alieh

Ah yes! I forgot there were a few levels before Stage 1, Ducklings, etc.. I think if you just go in and tell them your child's age and current swimming experience they'll be able to advise. If you're flexible with times you might get lucky and get a spot in the current session. I wondered if maybe this session had more gaps because lots of people would have be away for summer holidays when the registration came up again at the end of July.

We bought a very nice and comfy seeming mattress from Baby Mattresses Online. We chose the pocket sprung one with extras like organic cotton cover and it came to 135 including delivery I think.

The swimming lesson registration is a nightmare! I think you've just missed the window for the next session, which starts this week and runs for 10 weeks. But if there are still classes with vacancies you should be able to book in? This Saturday is the first week of the next 10 week session. Alternatively the next registration period for new people will start in about 7-8 weeks (they will know the dates if you ask at reception). I've never had any hope on the phone - you really need to just go in and talk to someone at reception. For a 3 year old, not sure if they would put him/her into the Adult & Child Level 3 class or else start him/her on their own in the Stage 1 class. You could just go in and ask if they have vacancies in either of these. The good news is that once you get booked on a class you get priority to re-book the following session so don't have to do the crazy queueing etc.

I have this one: http://www.johnlewis.com/polti-vaporetto-evolution-steam-cleaner-kit-with-iron/p231649655 Love it! We didn't pay that much but I can't remember where we got it...maybe Currys?

The upstairs room at the Prince Regent in Herne Hill can be hired out separately, has its own bar. It's a really lovely space with high ceilings and there would be tons of space for kids to run around without disturbing anyone. I've always found the food there to be good. We hired the whole space (table area, sofa area plus bar) for a big group lunch a while back and I think it was ?150 hire fee? The Crooked Well also has a private dining room I think? If you didn't mind going into town the Swan restaurant at the Globe theatre is a really lovely space and has great views of the river. We had a really good meal there but it was a quite a few years ago now. They have a couple of private dining areas you can hire. The balcony room might be a bit bigger than you need but maybe they'd do a special rate for lunchtime! http://www.loveswan.co.uk/shakespearesglobe/events/spaces.html Or I've also heard about Village East in Bermondsey that have a private dining room? The Little Room has space for 20 so could be a good size: http://www.village-london.co.uk/private-dining-village-east/ Good luck.

Every airline I've been on is happy to fill a bottle with regular milk on the flight. Most times they don't have a microwave but will warm it in boiling water if you want. I would hope whoever you're flying to SA would be the same!

This happens to us when we miss the window and put ours to bed too late. Especially during a nap dropping phase, very early bedtimes were the only thing that saved us. If they're not catching up on the lost nap by sleeping a bit later in the morning (ha ha - this never happens in my house) then an early bedtime might really help. I had the most expedited bedtime routine ever around this age with my older son when he was in the process of dropping his nap - I would pick him up at the childminder at 5:45 and we would have lights out by 6:30! We showered him with us in the morning instead of bath at night, so just did quick wash at the sink, two stories, lights out. If it even dragged to just 6:45 or 7:00 it would descend into irrational tantrums and screaming for ages. Not sure if that kind of expedited schedule could work for you but may be worth a try!

As late as possible would be my advice too! We waited until almost 3 for my eldest and will hopefully do the same with my younger son. Until they're old enough to bribe them to stay in without leaping out of bed 100s of times I think! We did a sticker chart and told him if he stayed in his bed at bedtime for 2 weeks he could have a scooter. by then the novelty had worn off. Our cot is the standard Ikea one and very long (60X120 cm I think) so seems to last ages. Of course if they start trying to vault the cot sides then you really have to move them or it can be dangerous. Mine were both in Gro-Bags for ages so couldn't get their legs over the side to jump out!

Brilliant thank you! Sounds a good option!

Sorry one more from me! In your first post did you mean Mon TUES Fri it is open both AM and PM? Then closed Wed and only open PM on Thurs?

Thanks Fuschia! What are the AM hours do you know?

Hi! I'm due my third baby on 31st December. I'm also with The Lanes (for the third time....they're amazing!). Nice to see a group of Winter babies emerging!

Broadstairs is very easy on the train - you can even avoid going through town by changing in Bromley or else take the fast train from St Pancras. Could be easier than a long drive in traffic if you're just going for a couple of days! Really lovely beach.

The way it works at our nursery is that the nursery receives a subsidy from the council for all children over 3, per hour up to 15 hours. So the way they work it out is they take their normal hourly rate and subtract the subsidy then multiply by number of hours he is there. I was a bit confused and slightly annoyed because that doesn't equate to 15 free hours but when she explained how it worked in terms of transfer from the council I see why they do it that way. Maybe yours is the same? I think the only way to ensure it is fully free is to take a school based place.

Would you consider the Pelopponese, staying on the mainland? We went to the Northern bit that was an easy 2 hour transfer from Athens. The Western bit is supposed to be great but more like 3-4 hour transfer. There were some amazing hotels on the I-escape website. We rented an amazing villa through Pretty Greek Villas in a completely off the beaten track location where barely anyone spoke English.

On flooring, you could probably get someone to refinish the floorboards, fill in gaps, flatten nails, etc. This would almost certainly be the cheapest option. Or I know people with allergies often recommend Marmoleum, which comes as click flooring and sheets? I've heard rubber can be a bit of a nightmare to clean because the dust almost gets stuck and smears if that makes any sense?!

