duncandtessa

Hello just wanting a bit of advice please? My daughter has been potty trained during the day for a year now (she is now 3 1/4 yr) and she wants to stop wearing nappies at night - however they are still quite wet in the morning (we've never had a dry night) and so I am reluctant to take them off. She also sleeps so deeply that she never wakes up to ask to go to the toilet. What's the best way of helping her to get out of them? Some people have said taking them to the toilet when you go to bed helps - any recommendations...thanks. Tessa

I've done Amazon vouchers for my teenage cousins.....even easier as you pay for them and then can print off yourself, so don't even have to go to the shop to get them!

Just to clear up the way Albany work (as I had my second child with them and they were brilliant). You get allocated 2 midwives and meet with them both and then it just depends which one is around when you call if the baby's on the way!

I think my daughter must have seen the same dermatology nurse in Herne Hill who was fantastic, Amy I think. We were referred when the doctor couldn't tell if A2 had chicken pox or an ezcema flare up. She recommended Hydromol, which goes on much easier than Epaderm, Hydromol liquid for the bath and hydrocortisone cream. I was intially concerned about the hyrdrocortisone but she recommended that we put in on twice a day for 5 days, then once a day for 5 days and then every other day for about a week and then stop. The change in my daughters skin is amazing, bearing in mind she had it all over her face, elbows, knees, ankles and tops of her legs. We now just moisturise loads. It seems to be the hydrocortisone that got it under control and now it just get managed by lots of hydromol. We went to see her when A2 was 6 months and I was going to start weaning and she suggested just doing it as normal, because there are so many things that make ezcema get worse - teething, heat etc....and that they would recommend a change in diet when they got older if there was no improvement. I just weaned her with normal cows products although often had goats cheese/yogurt etc...to vary her diet and not overload on dairy or wheat too much. Consequently we + A1 have a more varied diet because of the baby. Keep going to find the product that works best for you....took us a while, but now all seems to work!

Hello, the only other suggestion you could look into is going with one of the midwife practices in the local area. It means that you know your two midwives from mid way through the pregnancy and they come round when you are starting labour and are there with you through the whole labour. They are usually happy to do either home or hospital birth depending on your preference. I was with the Albany midwives for my second child and it was a great experience as I could call her at any time - and did at 4am when contractions started. We had a chat, she asked me to call back at 5am, which I did, we had another chat and she decided to come to our house to examine me around 5.30am. She then phoned the hospital let them know we were coming in and walked straight into a room about 6.15am. So much smoother than with my first birth. Other practices in the area are Brierley (although homebirth) and Oakwood (home+ hospital). Completely free as its the NHS. But you wouldn't get so much help with aftercare, apart from what a midwife would usually do.....PM me if you'd like any more info.

I would just like to agree with Sqiggles - do everything now whilst you only have 1! I guess by your name you like going snowboarding.....we went for a week and the first time she was 4 months, second time 16 months and this time round we went with 2 children (2 yrs and 7 months) and decided that it was just too much hassle and have decided not to go with them again until they are of the age to enjoy skiing themselves! (We're going to go for a long weekend and leave them with grandparents!) You eventually get used to breastfeeding in random places and so it gets easier - but just go and enjoy the bank holiday somewhere exciting and a little further afield. Good luck.

Hello We'd like to have a go at camping with our girls who are 2.5yrs and 10 months with the youngest also walking. In order to dip our toes into the camping waters, we would like to go somewhere close to home to begin with and was wondering if anyone had recommendations.....we would prefer somewhere small,ideally within an hour of London, ideally without lots of caravans and with lots of space for the children to run around safely - so we can sit and watch and try to read the paper! Can anyone help with where we should go? Thanks Tessa

We have a stair gate and a bunny clock!! Seems to work fine and she now wants to have the gate shut at night - think it makes her feel a little safer. We also have stairs right outside her door that you really wouldn't want to tumble down. There are 2 types of clock though as I did my research before spending out. The one we have is also like a night light and has a picture of a bunny in bed, which is lit up and then when we set the alarm (7am) the light flips to behind the bunny who is awake and running through the park and she knows its time to get up. It is now built into the bed time routine of turning the clock on to make sure bunny is ready for bed (which of course he always is as that's the way it works if you turn it off during the day). This has worked for us now for around 8 months and we just get woken in the morning with cries of 'the bunny's AWAKE!'

Thanks for all the support - and confirmation that it just seems to be a phase.....my older one didn't do it, so should probably appreciate that. Will just keep popping her back down and hope she gets the hint!

Health matters on Lordship Lane have a number of homeopathic powders/tablets, which worked well for us. Pink pot called Infant Teething tablets and I checked it with a friend who's a GP and she confirmed it was all pretty natural stuff. Have also used Calpol though when really necessary!

My lovely little 9 month old has finally learnt to roll over (from her back to her tummy). However as she is able to push herself up into a sitting position from lying on her tummy, she now seems to want to test this skill as often as possible. Result is that as soon as you lie her down to go to sleep she rolls herself over and sits up, does a couple of cries, sticks her thumb in and waits for someone to come and put her on her back again. The first few times we thought this was quite cute, but at 5.15am this morning I wasn't so impressed! I am pretty sure physically that she is unable to get herself lying on her back so needs someone to do it. Does anyone have any suggestions on either - stopping her from doing it (!) or ways of coping?! She (and I) have been sleeping amazingly well for the last 3 months (her 7-7) and if she woke up she popped her thumb in and went back to sleep and now she just feels the need to sit up, which means mummy has to get out to bed to help! Any suggestions at all gratefully appreciated..... Tessa

Just thought I would add my experience and how it works in our house hold! I am the major wage earner and therefore had to go back to work in order to pay all the bills, so we had to find the best way round childcare/days worked and finance. I have a 9 month old baby and 2.5yr old and did go back inbetween children but it was only for a year. We have sorted it out like this......I work 3 days a week in the office 9-5pm and then 1 day at home, although this is split mainly across working in the evenings and my father coming to our house for 3/4 hours in a morning to look after the girls whilst I work upstairs. My husband works 4.5 days compressed into 4 days so looks after the girls for the day. The remainder 2 days we have a nanny, which is fantastic as not only do the children really get on with her, she also does my washing, cooks for them and loads dishwashers etc....so that I don't have quite so many jobs to do when I get home. Sounds a little complicated but seems to work okay. I turn my blackberry and phone off at the weekend and do completely switch off! Good luck in working out what you do...

I've got two daughters of 8 months and 2.5 years and I've found a few good recipes on the organix baby food website. Even the recipes for 7-9 months, if you don't mash them the whole family can eat them! Got a vegetable and coconut korma bubbling away at the moment and we all enjoyed aubergine, chickpea and spinach (I added a few extra spices for the non babies and served with rice)! Couple of good chicken recipes too. Check out www.organix.com