Maki

Hello!! I'm currently spending all my spare time researching where we can go to this summer in August. Me, partner, 2 children 5 and 2 yrs old. We don't like resorts much, and we would like to stay somewhere that is walking distance to an interesting village/town and a beach/river, but also a pool. Our budget is tight, which is an issue!! We found heaven in Cirali, Turkey but are priced out with the flights. So.....we have found reasonable priced flights to Athens and Bologna. Does anyone know of a nice guest house or b&b with a pool that would fit the bill within a drive or train ride from Athens or Bologna? And I know I'm asking for the world here but if it was somewhere that did evening meals (even if occasionally) that would be awesome! Our budget for the accommodation ?1200 for 10 days or 2wks....

Very recently i have read both 'Sister' and 'The Wood Cutter' and found them both un-put-down-able! Reading 'The Slap' at the moment, haven't got into it yet but think that's because I've just discovered Angry Birds on my new swanky phone and am a little bit addicted! Other easy reading books I love are 'The Road' Jack Keroac, 'On the Road' Cormac McCarthy, 'Charlotte Grey' Seb faulks, 'The Book Theif'. Pls excuse spelling and grammar - I'm sleepy now - about to take Ovaltine and Angry Birds to bed :)

Yep, my husband has also no option to change his hours. He works in Engineering and he said he would actually fear for his progression in the future if he even mentioned it! We would love to both work 4 days a week and could cope financially with this but it's just not a possibility because of the inflexible nature of the Engineering sector and probably every other male dominated industry out there.

Hello! You are not alone! I work 4 9 hour days in a high pressured role, but we're out of the house for 12 hours each day with a toddler and I'm 10 weeks pregnant. I also do all the drop offs and pick ups! Very luckily I am not suffering with morning sickness, and I only make dinner half of the time. I really feel for you as I cannot imagine having those added pressures. Love the idea of getting food delivered but have no idea how people afford that! Shame to say that the advice I will give my daughter is to try not be the breadwinner in the relationship she settles in because earning the most and being the mum is bloomin hard work as you have no option but to work a lot of hours and I don't want to!! Boo hoo hoo!!

Yes, I used a close sling and loved it - even managed to breastfeed with baby in it whilst I did housework! It was really comfortable, easy to put on and I think it looks quite stylish too. My only negative would be that I in no way needed quite so much material, so the excess hung down to my knees, but I got used to it quite quickly.

We have just booked 2 weeks in Turkey but done it independently and it will cost about ?1300 for almost everything for 3 of us. We are flying with BA to Istanbul, staying in a family run guest house for 3 nights, then getting internal flights down to the south. We are staying in Cirali for 11 nights which has had wonderful write ups and the place we are staying at is 90 euros a night for all 3 of us to stay in a wooden bungalow with evening meals and breakfast. Here's the place we are going to (number 5). http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2010/jun/22/turkey-top-10-beaches And the accommodation: http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g311312-d610055-Reviews-Canada_Hotel_Cirali_Olympos-Cirali_Turkish_Mediterranean_Coast.html We are going in late May / early June so I think this has made it a little cheaper than going in the peak of summer but I do think if you look at independent holidays you will get a holiday for much less than ?4k if you look around. Good Luck!

My mum is a dentist 2 days a week and the rest of the week is an Oral health promoter, and she is tooth obsessed!! I have had so much advise from her it's quite nice to see a thread where I can use it a bit! Basically, juice that you can freshly squeeze yourself is much better than shop bought juice as the sugars have been less processed and therefore not as corrosive to the baby teeth. However, it's best if you do have to give a child juice to give it with food, and as others have mentioned not to brush the teeth for a good hour afterwards. The baby molars are so soft and they decay much faster than adult teeth so this is why it's important to clean them properly. We battle every night too, but even if I can't brush them all properly I always make sure that the molars have been cleaned at least. Some tips my mum has given me (which have worked intermittently), is to let your toddler clean your teeth and then you swap. This can be quite fun but also shows how intrusive it can feel to them! The trick that works best for us is I clean Ayla's teeth for 5 seconds then she sucks her toothbrush for 5 seconds and on and on we go!! Other things my mum has said is that the latest thinking is that it's best not to rinse the toothpaste off the teeth (goes for adults and babies), as the fluoride is good for the teeth. She recommends that you use an adult toothpaste. Her personal fav is Pronamel. And I hate to be the bearer of bad news but my mum and my dentist have both said that raisins are a really bad idea as they are sugary and sticky and perfect size for getting stuck in the molar crevice for periods of time. I have to admit though that I still give Ayla raisins as it's such an easy snack and she loves them....just don't tell my mum!! ha ha

I think she (on very approx ave) is getting 4 hours of good quality sleep and 5 hours of either being wide awake or in a very light sleep. The thing is during the day she is an angel, so I'm very lucky in a lot of respects that she is so happy when she's awake (this has not always been the case), and weirdly when she was sleeping 12 hours through the night about 6 weeks ago she was driving me mad with how demanding she was being. I couldn't do a thing without her being carried. Very strange indeed.... I do think maybe it's a developmental thing because she is a real chatterbox and we are now having (very repetitive) conversations, but conversations none the less. Yesterday on the drive home from nursery we talked for 30 mins about how the potatoes for dinner would be hot, not cold, but hot and if Ayla blows on them they will become warm. Also she would like them with some butter and cheese. These facts were repeated over and over for AGES!! Made me smile though :) Thanks for your sympathy susyp and sorry to hear that you also have bad nights. Funnily enough we haven't tried music yet but we are reverting back to the white noise that we used when she was first born as we're hoping it will help with her not hearing other household noises. Unfortunately, 4 days out of 7 she is at nursery so I don't have control every day about whether she gets lots of exercise but they seem to be pretty good at it (they go outside even in rain and snow which I think is great). Wishing everyone good sleeps tonight xx