I have a really bad dust mite allergy and I have to say, carpets are the absolute worst for me. Bare minimum soft furnishings, including curtains that can be washed a few times a year, make such a difference. I have dust mite covers on my mattress and pillows which helps. I do find that if there are no carpets I can manage without having to have the duvet washed very often, but if I'm staying somewhere with carpets it's like the dust mite allergy "bucket" gets full and then dust mites anywhere put me over the edge! I am living in a rental house now with carpets and I've had to more than double my asthma medicine dose - can't wait to get back to a completely non-carpeted space so I can breathe! I would really recommend pulling up the carpet as a start and ditching any extra soft toys (which it sounds like you have already done). Can you roll up the carpet and save it in case you think it hasn't made a difference and then have it relaid? I have no problem with wood floors even ones with loads of gaps probably chock full of dust! It is just fabrics and textiles that cause me problems.

I was a rare person who hated the Maclaren - not being able to push one handed drove me crazy and it also was so tippy if you hung anything on the back. I love the BabyJogger City Mini - only very slightly wider than the Maclaren but still fits on the front door of all buses I've tried and so easy to fold.

A similar thing happened to me on a bus when my second was very small but this particular woman caught me on a bad day and I snapped and yelled very loudly right in her face "Don't tell me what to do with my own baby. Mind your own business." Very unlike me but it made me feel better and she looked very taken aback!

My second kept up the every 3 hour feeds overnight until closer to 12 months unfortunately (very similar timing to Sonners). He always settled quickly after the feed though, which I preferred to my older son's pattern who dropped night feeds early but then might be up for hours in the middle of the night! My husband would take them anytime after the 5 am (ish) feed so I could sleep until 7 or 7:30. This saved me. Other people prefer to go to bed early, but I have trouble sleeping in the evening so preferred him to help in the early morning (and he is more of a morning person than me anyway). I couldn't be bothered to do anything to push him to drop any feeds and eventually he very quickly dropped down to about 2 feeds at night, then maybe just a few weeks later down to 1, and then he stopped waking suddenly (this was at 14 months I'm afraid but he's barely woken at night since and is now a totally brilliant sleeper!). Bottles at night never worked for us. I always found it quicker and easier to just BF at night. But wish we had managed to crack the night bottles!

Blackout blinds absolute must at this time of year! I've been known to go with bin liners stuck up - visual beauty is of no importance in comparison with a bit of sleep! Also totally agree about white noise. We still have it playing in my 2.5 year old's room. Use a fan or IPOD with white noise - I was worried it would annoy me while I was sleeping when we were sharing a room but I got used to it really quickly. And definitely ignore as much as possible - even whispering explanations for why he should go back to sleep counts as interaction for him! I would roll over and just shush here and there. Soon he'll also be getting old enough to understand something like "Mummy is sleeping. Lie quietly or you will need to go back into your own cot." I think early wakes are the hardest thing to crack. I think some kids are just early risers - but 5 or 5:30 should certainly be achievable....anything in the 3:00s or 4:00s is beyond hellish!

VanessaPMR, that's totally in the bounds of normal I think. ~12 hours/24 in total. Unfortunately my eldest has been at that amount of sleep since about 8 months and just keeps dropping. He's now at about 10.5 hrs/24 hrs at age 4.5 which doesn't seem enough to me but I think probably is for him! His brother, on the other hand, still needs 14 or 15 hours/24 at the age of 2.5! Crazy how different their sleep needs can be.

For us the morning nap had to be no earlier than 9:30 and by that age no more than 20-30 mins or it reinforced the early wake ups. Is your room absolutely pitch black to the point where he can't even really see you, no night lights, no bright clocks, etc.?? In my experience at this age they become incredibly sensitive to any stimuli at that time of day. I think most children have dropped that morning nap by about 18 months so I think you really need to get a bit strict about that and see if it makes any difference to the mornings (it will take a week or so for him to get used to the fact that he needs to catch up on that sleep at night). Keep it very short and not before 9 or 9:30 and then work towards dropping it and try to get him through to 11:30 or so any way you can (avoid long buggy trips at that time in the morning, etc.). We would have really struggled to have ours in our bed at that time of the morning as they would have stirred and then wanted to play! I guess there's not much you can do though about that part if you're all happy with it otherwise. If room is pitch black I would just roll over and absolutely ignore and not interact at all except maybe to "shhhh sleepy time" occasionally.

Ooooh this period was AWFUL! Bedtime used to be such a calm affair and then I felt so bad because the day always ended up with usually both crying! I think you just have to suffer it a bit...it didn't last long at that level of awfulness. I did stumble upon a strategy that worked for us but might not for others....I realised that actually the baby would go down happily stupidly early whereas I was trying the more typical strategy of feeding baby while bathing toddler, etc, by which point the baby would be screaming for ages. So I actually ended up getting baby ready for bed while toddler was eating tea (did top and tail, dressing, etc. on the sofa near where toddler was eating), then put toddler in front of the TV and fed baby to sleep at something silly like 5:45 pm with super loud white noise so that toddler wouldn't wake him! Then took toddler up for bath and stories as normal at 6 pm. You never know, it might work!

We have a Lascal buggy board on a Baby Jogger City Mini and it works very well. Especially now that I've finally figured out how to use the clip thing to hold it up out of the way when you're not using it (only 18 months later...doh). I think it is the Lascal Maxi.