KatsuQueen

Hi, just wondered if there were any parents from SE Asia around? I am Chinese from Brunei and lately have been thinking thay it would be nice to make contact with other similar parents. I'm really interested in what you are doing with your kids regarding language. Minikatsu speaks English 100% of the time but lately has been showing interest in speaking Chinese, after a visit home earlier this year. My Mandarin is utterly rubbish, as is my Cantonese and at home we were brought up speaking a mish-mash of English, Hokkien, Cantonese and Malay. My Malay (written and spoken) is actually much much better than my Chinese! My husband and I lived with my parents for a few years so he is quite used to this, but language-wise it's all a bit of a mess. Would appreciate any thoughts?

Yes, I know what you mean! I was really keen to find a nursery where my son would eat a freshly cooked lunch; and also eat communally with the other children i.e. all of them eating the same thing. In case you are wondering, he is at Little Jungle and very happy there, it is fab.

Ellie, just to add a different perspective to gillandjoe's post, specifically her last paragraph: "I hate to say it, but I think if you can find a way to make it through without a night nanny you will be so proud of yourself and you will look back on the first weeks as this precious, private time as a family where you really tested your strength. Saying that, my exhaustion pushed me to mild PND and it was really really hard for a while but I am so proud of myself, my partner and my amazing baby!" My husband and I also did it all "on our own" without any real help; although our sleep problems were nowhere as difficult as yours. Looking back, I think we were stupid and tortured ourselves for no good reason. At the time, we wanted it to be "our journey". Second time round, we asked for help, lots of help from friends and family. Shamelessly. We didn't even care how incovenient it was for them, my reasoning was - well, they can always say no. So if you think you need a night nanny, get one. I know the money issue is hard, and I hope you can find a way if you need to. Just imagine if you were having a conversation with YOUR daughter in the future, and she was going through what you are going through now - what would you say? Best of luck and if you need some company/moral support to get you through the long long days, please PM me! Maybe we can meet up. Edited to say - no offence meant to gillandjoe, just adding different viewpoint.

Hi, just searched for this thread and just wondered if anyone had any updates on the companies mentioned? (not sure when this thread was active)

Thanks mrslotte and emma; I still can;t believe he has to wear a "uniform"..but he's just a little baby!!

Hi just to reinforce what others have said about getting a block of sleep if possible, it really helps. In the early days, I used to go to bed at 8 while my husband was on duty till midnight.

Hi minikatsu has a place in Goose Green nursery in September, hooray. We didn't receive any info with our acceptance letter and I meant to call the office with some questions but embarrassingly have been too unorganised. And now the school is closed, oops. So to any GG parents, do I have to buy a uniform for nursery? Or just a school jumper? And where can I get one, I assume the uniform shop on Grove Vale? And can he just wear his "normal" shoes? Any other tips greatly appreciated!

Hello have sent PM

GillandJoe, I wasn't getting at you, hope you didn't take it the wrong way. Just wondering if you knew something I didn't, maybe some subsidies/tax breaks that hadn't been widely publicised... I live in hope!

Gillandjoe, where is this "state subsidised child care for working mums"? I need it! Serious question, not being sarcastic..if you know where to get it...please tell me. (apologies to op, off topic!)

Further to SingingWilks comment above, maybe you should consider the area in between Peckham Rye and ED stations? You would still be very close to ED Lordship Lane etc but also within easy reach of Peckham Rye station (which has a better service than ED station). You'd be in SE15 but arguably closer to ED's main shops/pubs etc than mamny parts of SE22.

Name and shame! (Or report to Southwark Council??)

I think Minikatsu would love this, what time is it on? Do you just turn up? Will give Bernie a call tomorrow but would be glad of any info.

