LeilahB

We used one with our daughter (now 4.5 months old) but ditched them a coouple of weeks ago as she was waking every hour and needing the dummy to settle herself. We're trying to teach her to self-settle instead and the night wakenings are definitely less frequent since we ditched the dummy (fingers crossed!)

Quick question on Millpond - how old were your babies when you used them? Wondering whether 4 months is too young? Our daughter is waking every hour and it's driving me mad!

Mine is 18 weeks old and also waking every 1-2 hours through the night. We had been using a dummy to settle her but having been up every hour last night to replace the dummy we're ditching them. Have just spent 1.5 hours trying to settle her without a dummy though to no avail. Not sure what to do now. Is desperately hard - you both have all my sympathies!

One of my daughters' eyes has started to veer off in a rather worrying way. She is 2.5 and am a bit worried. Can anyone recommend a good eye specialist for toddlers? Thanks

So how does one get them to sleep through (ie learn to self settle if they wake in periods of light sleep) without resorting to controlled crying (which am not keen on)?

We go to All Saints in West Dulwich, having tried St Barnabas for a bit, and given up. It's a lovely welcoming church, full of young families and the set up is great with a kids corner to one side of the main congregation with drawing/toys etc so that parents can participate in the service with young kids (there is also a junior church for 3+). They also hold a "Small Saints" service on Fridays at 10am - which is a mini service for toddlers (about 10 min or so with bell-ringing at the beginning), followed by playing/craft activities for the toddlers and coffee for the mums. We really love going.

Toddlers yoga at brockwell lido at 10am on Monday is on.

also, dulwich village pre-school (although I've heard mixed reports) and mustard seeds in herne hill.

Thanks so much for all the feedback, Fidgetsmum - I should probably know this given that I'm looking at a montessori nursery, but what do you mean by some children being suited to a montessori system and some not? What type of children would you say are/are not suited? Thanks, L

Oh dear. What was the problem with dulwich village pre-school? Mustard seeds still seems really nice.

Hello all - I've been looking at lots of nurseries for my 2.5 year old (1/2 day ones rather than full day care ones) and went to visit the montessori on half moon lane this morning. I absolutely loved the feel of the place - the kids seemed really happy and were doing yoga classes (!), the manager was really friendly, the space was great etc - definitely my favourite of the ones I've seen so far (dulwich village pre-school, BUDs, HH school and mustard seeds). My daughter's quite shy and this will be her first experience of being out of the home on her own as it were, so I am keen to get it right for her. Anyway, I just wanted to canvas opinions and see what others have made of it and whether there are others I should look at (although at this stage, I am slightly running out of steam!) Thanks, L

we're using the grobag 'miracle' swaddle which seems to keep her trussed up pretty well (also long but 25% weight)

I had a VBAC in November and it went really well - was intending to have a HBAC but I think I over-estimated my pain barrier and ended up admitting myself to Kings (where they discovered I was fully dilated and therefore couldn't have the epidural I wanted anyway!) Was with the Brierley who were great - my midwife there said that they have a couple of VBACs a month on average (a number of which are HBACs) so it can't be that unusual. Maybe worth giving them a shout to discuss?

We still swaddle our daughter (13 months) and I think with our first we carried on really rather late (think it was until about 4 months, but then I could be wrong as I can't seem to remember much from first time round!) Am planning on carrying on with the swaddle for a while longer as it seems to settle her and she is sleeping pretty well in the night.

What and where is gym babes? Sounds intriguing!

I have an electric madela one we are not using if you want to borrow it? We're in herne hill.

Oysters! Delicious, require no cooking and light enough not to fill you up before massive Christmas lunch.

My daughter (6 weeks yesterday) did exactly the same last night (although cried quite a lot as well) - just wouldn't go to sleep despite clearly being knackered (kept falling asleep on the boob and then wide awake as soon as I put her down). No idea why. Hope tonight is better for us both!

Not sure about vacuum at 3am!! But suspect that if it continues like this, then in a week or so's time, I'll be willing to try anything. Needless to say, right now she's sound asleep (and has been for an hour and a half) to the noise of R4 and the dishwasher, having slept through a rather noisy lunch with my in-laws and toddler!

Thanks for all the tips everyone. Newcomer - I've been doing the night feeds in bed lying down, practically in the dark (illuminated only by the light of my blackberry!) so I don't think it's stimulation, and I've been unswaddling her, doing one side, and then re-swaddling her and sometimes she takes the other boob as well. It is quite cold in our room, so I might try putting my hot water bottle in her moses basket to warm it before putting her down (by that time of night, it's lukewarm rather than hot), and I haven't been very good at winding her (she doesn't seem to need it during the day) as I haven't wanted to wake her up any more than necessary, but maybe I should do that as well? Love the radio idea, but given that she's in our room at the moment, it might drive us mad (although perhaps not as much as the current lack of sleep!)

My 5 week old struggles to get back to sleep after feeding at night and we're finding the lack of sleep difficult to cope with! She sleeps pretty soundly till the first feed (2/3am) but then doesn't seem to settle after that. A friend suggested playing a white noise CD when we put her down after the feed - has anyone else found that this helps? And if so, does anyone have any suggestions for specific CDs (there seem to be quite a lot out there). Many thanks! L

I"m here as well doing first feed of the night - hate these night feeds. Does anyone else's baby make loads of grunting noises post-feed? Mine does and it makes it really difficult to go back to sleep again.

I'd be interested in that as well - do let me know if you manage to track one down! Thanks, L

thanks for all the tips - annoyingly the jojo ones seem to be out of stock on the website but i'll try ebay and the other suggestions.

By the time it arrives the snow will probably (hopefully) be gone but does anyone know where I can get an all in one snowsuit for a 2 1/2 year old girl? I've tried mothercare, gap and john lewis on line but all the ones they do tend to be for smaller babies and have booties attached. I want one that she can go playing in without getting too cold (preferably waterproof as well). Thanks! L