snowboarder

Oh and that book We need to talk about Kevin. (not tv sorry I know...off topic already). Do not read if pregnant.

I laugh at Outnumbered, but with a stomach churning sense of impending doom....

When does anyone get the time to do running/gyming/weightwatchers/personal trainers?? Unless I go out pre 7am or post 9pm...ah but it's all excuses isn't it?!? Sob....have just eaten a co-op 'truly irresistible mini chocolate classic'.....

Lightlady - it quickly became clear to me that the service the HV's provide was not going to be very helpful - there were a couple of threads about a year ago which make quite painful reading I think:

Here

and

here

There are quite a few private midwife/doulas who seem to offer post natal advice though? And of course this lovely forum...

Tried out the playground this morning - still full of litter - basically chased my small boy around as he tried to drink from abandoned drink bottles.

Looks great but it's now a scary place for me - small boy travels quick and there's so much more mischeif to be had now.....

Thanks, Gina....! This may not be what most of us want to hear......

It is all still v depressing, have to say. Hubby wants to get some nice photos of babysb and us for the grandparents - I just cannot contemplate being captured on camera looking like this.

ED = zone 2 therefore central. In my head suburbs are zone 4+. But I'm just making that up!! Always think of suburbs as 1930's semis....we're far more gritty and urban surely?!?

Good idea.

Goes off to ponder how to word the dulwich mums with gardens will you play with me thread......

Pimlico - wow new mother we are in a very different league!!!

I def wouldn't consider the country - husband is from wilds of Devon and hated it - no transport etc. So its a town or (shudder) the suburbs. Or stay, and accept a patio is as good as it gets. I'm blaming facebook for this new stress by the way - pics of a friends childs birthday party with hoards of kids running round a fab garden!

Somehow the close and obv alternatives like forest hill/brockley/sydenham don't appeal. Is west wickham not nice (am fixated as have seen a lovely house!!)? PLaces further out like Reigate are just as expensive as here I reckon.

Like HH I always wanted a little girl - always imagined having two daughters - I have a sister. I didn't find out the sex at the 20 week scan - don't know why - so the anti climatic feelings you are having now supergolden I had at the birth - alongside all the other shocks and hormones etc!! So I think it's good you know the score now and will get used to it! I still look longingly at little girls and dresses and dolls, can't help it! I don't have all these gushy feelings about my little boy and his character AS a boy rather than a girl - I now just think of him as babysb, not a little boy! I suppose you just get used to it! It makes me more relaxed about the sex of any siblings he may have though - will not mind!!

Smiler yes that's just it. We have a fab house really central to Lordship Lane and I love it. But the garden is 4.5 by 6m, decked. I know we're really lucky to live where we do..and I feel a bit spoilt complaining(!)...but also the schools stress and you can't get a midwife unless you book pre conception etc. I was always vehemently with the 'stay-ers' but now I just don't know. Being a teenager in southern suburbs of Croydon was not too different to here - close to London, easy public transport, small local shopping street, just bigger houses and gardens....but I don't want to live in Croydon!!!! Anyone have friends in West Wickham? Nice-ish High Street, housing stock seems to be bigger semis with gardens, little swimming pool, cheaper than here?

I'd always thought we would stay - imagined babysb at one of the local schools etc. Oh I don't know!! laam where in Surrey are you?

For the first time since we moved to ED 5 yrs ago I started to think this weekend about whether we need to move somewhere else. I suddenly felt sad that we would never be able to afford a house with a garden that babysb and any brothers/sisters he might have could really play in/ride bikes in/have swings in. I grew up in a town in Surrey then school in Croydon (glam!) so I'm a town city person through and through - I don't hanker after the countryside at all - but I just wonder whether there's enough space here for families. I know we have lovely parks but it would be nice to have an afternoon in the garden rather than walking 10/15 mins laden with bikes/picnics etc. And none of the primary schools seem to have any playing fields, which bothers me.

I love it here - lordship lane, shops, baby groups, friends. But is it really a good place for school age kids? Can your kids walk round to their friends and ride their bikes along the roads and you feel ok about it? Tsk just not sure!!

Not thinking we would move far...but go 3/4 miles out and you can get a 4 bd hse with big garden for the price of our 3 bd with courtyard...but would I always be sad we left ED - it's been my favourite place to live so far! What do people think? Those that have stayed with growing families - what do you love - and those that are thinking of moving - well - WHERE??!?

