canadianlisa

Thanks for that. We should be fine. Did your son drink milk there Fuschia. I am hoping that my girl may be drinking some cow's milk by then. Thanks Lisa

I liked food the best as well. My friend and mother in law made me lots of comfort foods- spag bol, shepherds pie etc. They really helped get me through the initial days. Massage voucher maybe- this would have felt like a more do-able alternative than a whole day at a spa (and cheaper). I really liked bath stuff actually as in the very early days I cherished the 1/2 hour at the end of the day that I had to myself in the bath. I also appreciated friends coming to visit in the evenings when my partner was working. It was nice to have adult company, they usually brought wine and ordered a takeaway and held my daughter while I did some jobs or had a bath or rest. I would say most people get too many flowers as lovely as they are.

Hi - After booking a late November break to Egypt after seeing it recommended on this forum I have just started panicking a bit about food for my little girl. She is decent eater here and mainly has homemade food with some jarred second stage when we are out. She likes cheese, most fruit, root veggies, mince and potato, pasta, bread, cheese, tomoto etc. She is not overly fussy but it does take her a few tries to get into new things. We are going to an all inclusive resort. I know they are all a bit different but do you think that she will be ok eating the food there? Are fruits etc best avoided. What about milk? I will likely still be breast feeding her then so bottles are not such an issue. Packing a weeks worth of jars seems a bit impractical. Any advice gratefully received. Thanks Lisa

I agree with Molly re Decathalon. We got some good little t-shirts with kind of 3/4 sleeves there. They are nice as the arms are cuffed so they don't get all caught up. They are cheap and wash really well.

We booked a package with co-op travel ( http://www.cooptravel.co.uk) for Egypt in November for about a 1100 for our one year old and both of us. I haven't been before but have seen others recommend the area (Red Sea) on the forum and thought it looked good. We compromised on stars (4 rather than 5) so we could have a room with a little lounge for early evenings. That is the price for all inclusive and it flies out of Gatwick which makes things easier. Fingers crossed it will be alright but really a week of no cooking, cleaning or laundry and a bit of free booze is my kinda week!

Yes I suspect we just need to make a decision, set a date and go for it. I am sure that it will not actually be as painful as I think it will be. I suppose I have been happy to just leave it as this pattern of sleep is a 1000 times better than the past. I am very sure it is not necessary though. When she turns one I am hoping to introduce cow's milk so will be able to better measure her intake. Good point Louise re the sleeping bag. I think that they are one of the sleepy time signals for now at least. Thanks

We had a very expensive one from Mamas and Papas (beige colour) which did lots of things- swung, had a light show, you could plug your MP3 player in. It was a gift. Anyways it was useless- I had two other friends who had the same one whose babies hated it as much as ours did. In the end I bought the cheapest wire frame one the forum which was great, really portable and kept her happy. I also liked the baby bjorn babysitter which is really pricey but nice and you can get them second hand.

Thanks for starting this thread Ruth. Does anyone have any advice for baby's that are breast fed?. My 11 month old generally still wakes for her feed at 10:30. She is a good eater, good weight etc and now generally sleeps through the night from about 7-7 aside from the wake up. It took some fairly intense sleep training to get her to this point and I'd like to avoid it if possible. She will take a bottle at this feed if I am not there but she is not terribly keen on in and sometimes kicks off. I would love to be able to go out for an evening and feel secure that she is nice and tucked up in bed for the night. On the other topic- how long does everyone keep using the baby sleeping bags for? Thanks Lisa

Earplugs... You will still hear him if he really yells.. The silicon ones from Peckham boots are particularly good.

I was looking at the same one for our little girl's birthday. Does anyone know if there is a big difference in the models- i.e. the smart trike plus, zoo, etc? They all look similar except for the price. Thanks Lisa

I used the Ikea Poang chair- I can't figure out how to link it- but it is the chair that Ikea is probably most famous for. I have found it really comfy, it kind of rocks and the arms and back are a good height. We have spent many a long night in that chair. The glider chairs were just way too big for our place and reminded me of an old people's home. I know lots of women who swear by them and I am sure that they are really comfy.

I would go for it. I was with the Lanes for my home birth in 2009 and they were fantastic. They were great for the birth and maybe even more so for support afterwards with breastfeeding and emotional support. If I am living her next time around I would really hope to have them again. PM me if you want any further info. Best of luck.

Yep I also had to chuck all of my baby food and formula milk at Toronto airport. I was knackered and didn't declare it as food on the customs form- really didn't think of it as food- had a very sarky agent. So I guess only bring what you need in carry on. The car seat also went to an oversized area that no one told us about. Buggy also took a while to come. I always find Toronto airport baggage handling bad anyways. If you are flying air canada and can get a pass from someone into the lounge it is quite nice. Have fun.

Hi - I recently (2-3 months ago) bought Solve you child's sleep problems' from Amazon and it was around ?12, not ?55. It is a worthwhile book to read and although it can be a bit tough in parts it is very informative generally and IMHO made a lot more sense than some of the others. It is also something that you can refer back as your boy gets older. We were having real difficulty with our daughter and sleeping. I have briefly posted about it on here before but basically she would go to sleep fine at 7 p.m. but then wake for hours in the middle of the night and would not settle back down. She would often be up fussing and crying from 1- 4 a.m. Her naps were also short and erratic. To be honest I was not crazy on sleep training but I was the one doing most of the wake ups and was at breaking point. I was starting to feel slightly manic and physically sick from it all and decided that something had to give or I was not going to be a good parent to her night and day. She was 7 months old when we started and is now coming up to 10 months. We did pay for the expert to come in and I found it very helpful. Due to both tiredness and general inexperience as a parent I needed someone to come and give me a schedule to follow and some general advise. It was a case of sticking to a very rigid daytime schedule for one week and then once that was established doing another week of controlled crying- in intervals with lots of reassurance. It took a good 3 nights of crying for it to take but when it did it was a whole new world. She now generally sleeps from 7:30 - 7:30, still has the dream feed but oh well, and has regular and consistent naps. There was a few 'golden rules' that needed to be followed which were basically around sticking very closely to the schedule. Not all nights have been perfect- we have had some tricky nights on holiday and while teething. If she wakes now though it is usually very quickly and she will re-settle with her dummy and scarf (don't ask ;) )Anyways I'm happy to discuss it more if you want to PM. It is hard work and it is best done as a team if you can. Good luck. L x

