mandymaz

Corams Fields in central London have a free display on Friday 4th - display is at 5.15pm http://www.coramsfields.org/?q=node/292 Might be a bit much after school but if she's not school age yet it could be good

Just wanted to add my recommendation for Steve Nourse. He's been to clean our carpets today for the third time and has removed a patch of grease and several odd rusty looking stains leftover from a plumber's visit from our stairs. The place looks spotless! Great communication too, quick to respond and very professional. Contact number is 07941344137

Oops - just seen someone posted about this previously - feel free to remove!

I would love to join a meet up as mentioned above in the park. My own Spanish is at best intermediate and I'd love my children to be exposed as much as possible to the language as we have a family link with south America. They are 4 and 2.5

Hi all, I'm wondering if anyone knows of a good place to go strawberry picking less than an hour's drive from ED? Ideally it would have a playground too either there or nearby. Thanks! Mandy

They look great - have you tried them?

OK - I'll give it a go! She has been getting very sad when outside over the last few days... also takes hat off but that's another story...

Glad to hear I'm not alone! She takes them off with her mouth so I don't think socks would work. Long sleeves might be worth a try though... I don't remember this being a problem with my first but he was a different age in winter so perhaps that's why.

Advice needed please! My little girl, who has just turned one, takes off her gloves or mittens as soon as I put them on. Her little hands are getting so cold and she is getting very miserable as a result. I've tried gloves with fingers, mittens on a string through the coat - everything I can think of. Has anyone found any that actually stay on? Any advice welcome! Thanks Mandy

Thanks everyone - it would be great to try out both of those, Hollie can you send me your details by PM and when would be good to pick it up? I'm around most days. And "lady of many online names" Knomester that would also be great. Thanks! x

I had a refresher lesson last year with David 07883 170 418. I hadn't driven a manual car for 6 years and was going abroad and hiring a car (it's stupidly expensive to hire an automatic) so needed some practise. He was great.

Hi, I have a very heavy 9 month old little girl who is on the 91st centile (not sure of current weight as she's my second and baby clinic attendance has been very poor but she's in 12-18 mo clothes) and is too heavy for our Baby Bjorn and Closer baby slings. I have a back carrier but it's huge and I really need something that I can fit under the buggy to use in emergency buggy refusal situations! Anyone tried out anything that is going to be big enough for her and isn't going to cripple my back? Thanks in advance, Mandy

Nothing useful to add whatsoever but just wanted to say that it's great to hear other people in the same boat as us. My 2.1 yr old has been fighting naps for a few months now, which would be fine if it didn't make 4.30pm onwards so horrifically awful. On the plus side it's meant that we can have more interesting days out etc and we've started watching some films together for quiet time which makes a change from CBeebies!

Thanks Clare - what a pain for you! Will be in touch x

Ah, that's great advice - thank you!

Hi, I have a second hand Phil & Teds explorer. One of the rear wheels has always been a bit wonky but has recently got worse (it's coming away from the fixings so sits at an angle). I'm starting to worry about it falling off and leaving me stranded with two kids! I've emailed the support team but they're on Xmas break till 16th Jan (lucky them). Just wondered if anyone has had similar experience and what you did. I'm totally inept at anything practical like this! Should I replace the whole wheel? Thanks Mandy

Thanks Amber. It's out of our price range unfortunately but I'm sure you'll be able to sell it if you put it on the classifieds page.

Thanks, how much do you want for it?

We've stayed at The Academy in Bloomsbury a few times including our wedding night (haven't been post baby though!). It's not 5 star by any means but really nice with lovely breakfasts which you can have in your room if you want. It's near Drummond St which has great curry restaurants on it and also close-ish to Goodge St area for other eating options.

Great, thank you - I'll check it out. Hopefully they still do it!

I know a few people who have had a planned c-section after having an emergency first time round. If this is going to make you feel less anxious then I would just go for that. It's not worth feeling anxious for your whole pregnancy over. However, it is definitely possible to have a V-BAC if that is your preferred option. The NCT have some leaflets about it I think. Check out http://www.nct.org.uk/birth/vaginal-birth-after-caesarean-vbac Good luck!

We have an opening at the top of our stairs of 68cm. As far as I can see the extra narrow stair gates are from 61cm - 67.5cm and the narrow ones are from 68.5cm. Therefore we are right in the middle! Has anyone else come across this problem? I have no idea which one to get. Thanks Mandy

Just to add another experience of tongue tie...my son was diagnosed with tongue tie at 5 weeks and had the op at Kings two weeks later at seven weeks. It was purely chance that one of the midwives that we saw in Kings noticed it and referred me to Clare, the infant feeding specialist. This probably wouldn't have happened if we hadn't stayed in for so long (for unrelated issues) as we saw so many midwives. Before the op feeds were lasting up to 2.5 hours, loads of milk would spill out and it was really painful and felt like he was chomping down hard all the time. This resulted in him being hungry all the time and me not getting any sleep! He could hardly latch onto the right hand side at all unless I held him in the rugby ball position, so his body was round my side - inconvenient in public! The op was really successful, if a long and stressful wait in hospital with a starving, screaming baby. It was instantly better - he could latch on to the right hand side straight away and the feed times decreased dramatically to around 45 mins. I would say that it probably took us to about 12 weeks to get it spot on. He's now six and a half months and we're still going strong although thankfully during the day feeding for only around 10 mins at a time every 3-4 hours or so. The nights...? Well, that's another story!