum when I was pregnant with her - we're all still great friends! I'd be keen to join you all, but am away for most of August. Hope to join you for the September meet up! -Gillian

Our daughter has been at Le Nid for about 6 weeks now. She is 19 months old and had been attending a nursery near my husband's work, which I was really happy with, so was worried about moving her, but the rush hour commute was getting to be way too much for her, and I was impressed with what I saw at Le Nid. I am generally really happy with Le Nid, I would agree with Sanda on pretty much everything! We too have been a little disappointed with staff turnover and sometimes lack of communication about this and other things, but I'm really hopeful that that is just initial teething problems, and will soon settle down. I just make sure to ask loads of questions and make sure I always know what's going on (at the risk of being an annoying parent!). Our daughter absolutely loves nursery, she gets excited every morning when we turn down the road to get there, so that must be a good thing!

Sorry - just seen the massive recent thread on this!! Reading with interest...

Just wondering whether anyone has got the Men B shots recently anywhere locally? We're thinking of getting it done for our 16 month old. There's been so much attention brought to this in the last month or so and I hear that everyone is low on stocks and it's very difficult to get now. Any advice? Also, how long do you have to wait after MMR as she's due to get her second dose of that next week. Thanks!

Thanks all. I've contacted all the London music shops and dealers and am remaining hopeful. I agree that they probably wouldn't know it was a viola, so am going with 'large violin' to pawn shops, etc!

Our flat on Lordship Lane (near Melbourne Grove) was burgled on or around 29 January while we were on holiday. Our cat sitter had been in on the 28th then discovered that the back door had been kicked in when she was back on the morning of the 30th. There must have been a huge loud noise, as half the door was locked through, so if anyone heard anything like that, please let me know. I know the neighbours have been canvassed by the police, and they haven't found anyone who heard or saw anything, but thought I'd try here too. Some jewellery and other sentimental items were taken, but most importantly, my viola was taken which I am absolutely devastated about. If anyone spots it in a local charity shop please let me know asap. Info attached. Thank you!

Yes - my husband posted a couple weeks ago, our car was badly keyed parked in that very same spot. I have also posted a while back about our previous car which on three separate occassions was keyed and had wing mirrors smashed or pulled off, all while parked on Melbourne Grove near Mr Liu's. Really sorry to hear you have also been a victim of this totally senseless vandalism. I would encourage you to report it to the police, even if you're not going to make an insurance claim or anything as the more incidents they are aware of, the more they can get foot patrols out in the area at night when these things are happening. We've already lost hundreds of pounds (that we really don't have spare!) getting the vandalism repaired and haven't yet decided what to do about the latest one, as I will lose my no claims discount if we claim again, but the scratches are so deep that it's going to require new panels, which is extremely expensive. Every time I think about it, it makes me feel sick.

Hi all, sorry to resurrect a very old thread, but wondered if anyone has recent experience of long haul flights with a Bugaboo Cameleon and whether you would recommend the travel bag? My baby will be 4.5 months old when we fly and I do want to bring our Bugaboo because we're going for 3 weeks and will be doing lots of walking with the buggy, so would like her to be in the sturdy one she's used to. We'll definitely bring the baby bjorn and soft sling as well, so maybe best to get the travel bag and check the whole buggy when we check our bags and just carry her to the gate in the sling, or is it a lot easier to take the buggy to the gate? Any advice greatly appreciated (nervous first time mum here)!

I had pethidine during my labour at Kings in October. I was really hoping for a water birth with only gas and air, but it turned out I had a very stubborn baby who didn't want to come out, and so had to be on a drip which meant no lovely water birth for me. I used gas and air only for about 8 hours then decided I needed something stronger and the pethidine was great for me. I know some people have bad reactions to it (nausea, etc), but it really was a god send for me at that point! After having the injection, I managed to sleep on and off for a couple hours, which was very good because I had at that point been up for about 36 hours, so I don't know how I would have made it through the final stage without that little rest. The only thing I would say is that the midwife told me afterwards that she thought having the pethidine probably slowed my labour down a bit (my baby was born about 7 hours after having the pethidine), but to be honest, I didn't really care and wouldn't have done anything differently. Wishing you lots of luck. Everyone says the second baby is a lot easier, so I'm sure you'll be great!

