fhmum

And you know some people manage to work hard, spend time having fun with their children and send them to private school. Granted, those people may not have been to the cinema for years, out to dinner alone with a spouse or away for a weekend without the children. I'll do all those things (God willing) when they leave home...

Has anyone actually eaten at The Patch yet? Recommendations?

TDLP has to be the best option around for entertaining the little ones. Their birthday parties are fabulous too.

The Fitting Studio at Forest Hill. The woman's a genius.

I need the number for Fiona Foster, the ballet teacher. My daughter is registered to start ballet with her in September. She said she'd email but I haven't heard and now I've lost her number. Can anyone PM me? Thanks

If you need yet more reassurance, I can add mine. I had my first baby at St. George's Tooting and, frankly, I may as well have been alone in an alley way somewhere for all the support and encouragement I received. I barely saw a midwife until the last hour and had a traumatic, long labour. In TOTAL contrast, my second child was born at King's. (We moved into the area but I wouldn't have gone back to St. George's.) It was a fabulous, joyful experience. I was admitted at 4 am, at exactly 37 weeks. Waters had broken but because of breech presentation and early signs of labour, they wouldn't let me home. That in itself was good news as I wanted to get on with it. Labour stopped but I was well cared for and visitors were welcomed. Labour restarted at 19h that evening and my son was born very fast indeed at 23h. As with my first child, I needed surgery immediately afterwards for a retained placenta. At St. George's I was kept waiting for hours and lost a dangerous amount of blood before the surgery and being sent home the next morning feeling like death. At King's I was whisked straight in, minimising blood loss and allowing me to spend time with my baby as soon as possible. I have nothing but respect for the professionals at King's. Good luck and look forward to it if you can.

Hi all - I have a 3 year old and 8 month old. I'll try to get there tomorrow too. Sounds fun.

I now have Fiona's number and have a left a message for her. When I speak to her I'll ask her if she'd like me to post her number here since lots of people seem to want it.

I'm also looking for Fiona Foster's number if anyone has it? Please.

Is your nanny's first language English? If not, you could enroll her in my upcoming English course for nannies! (Blatant advertising!) Details in the classified section.

May I say something that could be unpopular? I had trouble with my first child that sounds similar. It wasn't a tongue tie, and remains unexplained to this day. I persisted for 6 weeks with the breastfeeding until her weight started to drop. Like you, I ended everyday in tears, dreaded being alone with my gorgeous daughter and it was all dreadful and emotionally draining. It's not like you don't have enough to cope with with a newborn! Anyway, in the end, I gave in and fed her formula. I hated myself of course but I suddenly realised that we had our life back. Feeding my daughter became a pleasure, she gained weight rapidly and we were able to leave the house - something I had to avoid when getting her latched onto my enormous bosoms was such a trial. Again, don't take this as advice to give up - God forbid! I just want to say that my daughter has always been healthy, happy and is now three years old. She makes excellent choices of what to eat when left to decide. There's so much to enjoy about having your new baby and not just breastfeeding! Good luck with getting it sorted but if you can't or choose not to, you'll still be a wonderful Mum.

Hi - do you have a contact number for enquiring about this class? Many thanks.

Does anyone else feel it would be good to give our kids a head start with a foreign language? Do any French-speaking mums fancy getting some kids together for French games/songs? I have a French degree and have lived and worked in Paris. I'm now living in Forest Hill and would be happy to host occasionally. Good excuse for coffee and croissants too.

In case you need further reassurance, my six month old is (for now) sleeping peacefully in the other room. I had very low PAPP A with him but all went well. Good luck and i'll second that advice about avoiding internet diagnoses.