Yak

I love it that we are already talking about the next drinks - hmm, maybe quarterly Family Room pub outings / crawls are in order ;-)

Right, I've booked us an area at the Mag (Magnolia pub, 211 Lordship Lane) from 7.30 on Thursday 27th October. If it looks like more than 30 of us will be there, I can book the room upstairs instead. So keep those RSVPs coming... Really looking forward to it - bring on that glass of vino!

I'm calling the Mag today to try & book some space - will report back & update thread title if so. Would be great to see winter babies mums, bumps & dads!

It's very much open to all - posters & lurkers alike! Would be good to get an idea of numbers just for the pub tho - so let me know if you're planning on coming.

Surely this is the point of playgroups? Lots of plastic & electric noise-making toys (which I absolutely hate) for them to get excited about, leaving home clear for lovely wooden educational toys & books? *cue hollow laughter from experienced parents*

We went through this for a couple of weeks at around the 4 month mark, but it did pass. I do remember so clearly that feeling of everything being like back at square one, so you are not alone! We're now weaning (just shy of 6 months) which has also caused a bit of sleep regression (due to milk being more calorificly dense than other foodstuffs).

Anyone up for a glass of wine one night to talk about cool things and/or poo? Depending on numbers we could book a room at a pub. How does Thursday 27 October sound? Edited to add hat tips to snowborder, saffron, mothersmeeting and others for the idea!

The plural of anecdotes isn't data, but for what it's worth my August born brother was a classic late developer - middleish through most of primary school, terrible yr 9 results, ok GCSEs, good A levels, a first class degree at Uni and is now a research fellow at Oxford.

Bee74, I think I know you in real life and I have a miracle blanket you're welcome to borrow. PM me and I'll drop it round. It was a life saver for us!

Motherease wrap plus motherease nappy plus pampers babydry works a treat on my lanky baby - again, it wasn't so much about increasing volume as getting good bum coverage, if you see what I mean. There's a thread I started a couple of months ago called heavy wetter at night I can dig out for you....

How about Thursday? After all, Thursday is the new Friday. Yes please to food. I am tempted to suggest that we should come dressed as per the bonkers parents thread - complete with wonky hair dos, dead / mangled animals and deeply unfashionable clothes etc. Only joking!

A great idea - though be warned it is extremely busy and popular with mums and babies, so you'll probably need to book a table. It is really lovely though.

Snowborder - yes yes yes!

For me, it's always the father/son songs that get me. So I'd chuck into the mix Vehicles and Animals by Athlete, the Living Years by Mike and the Mechanics, and the Dive by Show of Hands. The last one is not well known but it's based on a true story about a father and son who go diving off the South Devon coast. The son dives but his marker buoy floats away, so when the son resurfaces his Dad and the boat aren't there and the night is closing in. The song's about what happens next and what the son wishes for his own children. Has me in floods every time. And that Google chrome ad has a lot to answer for. Definite wet eyes here every time that ad plays.

Some great bonkers parenting moments on this thread, which makes me wonder what the next generation will say about our parenting decisions in 20 / 30 years time.... For more years than I care to admit, I was forced to go to ballet classes. Ideal for small, petite girls. Not a good choice for an unco-ordinated and lanky tomboy - I'm 5'11" now and was always a head higher than my contemporaries. So I was consigned to be dressed up as the snowman around which everyone danced the snow dance, or - in my crowning moment - standing behind a windmill to turn the sails while everyone else did a clog dance. Yet when I asked to join the local athletics club after running 100m in 12.9 secs aged 13, my parents said no. Baffling.

How about Sunshine House on Peckham Road? Not sure if you can self-refer there, but maybe worth a shot. Good luck!

Have sent you a pm with my details, lydiap

Yep, the trio of asthma, ezcema and hayfever are often linked. I have asthma, mild ezcema & psoriasis. Poor little yaklet (5.5 months) has had some eczema and currently has a lovely wheezy death rattle cough so I think he may be in for the same thing. It all depends on the severity, but it needn't necessarily stop your little one from enjoying life to the full. Sounds like you're doing all the right things!

I tend to agree with Ratty - in those manic newborn days when basic speech evades you, you really need your other half to know where the spare vests / cot sheets etc are. I found our collective decluttering quite a bonding experience. I love the idea of food though - maybe worth thinking of vouchers etc you can cash in too? We were inundated with food for the first week or two but it was about 6 weeks in that it would have come in useful. A lot of people may have relatives staying for the first fortnight or so - it's once the relatives go & paternity leave comes to an end that things can get tough. Again, just my personal preference but a trip to a local shop to pick up bread / milk was a good reason to get out & about without being too exhausting. I suppose it depends hue far away the local shops are! We are just starting weaning (puree before going for BLW approach) so will let you have thoughts on that as it progresses.

Lydiab - absolutely! Quite a few of us are SE15 or SE5 based. If we are able to shake our collective coughs & colds, we'll be there - nearer 3.30 than 2.30 for us. Day 3 of enforced confinement is sending both of us up the wall!

Sally81, I'm going back to work F/T and will be putting Yaklet in nursery F/T when he turns one, for similar reasons to you. I am sure it all will be well. Babies are incredibly adaptable, I think - more so than us parents in my case! Before too long maybe you and I will be wondering what all the fuss was about (while fretting over the next parenting issue that rears its head). Personally, the thought of trying to fit my job or part of my job into a P/T position would only add to the stress of returning to work. Best of luck and let us know how you get on!

No suggestions to add to those above but I wonder if it could be a positioning issue? I remember in the early days it was far easier to position the baby on one boob than the otherr and that we ended up in a cycle of favouring one more than the other which temporarily affected the supply in the unfavoured boob. If it's painful it's definitely worth getting it checked out sooner rather than later. Good luck!

Definitely park weather for these growing Spring babies! Not sure of our plans for this week but I'll keep an eye on the thread and turn up if we can.

Agh, how miserable for you - all of you!Do you think your little one would take a bottle of EBM? I know I have far more milk in the morning than at night, so if your girl is genuinely hungry a dreamfeed might tank her up enough to go for longer between stretches. When we introduced a dreamfeed at 10/11pm, the yaklet woke for about a week at the previous time at which he was waking for food (about 2pm) even though he wasn't hungry - it was just habit. I did a very gentle form of controlled crying (giving him a comfort feed of 20 secs or less standing over his cot while rocking him), reducing it to literally lifting him up and putting him down to nothing over that week. So if your little girl is just unable to settle once she reaches the end of a sleep cycle that might help get her used to going back to sleep on her own. And BB I entirely agree about the "on demand" thing. I have no idea what the phrase really means and suspect it is capable of a whole number of different meanings depending on who you talk to....

I'm sure you're probably doing this already, but I found cutting down the number of baths per week really helped, as well as showering very thoroughly after swimming. We also use aqueous cream for washing rather than soap etc in the bath. Good luck - it is horrible to see them suffer, isn't it?