I was told by my antenatal teacher, a midwife at Kings, that they don't do any private maternity - you can't pay for any additional services there.

Really sorry to hear this. I've put a few posts on here about our car also being keyed (on several different occasions) whilst parked on Melbourne Grove. We bit the bullet and paid our insurance excess to get it fixed and now have it under a car cover which is annoying but will hopefully stop any further vandalism. I would encourage you to report it to the police if you haven't already. When we spoke to them after the third incident of keying they said the more people who report these things, the more likelihood they can have more foot patrols in the area and hopefully either catch or deter the person/people doing it.

How about the Imperial War Museum? Kennington Park is good for walks during the day and there's a cafe there too. I lived in Kennington for a few years and we were big fans of Amici's Italian restaurant which also has a cafe called Il Due Amici which is good too. Good luck. Brilliant thing to be doing.

There was an accident involving a van and a motorcycle. When I walked past the motorcyclist was being attended to by paramedics in the road and was conscious and sitting up, so hopefully he's ok.

I have written on a couple of threads on here about vandalism to our car over the last few months whilst parked on Melbourne Grove, right near Lordship Lane. After 3 separate incidents of keying and two deliberately broken wing mirrors (pavement side both times), we bought a car cover which has been doing the trick for the last couple of weeks. Well, yesterday evening we found that the car cover has been stolen! I wondered whether it could have blown off, but it was specifically fitted to our mini and tucked under the bumpers so someone would have had to deliberately taken it off. We are so frustrated and annoyed and really don't know what to do. Has anyone else been experiencing these sorts of ongoing problems? We've now been quoted nearly ?1000 to fix the damage and will likely claim on insurance (which I really don't want to do...) but we're worried that if we get it fixed it will just happen again.

If you want to venture to Brixton, I saw a bunch of nice ones yesterday in TK Maxx!

I was just about to start a similar thread. My drivers side wing mirror was smashed a few weeks ago (pavement side, so definitely not by a car), then just days after having it fixed, the passenger side mirror (again pavement side) has been ripped off. This happened this past Wednesday night whilst parked on Melbourne Grove at the corner of Lordship Lane. Both of these incidents follow two incidents of keying of our car over the last couple of months, which we've been quoted ?700 to fix as they're very deep. I would encourage you to report these incidents to the police - we've just been speaking to them and they said although there's nothing they can do, the more people report these incidents, the more chance they'll get budget to have officers patrolling the area at night. I've noticed other cars parked near where we live which have also been keyed, so I think things are happening a lot.

Hi all! I'm expecting my first on 13 October and would love to get to know others in the area and get advice from those of you with experience! I can't do weekdays either, but evenings or weekends are generally good for me. So glad to be living in East Dulwich with such an active community and lots of like minded people :-)

So in addition to our car being keyed again in the last week or so while parked on Melbourne Grove (right near Lordship lane), it has now also had the driver side wing mirror smashed in. This looks very deliberate and was on the pavement side of the car, like someone just walked past and punched it. I discovered this yesterday morning whilst getting in the car to take my dad to the airport and spent much of the ride convincing him that East Dulwich is really a lovely place to live, and is really very safe, we just seem to have a major problem with car vandals. I'm so angry and going to have to shell out for a new wing mirror now on top of fixing the two spots where it has been keyed. We have reported this to the police now and I would encourage anyone else who has had even minor vandalism to their cars to do the same, as I hope that will help them take it all seriously.

My car door was keyed on Melbourne Grove about a month ago. Luckily not as bad as poor Annasfield, but a very deliberate looking large squiggle. Really, really annoying.