Yes, Ayla hasn't needed a daytime nap now for a few months. Having 'watched' her trying to sleep for a few nights in a row now I can definitley say that the problem is that she is in a light sleep for up to 5 hoursin the night without ever slipping into a deep enough sleep that she doesn't wake at the slightest noise (like me getting up out of the chair beside her. So, I've tried to be a bit more chilled about things and we are now just doing anything we can to get a bit more sleep ourselves so we are keeping her up until about 10pm, then she generally wakes at 1am and needs one of us to be with her until 4am, but at least because she is waing at 1am rather than 11pm, it means we are getting a couple of hours extra sleep which makes a lot of difference. Cheers for all the advice, I'm sure it will pass. I just would like to know when and if I can do anything to help it pass more quickly! Ha!

Thanks everyone for your replies. You are right I shouldn't be so hard on myself, but it gets to a point when you haven't slept for 3 hours in a row for a month that you start losing perspective! Anyway, last night we cut our losses and decided to try her in a big bed and it was so wonderful putting her into it and seeing how excited and happy she was to go to bed and have stories and songs lying down, and after an hour of sitting by her she went to sleep. She did wake twice in the night and the first time it took her and hour and a half of me sitting by her to go to sleep, then my husband did the next wake up and was too tired and cold to sit by her so climbed in with her, and she went to sleep stright away. We will start doing the gradual withdrawal method at the weekend. Does anyone have any practical advice on this method? Any positive experiences?? Corrie - May, we have done the controlled crying method, when she was 8 months old (we were referred to a sleep clinic it was so bad!) and actually she slept through after the 3rd night, but we have had to do it over and over again whenever anything changes, new tooth, a holiday, staying with friends etc etc, and each time it got harder and longer to work and now that she is able to talk and get out of her cot it's just not an option I feel we have anymore. I think she has just always been a very light sleeper with the added problem of not being able to settle herself back to sleep. Anyway, enough moaning. I had a lovely morning so far, had a lie in as Mr maki took her to nursery for once and I'm 'working' from home today!! Tea time i think!

Having just spent an age coaxing my 2 year old to go to sleep and knowing that she will wake up around 12pm and not go back to sleep until approx 5am, I am starting to wonder where we have gone wrong!! This mixed with my partner and I deciding to try for another baby in the next few months (when toddler starts sleeping again!) has meant I am questioning everything we have done for her and whether we would change anything with the next one, and I think the answer is 'yes, lots!'. I think I would be a bit more open minded about trying to set a bit of a routine from the outset as I was very much totally baby led and I'm not sure this has been the most settling thing for our baby, although I also believe it depends upon personality. I would also not move house 3 times in 2 years as this has unsettled her, and i think I would also try and take a year off and make sure I can afford it rather than 9 months, and likewise with the numbers of days i work. I would desperatley try and reduce it to 3 days a week, and forgo an overseas holiday (and start shopping in Iceland!) I would be really interested to hear what others may do differently, esp regarding parenting style. Having been very baby led and having a v good friend be very routine led and seeing such vastly different toddlers now, I am starting to question whether the Gina Ford route is really as 'selfish' as I thought initially, or whether it does actually lead to a more contented baby?? I don't mean to offend anyone, just fessing up on my own mistakes and uncertainties.

I'm flying with Virgin - does anyone know if they have this car seat thing?? I am all set to beg and plead - I'm even going to dres her up in her cutest outfit to see if that helps our cause!

Thankyou all so much for the advice! I should have guessed that H&S would dictate no sleeping on floors anymore. I guess the way to go is to beg to be allocated next to any spare seats, to take some drugs (for me too!), and not to expect too much. Unfortunatley I have lent my sling to another one of our friends for their hol Alieh!! It's silly, but I don't fly long haul too much and I find it exciting normally and get really keyed up to try and stay awake to watch as many films as possible snd I'm a bit sad that my stance has now changed so dramatically! Oh well! The way back will be something else though as we're getting a bus from Heathrow back to Stroud (4 hours). Ha! I must be a little nuts..

Hello Lovely ED'ers, I am going on a v last minute trip with my nearly 2 year old to SA, an 11 hour flight. We won't be taking the buggy which is the only sure way of getting her asleep and as she is under 2 and I am traveling on my own with her we will only have our seat and a bit of floor. I am now panicking - how on earth am I going to cope for 11 hours with a 2 stone dead weight on my lap? How will I go to the loo? She has always been a light sleeper and regularly gets out of the habit of sleeping (was awake from 10pm to 5am on Sunday night) and this is something else that concerns me. Does anyone have any good tips as to how to get her to sleep?? I know she won't sleep if she can see me so I'm bringing a sarong and some double sided sticky tape and pegs!! But I have no idea if this will work in reality and also unless I get a spare seat next to me there won't be any spare room on the floor.. Any other ideas?? I'm bringing a bag full of goodies that she's not seen before in case she doesn't sleep, but given we've a 2 hour train journey to get to the airport first I think most of these things will have been exhausted by the time we get on the plane. Any tips would be much appreciated!!

I haven't done this on a long haul flight but something I always do on any long journey (normally train) is to start collecting bits and peices for a 'suprise package' - things she has not seen before. I let her take out one item at a time and usually each thing gets at least a 10 min inspection and hopefully sometimes a further 20 mins entertainment before I give let her take out the next thing. Could be a little toy animal, a picture, a peice of fruit, a straw (when she was smaller!), some buttons in a little box, a wooden peg made into a dolly etc etc Hard work collecting it all but I really find this works!! Trouble is the older they get the more things they have seen so fewer things amaze them!