Mellors

Goose Green is definitely going to bulge this year. I think thats probably my best chance of a local place if Heber is full, so its going on the list. Next open day is Monday, 11th January (just before the deadline!).

Presumably they are still paying their staff/rates/rent though despite the weather so haven't actually got the cash to hand back refunds?

Just got home on the 63 which was running all the way to the FHT.

Fuschia - are you not in labour yet?! Go away and get that baby out, lady!! :)

Nearest school (Heber) would be great, but we are 600m away, so am sweating about not getting in (or anywhere close!). I wonder if I could sell the children in the Family Room Classifieds?

Is it just me, or is anyone else completely stressing about it and have no idea in what order to put schools? Also, should you write something in the supperting statement box, or do they not really take that into account? Aaargh! I now have complete sympathy for everyone who has been through this in previous years....

Mine were both fine after bcg, barely noticed the jab, and no temperateure etc - although they do get a lump/sore a few weeks after. Better to get it done when tiny and less likely to notice though I think. Good luck!

Good luck x

I found with the first two that you only get from newborn - about 9/10 months (when mine started crawling) then the game is up. As soon as they are mobil eyou spend too much time haring about after them to be able to follow the film. Those first few months when they (hopefully) sleep through the whole film in the car seat/on a playmat are ace though :) My kid's first films were 1. Borat and 2. Rockandrolla (Guy Ritchie film)!

Husband has just cycled home from Farringdon, so assume it can't be that bad?

I've pondered what you are saying and it reminds me of my mother telling me to "just pull myself together" when I was deep in the throes of postnatal depression, suicidal and reaching out for help. As mothers we do deal with it, day in, day out, night in, night out as a matter of course, but there's nothing wrong with trying to make it more fun. Is there? Or at the very least having a good old moan!

But the point of the thread is that you don't have to live in a war zone, or be suffering from a terminal illness to feel sad, lonely, depressed, or generally just in need of a friendly chat? There is no monopoly on these feelings, and no one socio-economic or geographical group is more or less "entitled" to feel that way. That's not to say that we don't all give thanks that we are not in those dreadful situations. I think that feeling "sickened" by people's admissions that they sometimes feel well, a bit rubbish and in need of a smile, is a bit OTT?

What age of child are you looking for care for? I can think of a couple of great ones but they only take them from age 2.

I'd be well up for this - I have arranged childcare for my older children around the Big Scream screenings at Greenwich/Clapham/Brixton (Weds, Thurs, Fri). Its one of my fave things about maternity leave :)

Out of my original ED mum's group of nine, four have moved out to the sticks/overseas, two have moved but within London and and three are still in the area but two have houses on the market. We have 4 year olds starting primary school next September, and are in a panic about where we will be sent.

I might get a badge, then wear it upside down on the days I am too tired to chat as a sign which says "keep away, may attack and pelt you with biscuits at any moment!".

I properly laugh out loud now when I think back to how, pre-children, I used to say " I would NEVER let my child [watch telly all the time/scream in public/eat crap" and I would NEVER [wear flat shoes/go for ages without a shower/stop reading Heat/have a naff but practical handbag]. Nowe we generally manage most of those before 8am. In fact, I never used to know much about 8am full stop....

Or maybe The Arctic Monkeys have it? Used to get it in your fishnets Now you only get it in your nightdress Discarded all the naughty nights for niceness Landed in a very common crisis Everything's in order in a black hole Nothing seems as pretty as the past though That Bloody Mary's lacking in Tabasco Remember when you used to be a rascal?

Having met quite a few people on this thread, I can only say that it must be a self-perception issue rather than a genuine reflection on what you are all like (honestly, a bubbly, confident, interesting lot!). I think our self esteem goes down as we really do become different people as mothers, and, particularly if we stay at home with children, we don't have the same ways of measuring our success (money, career, people laughing at our jokes (toddlers don't count!), witty/challenging conversations etc etc). I now find it quite hard to relate to a lot of the people I used to be very good friends with as they just don't "get" my new life, and I find theirs a bit, well, shallow to be honest. I see much more of friends who do have kids and can relate to what I am going through (and don't mind the flat shoes and snot - me, not the kids). Having said that its really nice to be brave, head into town, wear heels, take a small handbag and pretend to be your old self - I hope that bit of me never completely dies! Re Dads - my husbands life really hasn't changed that much since we have had the children, and I don't think he feels this way at all? (He is currently out wining and dining at some black tie function without a care in the world and will no doubt come in hammered later, whilst I am at home getting the children to bed then doing washing/ironing/cooking/birthday present wrapping for a weekend away. With his family. Harumphhhh).

I do ignore them, but its SO stressful, and I bet loads of people just get bored of waiting eventually and go for it.

Another thing I find really difficuly at this junction is the amount of time you oftem have to wait to get across at peak times. Its really hard to get a decent gap in traffic going both ways to make it safely over during busy times. I do wait until I am absolutely sure, but tell that to the queue of people backing up Underhill (and causing further traffic problems up there), and the impatient white van drivers behind you who go mental if you don't dash across (dangerously) into the smallest gap. The pressure to pull out unsafely is immense, and that doesn't help at all.

I absolutely second that. With my son (now 4) he used to feed for hours and never seemed satisfied, always struggling and crying. I had no idea why just assumed it was part of breastfeeding being hard. I presevered until 3 months when he had lost so much weight I just had to put him on a bottle, which he took to fine (relieved no doubt!) With my daughter (now 2) she really struggled to feed at all, to the point at which she lost so much weight she was "failing to thrive" from an early stage. i had to express every feed, and eventually at about 5 weeks old a midwife diagnosed a tongue tie, and said she was sure that had been the problem with my son too. I had no idea what one was, and nobody in either of our families had ever had any problems to our knowledge. Apparently it affects as many as 1 in 10 babies and most don't get diagnosed, the mums just assume they can't breastfeed and give up (as affected babies can feed fine from a bottle due to the different sucking motion). There is an amazing clinic which runs once a week (used to be Tuesday afternoons) at Kings where they snip them and sort it out. Its a tiny procedure which they hardly notice, and the difference is astonishing. I do hope that your child gets sorted, and mums out there, if breastfeeding really does seem an immense struggle, painful, or they arent putting on weight, do ask somebody to have a look - it can be diagnosed quite easily (in my daughter she clearly had a "heart shaped" tongue where the tie was pulling in the middle bit), and fixed with no problem. I'm amazed now how many of my friends it has also affected. Good luck!

I try and stick to 1 hour of no telly a day ...;-)

May well have been, but the visibility on that junction is awful at the best of times, and combine that with drivers going hell for leather down Barry Rd and you often feel like you are just taking a punt in trying to get across safely.

Nasty, hope everyone was ok. I always find it quite staggering that the powers that be seem to think that this junction is no worse than others in the areas. It is. There are horrid crashes there on such a regular basis, I can't believe nothing is ever done about it.