Congrats lEDf! Oh this whole midwife/school etc get your name down early situation is VERY stressful! The price of living in a nice area?!?

For pizza we use bread rolls cut in half, toasted then grilled - or could use pitta or tortilla wraps?

Mellors come and teach me how to be scary firm mummy. Babysb just laughs. I have to admit to not quite employing the you throw food you get down trick - scared he would starve!

And yep - everyhting gets thrown around. He threw a coathanger and his t shirt in the bath last night when I turned away for ONE second.

I will pay him back for this at some point....

Every single bowl available in sainsburys/jojo/mothercare! Suction bowls, fun bowls with little compartments etc etc. I do basically just put one piece of pasta at a time on his tray (forgetting cat was sleeping there just 5 mins ago) but it would be nice to be able to give hima little bowl and let him get on with it, and let me eat too! Even putting more than 4 pieces of pasta sparks off food lobbing.

Ahg maybe I'm just being too controlling! Suction bowls sometimes come off the worst - he gets them off eventually and then food really does fly!!

Thanks all. Am feeling calmer this evening (but have been at work so only had to deal with breakfast!!). Yeah he will sometimes have ellas smoothies and the pouch yoghurts are the only yoghurts he will touch (if at all). Tsk I keep reading annabel bloody karmel who tells me 'toodlers just love lots of brightly coloured vegetables' and that if I make my pizza in a rabbit face shape everyhitng will be ok!

It's the bowl upturning/throwing though. When do they grow out of this? 2?

He does eat better at b/fast and lunch when I eat with him. Supper is the worst as poss a) I don't eat and b) have usually used up my pasta quota for the day!

I know it's easy to look back and say, yeah, realx it will all be fine. I know it will eventually - I don't know many adults who feel the need to regularly turn their entire plate upside down, but it's rather wearing to constantly cook stuff and wipe the floor on your hands and knees 3 times a day every single day. To throw away eg this evening supper - falafal/baked beans/yoghurt/peeled pear. He ate half a falfael and three handfuls of beans. It's just kinda how to get through NOW and have an idea of when it might get better. Or maybe I've just made this happen by indulging him up to now....?

Sorry - bit of a rant - I am seriously about to lose the plot with naughty baby snowboarder and meal time antics. He's a strapping lad so obv something goes in, it's more the limited menu, coercement antics I need to employ and the general mess and food throwing that is actually driving me to shouting at him. He WONT try anything new. He only really voluntarily eats pasta and toast, everything else I have to encourage him to eat. Even lovely brightly coloured fruit just gets squished and lobbed. He demands to play with increasingly bizarre kitchen equipment (blender and a watering can please mummy this evening) or will eat nothing. It's not so much the quantity of what he eats/doesn't eat that I'm bothered about, its the behaviour and the fact that actually he was better at about 7/8 months. AND will it ever get any better?. Have tried all types of stick/non stick food bowls, little sets of cutlery, no bowls, mini sandwich's, fun food etc. We are down to pasta with varying accompanyment for lunch and sausages/omlette/meatballs/home made pizza for supper. Mini falafaels spat and thrown tonight. Vegetables only consumed when hidden in pasta sauce. Just will not even pick most other things up. (Has always refused to be spoon fed, so that's not helpful)

I give UP.

Sunlight has an amazing effect on tomato sauce based stains (and yellow poo!). Also we still use bibs with arms - helps a bit....

I found having a pram type buggy for the newborn phase fab - somewhere for baby to sleep/be safe downstairs, no faffing with straps etc and you can see them all the time...and then converting into a parent facing push chair - we like to chat. I know maclaren might be a sensible choice but you miss out on those things. I have NO idea how good they are but I always thought a bebe confort/maxi cosi streety might be a good slightly more budget option (by budget I'm using bugaboo as ref!!) - I think you get a package with car seat etc?

Possible - had brief moment of respite immediately post piriton. Excited that piriton ok whilst bf. And also it came on fast after getting back from seemingly allergy free hols. Hope you feel better - if it's just a bug this is a pretty long and severe one for me.

baby snowboarder practically had a seizure when I tried to put his cool camo babybanz on him. Despite thinking it hilarious to steal my sunnies. Def try before you buy!!

Not sure if the same thing - I think I have hayfever on top - but I started with a horrid sore throat on thursday, lost my voice by saturday, inredibly snotty today - generally felt rubbish but have had a lot on so had to keep going! Baby sb started on the snot today....