Princess

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. We did think of relocating the gates into doorways. However, it would seem our door frames are hollow and the pressure just cracked and split the door surrounds (we now have some very attractive holes in the door frame. Grrr). Molly, I think your idea might work at the bottom of the stairs and that's my immediate concern for now. I think we'll just have to have very sharp eyes when it comes to the step down into the kitchen and hope that we move before he can escape and go anywhere near the top of the stairs without either of us being around!

Thanks for the reviews Snowboarder and Fuschia. It sounds as if the roller blind solution is a lot of money for something that isn't really very practical. Right Unkle_Paulie, it's back to the drawing board. There has to be a solution to our oddly shaped, paper thin walls and rickety old banister somewhere!

Sorry to crash your thread Unkle_Paulie but I know you won't mind ;-). Fuschia, we've been looking at these but they look a bit 'flimsy'. Are they really sturdy and how quickly does a toddler figure out how to open them?!

Vicky from Fitness for mummies http://www.fitnessformummies.co.uk/ is ?35 an hour if it's just you on your own. If you do it with another mummy it works out cheaper. She also does great group sessions.

I would like to clarify that I don't think it's the Health Visitors that are at fault. I think they, like the midwives affiliated to the various GP practices are crippling under the sheer volume of work they have to deal with. Personally, I would pay for a private Health Visitor next time around. I would appreciate one on one care and to be honest anything that saves me waiting in the waiting room for 2.5 hours (this happened twice) with a tiny baby has got to be worth every penny!

I do think there is a market for this kind of service. I felt very isolated in the early days when my health visitor made two appointments to come and see me and then just didn't turn up. As a result, we have used healthvisitordirect.com to help us with various issues.

This has been the topic of conversation in the Princess family for the last couple of months. Do we? Don't we? and then of course, where? We love ED and the community we have built up over the various stages of our lives. Current thinking is the South coast Hove, Brighton, Eastbourne, Worthing kind of way as an interim move based on the fact it's commutable, has good schools/nurseries, we can get a good sized 4 bed detatched house with a large garden, off road parking, and we can easily get to surf a few times a week. Then ultimately we're hoping to go to Cornwall somewhere around St Ives but that'll have to wait until Mr P is ready to leave his job in London.

Oops just read the cat flap solution isn't suitable with children for entrapment reasons. Oh well I hope our old cats will find a way over it!

Thanks Emski, that's really useful. I hadn't thought about the cats but the catflap will be ideal for us too. Who'd have thought buying a stairgate could be so complicated!

After doing endless hours of research, I decided which stairgate we needed and was about to press "buy" when I noticed we have a wall to fix one side of the stairgate onto, but on the other side there is only a wooden, carved spindle. There is no flat surface to attach brackets to. I can't imagine we're the only one's with stairs like this so has anyone else found a solution to safely fitting a stairgate? And which one did you go for?

Ladybird Books have some great home learning aids at the moment. They have flashcards, a great new phonics series and have revamped the Read it Yourself series we all remember from our childhood. There are various levels to help children transition through those first steps in reading and writing. http://www.ladybird.co.uk/ And "Yes" I admit it I do work for them!

I recently arranged one for 13 forumites. We got London Ambulance to come out for us free of charge one Saturday morning and we hired The Herne Tavern function room for ?20. As we left, The Herne did say if anyone else wanted to run a similar course they would offer the function room for free providing a member of staff could be trained in return. It was super easy to arrange and lovely to meet some of the forum members in person. If you need any more details feel free to PM me.

I like you, am not a big shopper and got quite a few bits online from http://www.seraphine.com/ Really good quality t-shirts, jeans, denim skirts etc and super easy to return things if they didn't fit. I also had some success with ASOS. Again it was easy to return the few bits that didn't fit or I just didn't like.

Thanks Keef. Now I think about it you can buy a little bit of fabric for our travel cot that converts it into a sunshade tent thing. I've ordered one which will hopefully be here in time for this weekend. That, combined with a bit of Ambre Solaire, a hat, sunglasses, long sleeve thin top, comfy linen pants, sun cover for the buggy and we should be fully protected. I hope he doesn't get rickets from the lack of sunshine now!

Currently sat under a shady tree in the park as I type!! We do obviously cover up and stay out of the sun as much as possible but we often find ourselves cheering daddy on at triathlons etc where shade is pretty non existent. I have some Ambre Solaire kids stuff I might just try this weekend. I agree you can read too much!!!

My little one is almost 6 months and I'm really confused as to what sunscreen is safe to use on him. Having read so many articles, I know you aren't supposed to use anything until they're six months, but then, there's a whole load of conflicting advice as to which sunscreens (even the organic and natural ones) are safe to use and from what age! We asked the Health Visitor yesterday and to be honest she was as clueless as I was. If anyone can point me towards something that is safe to use on small babies, I would appreciate it. Px

We have two cats too. One was, and still is a real lap cat and the other couldn't really give two hoots as long as her food and water bowls are full. Neither cat has been a problem, (other then sneakily curling up in a vacant bouncy chair or buggy). There is, as we've discovered plenty of room for a 5 month old baby and a 13 year old cat on my lap!

Absolutely agree Snowboarder. In my pre baby life, I ran an office of creatives, resolved difficult (sometimes impossible) situations, pretty nearly always delivered what was needed of me on (if not ahead) of schedule within budget etc etc. Therefore, I found it so hard to admit to people that my 'new job' was hard and I really wasn't coping very well. A support service would have been amazing for me, and would be something I would be really interested in getting involved with in the future.

I had the dream genii and was disappointed with it. I found I had to have another ordinary pillow behind me to stop me rolling and it got quite squashed and flat between my legs. In hindsight I wouldn't buy one again but, having said that it will probably be used if I ever have a second baby.

I second everything Belle said. It was so hard and I thought it'd never change. I thought I'd have a newborn forever! My little one's five months old now and I already really struggle to recall just how hard those early days were. I guess that's the way it works or very few people would have more then one baby.

There's Lorenzo. We're going to get him to take some snaps when Baby Princess is just a weeny bit older and can sit up etc. http://www.lorenzophotography.co.uk/

You have my sympathy. We had thrush for about 10 weeks. Did the doc prescribe you the circular gel dressings? They really were amazing and made the excruciating pain a little more bearable immediately.

Naps I can't comment on!! After 8 weeks of 2 naps a day, one for an hour and one for 3 hours we seem to be moving into a 4 shorter naps a day pattern. As long as he still sleeps through I'm prepared to follow his lead on the naps!

Hi Saila, My little one has responded really well to routine too. Mine too is based on Gina but tweaked a little. We started at 12 weeks and he went through exactly the same thing as you at about 4 months. I had started to pull back the 10pm feed by 10 mins each night so that ultimately we would be in a position to cut it out completely and we got to about 9pm and he was out for the count so one night I risked it. Much to my surprise he slept through. He's now 5 months and sleeps quite happily 7pm - 7am every night. As for the breakfast feed. Again the same thing happened at around the same time. I thought he'd be starving at 7am but he only really has 10 mins on my boob (about half a feed). I have noticed he makes sure he takes full feeds at all his other feeds throughout the day taking a smaller one again just before bed. After much 'first time mum' worrying I know he's putting on good weight and generally seems contented so I figure he knows when and how much he wants and I've just got to relax a bit about it (easier said than done). Good luck Princess

I second the Mamma mip stuff especially the boob cream.