I've just flown on a long haul flight out of Heathrow and had to open half of the food I had with me, which was mainly Ella's pouches and milk in cartons. It was a total pain as we were struggling with two very grumpy kids and all their associated kit! At least with the Ella's pouches you can screw the lids back on after tasting a bit. The officer at Heathrow made me open 3 precious cartons of Aptamil (precious as we can't buy it where we were going). We had to try and rip them open as we didn't have any scissors (not allowed to bring through, we thought) and pour them into our sterilised bottles. The officer saw how we were struggling and "helped" by unscrewing the lids of the bottles for us, unfortunately she then put the bottle lids with teats on the filthy counter. I couldn't bear to use the bottles when I saw that there were hairs stuck to the bottle screwtops. yuck. Luckily I had also brought some disposable sterile bottles with me as a final worst case backup. But then spent flight anxious about whether I had enough bottles.... To be honest I may be making a bit of a drama about it but at the time it was a total nightmare! My littlest is 5 months so sterilising is not the biggest worry compared to a newborn say, but still... Aarrghhh.

I'm sure my neighbour had 3 under 4 at one point, and they have their 3 carseats in a row at the back. It's a Honda 5 seater, sorry don't know the name but equivalent to Ford Focus in terms of size. However I only moved next door when the youngest was nearly two, so it could be that they had to have a different car before. Just worth a double check as Carbonara suggests.

Hi Sylviamaria, I still find it hard to think about the delivery of my first child, who is now 3 - even though I have had another child since then. Like Trish, I didn't realise it at the time but I was really traumatised; I don't think I have "closure" even now. I really wanted a second child so I tried to put it out of my mind but of course, eventually I had to discuss birth plans with someone. I sat in the consultant midwife's office in Kings crying my eyes out when I was 6 months pregnant, she suggested counselling but frankly I didn't want counselling I just wanted it to be different this time round. Anyway to cut a long story short, it was better and I (like Trish) have very positive feelings about birth of my daughter. Like Trish I still cry when I think about No 1 (am in tears now! :()and I think it's not unusual, will PM you my contact details if you want to have a chat.

F, we would need them in about 3 weeks time but would be great to have them in the next week or so, so we can check that the seats actually fit etc.

Hi, does anyone have a recommendation for a travel bag for MaxiCosi car seats. We are going on a long haul flight and neew to bring two car seats (groan). We have a MaxiCosi Priori and MaxiCosi Cabriofix - does anyone have any recommendations and tips? Or even a bag that you would be willing to sell /lend for a month? I assume we will need two bags.

I can;t wait for my 4 month old daughter to be old enough to smock!

Anyone fancy a playdate with a 3 year old boy? Goose Green playground or Warwick Gardens best for us, ort can come round to ours. We are on Bellenden Rd but ideally outdoors as we are also potty training! I also have a 4 month old!

Espelli - I said "after all formula is not poison" and I'm glad it helped you. I have been following this thread but couldn;t bring myself to post (until now) because of the OP's comparison with Rwanda, which frankly made me think, are you serious or is this a wind-up? (Sorry SophieChristophy, I know this is a serious thread and you feel strongly about this topic.) I've now decided that discussing breastfeeding is like religion: there are "true believers", "unbelievers" and the rest of us, who are just doing our best.

Hi, I posted about this recently here nanny costs it was for 3 days, but very similar situation i.e. one child in nursery in the morning. I used the nannytax calculator to work out the NI and tax costs, which you have to add on to the net cost.

I've given up reading these baby/parenting articles because it's just another thing to feel guilty about. Never a good enough mother no matter what you do; I bet there's anotherarticle floating around somewhere quoting research that says how much better "schedule-fed" babies do at school, nursery, better at playing with other children etc... When I was struggling to breast-feed TinyKatsu in the early days (milk took ages to come in, nearly 10 days), she used to cry and cry. Whether from hunger or just because she was a newborn baby, who knew? But there was an article in the BBC news at the time about how breast-fed babies cry more than formula-fed babies. Wow, did I feel like cr*p. (Sorry off topic I know.)

Hi Minikatsu has never had bubble bath because he had terrible eczema when he was a baby so we have always avoided bath products. He still doesn;t use soap or shampoo in the bath, but he would love a bubble bath. Are there any brands which are better for dry skin? And any that I should definitely avoid?

Sex after 4-6 weeks, hahahahahaha..(bitter laughter on a loop)