paperina

Have never done it differently with either kid but was lucky to have chubby-but-not-super-chubby, non-spitting-up, pretty well eating kids. If your baby isn't particularly skinny (or excessively chubby) based on its looks I would think you don't even have to bother with the home scale either :-$ Sorry I know social services will be after me within a week but we're kind of overdoing this weighing clinic thing IMO :-$ hpsaucey Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > why not just get on a pair of scales at home if > you have one with and without your baby? Maybe not > as accurate but not bad! Done this a few times > with baby number two as could never be bothered to > queue just to get him weighed lol!

If he can be in his own home and he's happy with the babysitter (and YOU are happy with the babysitter), then go. You'll stress and have sleepless nights during the whole week before you go (I always do and I have fear of flying on top of that!). But once you're on the plane you'll LOVE it. :-$ Don't take him with you. Either stay behind or go. Good luck with your decision!

Isn't nannytax ?270?

New mother, I don't have those sleeping bags yet, I know of them but should indeed order one as a snowsuit is not exactly the ideal sleepwear in the cot. Travel grobag and some sort of a blanket should do the trick in the buggy (may even see if I can attach a footmuff to the back seat of the P&T) and then hope for the best with the transfer. There's no way I can keep her awake in the buggy when she wants to sleep there, she's still quite young and it's not a parent facing buggy so I can't really distract her much anyway. Hmm, now that you mention the car, I could take them to nursery by car as the ride is so short that the baby will probably stay awake, especially if I take her out of the seat when we get to nursery. But I don't really like the idea of using the car for such short distances, I'd rather walk. Such a small issue, so many words!

Am going to try the transfer first. I know she'll wake up once she hits the mattress but if she resettles quickly it'll be worth it! But yes always good to talk to the (lovely) neighbour as well. As long as it's a mutual thing I like the idea. Don't like asking non-emergency favours from people I'm not very close with. Sorry I must sound like such an idiot asking for this kind of advice :)

Molly, I wish I could get a morning slot! Not until September unfortunately. Good idea about the shared run although I still need to get to know the nursery parents as we just started there. One neighbour might be happy to have the baby phone in her house but I find that a bit scary: if there's a fire or burglar she may not notice it in time (is that being paranoid?). Don't know her well enough to ask a favour as big as coming to our house (with her baby) multiple times a week although I could offer to babysit for her when she picks her kids up from school, hhmmmm. We moved to a new street a few months ago so I need to work on my contacts! Thanks for the suggestions, I had half thought of those ideas but not given them proper consideration but you're right, they can work very well.

What do you do when your baby's only long nap always overlaps with the drop off time of your toddler's afternoon nursery? I'm just out of the house for 20-30 minutes (at most) for the drop off so I doubt I can get a babysitter for that (and if I could it would not be cheap)! Such a shame to let her do that nap in the buggy as she'll never do the full two hours there and transferring her from the buggy to her cot is probably not going to work (never tried it though). What do/would you do?

Molly thanks so much for sharing your experience. Working from home is ideal. It looks like I'll be offered a big fat freelance job soon so I may be heading down the same path. Fingers crossed... New mother, it happened to me between 12 and 16 months. Thought it would happen sooner with #2 but clearly not, or at least not yet :)

Does anyone know if there are any judo classes for toddlers in the area?

And thanks for your super balanced experience and view too gwod! I think waiting till I come across a better opportunity (fewer hours) may be the way to go. And until then, stay at home and freelance a bit... Maybe. :))

Thanks Ryedalema, what you say at the end ("just wanted to say that it's not all bad, especially from the children's perspective who seem to be having a ball!!") is something I've been thinking about too - would staying at home mostly benefit me or my baby? Not that it's bad if it benefits me, but if I stay at home I must do it for the right reasons ;) I'm never sure if it's a case of chimpanzee needing to be attached to mum or if it's good for the baby to be looked after by other people (a loving nanny could have just as well been the baby's auntie after all) as we are community animals after all.

I know this is off topic and I fully agree that going to the park all the time is no fun in the cold (in my case because I truly, deeply hate the cold - my kids don't care) but just wanted to suggest a balaclava for your youngest. Or will she just get very angry because she can't take it off?

Thanks so much for your feedback so far. I hope I didn't bias my post too much towards not working (at least not to a point where working mums think they'd be talking to a wall if they shared their view). LittleEDfamily and Pickle, I can't do fewer days/hours at the job I'm being offered. I'm also interviewing for a much better paid job but am not far enough in the process to know whether it'll be offered to me and I doubt I can do it part time. Maybe working from home is an option (not for either of these two companies but by doing some freelancing - not necessarily well paid but I wouldn't have the nanny and commute costs. ?250 extra would make life easier but it may not be worth the stress of performance, commute and babylessness whereas I may be able to make that net amount with some translation or consulting work). If I'd be a bit more careful with what I spend on the bloody groceries each month I'd probably also make ?250 - in savings!!!!! :-$

Hello, a newcomer here (not new to ED though :) ). Would love to participate in this forum, hope you don't mind me starting by asking for opinions and personal experiences :-$ I have a toddler and a nearly 6 month old and am about to go back to work. Haven't signed the contract yet but have been offered a job after not working for over 2 years and am getting VERY nervous. Should I go back to work while my youngest is still a baby? Whenever my toddler has a difficult week or two (general whining etc, you know those days/weeks) I really can't wait to go back to work. But whenever she's back to normal I generally enjoy being at home with both kids. The job is for 4 days a week and during those 4 days I'd hardly see my kids (due to relatively long hours). It doesn't pay that well - after nanny and travel costs we'd gain ?250 net a month from me working. So it helps a bit but it doesn't make a massive difference and we can afford to wait another 6-12 months. (and I'm quite confident I'd find work again after those 6-12 months). It feels wrong to not see my baby 4 days a week (except for 10 minutes in the morning and 20 in the evening) if all we technically gain from it is a couple hundred pounds. I'd go back to work for egoistical reasons: to get out of the house and do something "intelligent" with adults. Which isn't to be underestimated, I do crave it from time to time and it's probably true that a happy mum is a better mum, but I think this is more true for toddlers than for babies. And it's not like I'm that unhappy now. Just sometimes :-S We've found a lovely nanny. I'm 99.9% confident she'll give our kids lots of love. But I keep thinking that the mother-child bonding will be affected by me not being there 4 days out of 7: a 6 month old is still such a little chimpanzee, so instinct driven, so much of a little animal... and a baby animal just needs to be with its mum if it is to get the most out of its emotional development (right?). Of course babies of mums who have to go back to work sooner all turn out just fine but if you CAN stay with them longer, should you do so? It'll be harder for them if you start work when they're bigger (separation anxiety etc) but doesn't that almost prove that right now they really don't know what's going on in the world around them yet? And should the mum therefore ideally be with the child until the baby stage is over? "They're only young once", as lots of sentimental grandmothers will say. We're not having any more kids so yes, the baby days will soon be over. Am I absolutely nuts? My husband says "release is peace" but I still don't know what to release. Why do you do what you do (i.e. stay at home or go to work)? And what would you do in my case? Sorry for the book :-$