Hi Like others I found Lansinoh helpful as well as the very useful assistance of the Lanes midwives. In our case the latch was fine but my daughter had a teeny, tiny mouth and could just about get it around the nipple. It took my nipples about a week to 'toughen up' and then I was fine. I had little cracks and bleeding as well but it did get much easier quite quickly. I am still breast feeding now 9 months on. It is so good to perservere if you can - good luck.

We've had good luck with the Heinz baby porridge- the banana one and the yoghurt and fruit one. I think they are probably not the healthiest but I am too lazy / tired in the morning to make my own food for her. I need a surefire winner. They are super smooth- so far Ready Brek and Wheetabix have been firmly rejected. What about yoghurt? Or mango or peach pureed? Grated cheese or apple to pick up? Good luck, they are fussy little things sometimes. My little girl's diet at the moment is at least 50% sweet potato.

It is not super local but I got mine from the curtain store on Sydenham high street- short drive or 176 bus. They will cut it to your measurements or they have a selection of ones that fit ready made curtains. I am not sure if the curtain store on Lordship Lane has it but is likely going to be expensive from there.

We've had good luck with the MAM ones as well and are still using them. I think it is due to the shape of them that the baby's whole mouth goes around the nipple if that makes sense. I also found that giving our little girl the bottle when we were out helped her to get used to it in a less stressful way. Maybe as she had lots to look at and was not concentrating as much on refusing it. It took a long time though for her to take more than an ounce but she did get there in the end. She is 8 months now and is still mainly breast feed but will take the bottle when I need to be away from her or on the odd afternoon out which is good. Good luck- perservere and it will come.

I found the really cheap ones from H and M good while I was pregnant. Not the strappy ones but ones that have thick bits over the shoulders. I just bought one size from normal and found they were long enough to cover my bump. L

Can you go to the MAU (Maternity Assessment Unit) at Kings? If you are having bleeding they should allow you to have a scan. In my past experience it was better than A and E. The only trouble is there is always a wait there. I am really sorry and wish I could offer more help.

I think it depends on the both the airport and the airline. We recently flew to Montpellier with Easy Jet from Gatwick. We were able to bring our buggy right up the gate on the way there but on the way home we had to check it with luggage so ended up not having a buggy for hours and then the plane was cancelled. All very annoying and the baby bjorn definitely came in handy. We then flew home with RyanAir from Carcasonne and were able to bring the buggy right up to the plane door. At Gatwick all sorts of buggies were going into the hold- even ones which had to be taken apart into two pieces. We also have a Bee. You don't have to pay on Easy Jet. I also think they allow you to bring baby equipement (car seat or carry cot) for free but you do have to pay on Ryan Air. Enjoy your travels Ruth and Rogue.

No words of advice from me either but just to say that I am in the same boat. My daughter is 7 months old and for the last month and half we had the same- 3-4 times a night waking. Waking up grinning and wide awake, one time she had taken all of the bottom sheet out of the travel cot, crying etc. I think that there is so much going on for them at this stage that they are a bit all over the place. Some babies anyways. I also rock her and feed her to sleep. Health Visitor advised also to try to get her to start settling herself for naps which I will do, but we are not at all happy to let her cry alone in her room for very long. I have been trying to resettles her with the dummy at 3 a.m. when she wakes but it does not work. However if I fed her for about 5 minutes she goes back down well and easily and it is a lot less stressful for everyone. We have also started to leave her in the cot in the morning for a bit longer. She is generally happy to chat away to herself for 1/2 hour which at least means that we get a little more sleep. She then comes into the bed and we can all have a little longer rest for another 1/2 hour and then Daddy gets up with her and I snooze for a bit longer. It all helps. The kind of good news is that this week we seemed to have turned a corner - we have had a few nights of sleeping through (7- 6 with a dream feed) or one night waking in which I fed her and she went off very quickly and easily and then slept till 7 ish. We'll see. Good luck L x

Looking back I spent the first three months ocsillating between feeling a overwhelming love/ wonder for my baby and wishing that she would hurry up and do the next thing... in terms of 'it will be so much better / easier when she can play by herself, sit up a bit, not breastfeed for so long, not cry so damn much.' It was a lot a harder work than I had anticipated and there were many days when I would have much rather been at work. I also felt quite claustrophobic when she would have marathon breast feeding sessions and I would be stuck on the couch for hours on end. Now she is almost 7 months and I do find it way easier and a lot more fun. I finally feel like I know her and have got my head around being her Mum. And even though she is shocking sleeper and I do feel run down I can now imagine having another one or two and I miss her teeny, tiny days. Next time I am going to appreciate the breast feeding and t.v watching time as those days really do go quickly and now I can't watch cash in the attic everyday for hours on end.

Where is the baby gym in Honor Oak and what exactly is a baby gym?? Mini weight benches :) Thanks Lisa

There is a Sitaram class at Brockwell lido on Wednesday afternoon. It is a lovely class that is actually a bit of yoga and singing for the babies as well as some for the Mums. It is a bit of a distance but is a really nice walk and a lovely setting. Often the Mums have coffee afterwards. Lisa