mummynegin

I have the BT 150 also. I just had my second baby and so we've bought a second one of these so we have one in the baby's room and one in my toddler's room.

I'd be interested to hear any updates on what parents think of this nursery. My son (19 months old) had his settling in week there this week. He's been at Bright Horizons Spitalfields (opposite my work) since he was 5 1/2 months old, which he absolutely loves. We've transferred him to Dulwich Nursery though as I've just started maternity leave and we live locally. His first day settling in was an awful experience. I was there with him for 2 hours and 8 of the 9 children in the baby room cried the whole time I was there. It was a very unhappy atmosphere. The room leader and acting centre manager were both away that day and the complete chaos was probably due to a lack of leadership. The regional manager was at the nursery on Thursday and I found it very reassuring speaking to her. The baby room leader was also back and she seems very good. The children in the baby room were much happier on Thursday and today, but I still have reservations given the awful experience earlier in the week. My son has been very tearful and clearly sad and it took me several hours after getting home today to cheer him up. This is extremely unusual as he is a very happy, smiley and sociable boy and he makes friends with everyone and anyone normally. Obviously I knew that settling into a new nursery would not be easy, but I feel so disappointed in Dulwich Nursery and I'm tempted to just keep him at home with me. I'm particularly interested to hear about people's experiences with the baby room. The main room seems fine to me, but the baby room really comes nowhere near my expectations. I'm not sure if I'm being too picky, but the baby room at Spitalfields Nursery was really fantastic. For one thing it was at least 3 times the size of the Dulwich Nursery baby room with a large range of toys suitable for the full age range of the babies and toddlers and always several activities going on at the same time. Obviously being a much larger nursery and having many more staff allowed Spitalfields Nursery to have so much going on to give the babies/toddlers a choice of activities and Dulwich Nursery can't compete with that. I was however expecting more activities to go on in the baby room than I've seen evidence of this week and better toys. Most of the toys seem geared towards the younger babies and are frankly boring for my son. His bedroom at home is bigger than the baby room at Dulwich Nursery and he has much better toys at home, so I'm wondering if I'm wasting my money by sending him to Dulwich Nursery when I don't need it for child care. Because he loved Spitalfields Nursery so much and learnt a huge amount there, we thought he'd enjoy continuing to go to nursery... Sorry about the rant, but I'd really appreciate people's thoughts.

26 Sept - pink Have joined FB group.

Thanks, I've sent a request through on FB. Nx

I also recommend Isabella Oliver. Their clothes are expensive, but this time around I've bought 2 beautiful dresses from there and they'll keep me going until the end of my pregnancy. I'm 34 weeks now and massive. Last pregnancy I bought lots of cheaper clothes and they just didn't look good and didn't last through to the end of the 3rd trimester. I'm really pleased with my 2 Isabella Oliver dresses and ok so I wear the same outfit every other day, but I often get complimented by total strangers and it's lovely to get compliments when your bump is the size of an elephant!

Also just to add, I tried out the Pear too and although my son seemed to prefer sitting in the Pear, the Peach is much lighter and more streamlined (and looks better). I use the buses a lot and I felt that the Pear wouldn't be as easy to use on the bus, whereas the Peach Blossom seems compact enough to be ok for a regular bus user.

I've just bought one, though haven't used it yet. I looked into it a lot and I think the reason not many people have it is because it is quite expensive and also as Sanne Panne says lots of people who've owned icandy buggies say their toddlers grow out of them quickly. My toddler is 18 months old and I think it'll be ok for him for at least a year, but he's quite small for his age. I spent at least an hour in John Lewis trying it out with my toddler in it and he seemed to love it. I really didn't like the P&T and I bought the icandy peach blossom on the basis that even if my son grows out of it, it's a lovely pram and I can use it as a single for the new baby. If you haven't already done so, I suggest trying it out with your toddler in a shop. John Lewis is a good place for trying it out, but there's also a shop in Peckham that stocks them (see the iCandy website). I assume you can try them out there, but it's probably worth checking before making the trip. If you do decide to buy one, try enquiring about price at Baby Nest in Croydon. There's not much variation on price on these prams as the manufacturer doesn't allow them to be sold on-line, but I managed to get a reasonable discount at Baby Nest, by basically getting various accessories thrown in for free.

I'll have to see you all at the next meet up as I'm away the weekend of 7/8 Aug.

Hi, I hope those of you who met up had a good time. I'm really sorry I missed this meeting. I've been really unwell since last night and I think I have food poisoning from some ice cream I had yesterday.... I've only just managed to get up!

I'm still coming. See you on Sunday! p.s. I wouldn't say I'm fed up of being second time pregnant yet, but it is so much harder when you already have a little one, isn't it? I'm planning to work until the end of August too and I have to say that this time around I can't wait to stop working...

Hi I'm due my second baby on 26 Sept. My first one is almost 17 months old now. I'm also new to the area and the first of my friends from the 1st mat leave to be having a second baby, so it would be lovely to make friends with mums in the area. I'll put the details of the 11th July meeting in my diary, although I may not be able to make it as it's my sister's hen do the day before and the plans aren't 100% concrete yet. There was some talk of her friends staying over at my place, which may make it difficult for me to get there for 10.30am. I'll let you know closer to the time if I'm coming.