BookyTea

Hi there, I have a lovely Spanish au pair who has just started and would love to meet other au pairs locally. We're in Sydenham. Please do PM me and I'll put you in touch with her. Thank you!

Sorry to resurrect this old thread, but I've moved to Sydenham from ED and looking for advice. I'm considering a Sept start at Cator Park Montessori for my girl who will be 3 and 3 months. However, I'm currently off on maternity leave, and going back to work in June, so will need to find a childminder to take my 11 month old son and who is willing to do pick-up and drop-off for my daughter (and who will also take her over the holidays when the pre-school is closed). Any advice on how to find such a childminder, allyfe, would you recommend your childminder and does she have space? Thanks in advance, it's so hard to figure out childcare for two!

Sorry for the super slow reply, things have just been getting progressively worse and I'm a walking zombie! My son has just been catnapping and snack feeding all day and night and I'm on my knees. We've been trying some gentle sleep training and trying to get him into some kind of a routine, but it means staying at home, which is so boring for my toddler (poor thing has been plonked in front of Peppa Pig while I spend 30 minutes shush-patting my son in his room) :-( If we don't make any progress, I've asked my husband for a sleep consultation with Nicola as my Xmas present as I really can't go on like this, I'm just so tired, and neither children are getting the best of me. Thank you all so much for the support, will update with progress soon I hope...

Sorry to resurrect this thread Strawbs, but am suffering from sleep deprivation with my 4-month old and after a bit of advice. I was wondering if people think you should wait until 6 months before sleep training? I know with such a young baby, and one that is exclusively breastfed, night feedings are to be expected, but I'm not convinced he's waking from hunger. Plus I also have my toddler to look after and no childcare, so completely exhausted and would love to get some sleep (so please no judgement)! It was completely different with my first, she was an amazing sleeper, slept through at 10 weeks and she was exclusively breastfed at the time too. We used the baby whisperer and did lots of shush/pat and pick-up/put-down, and as she was the first we had lots of time to sort out routines, get her used to her cot etc. However, with my son, he had reflux, so has always been a terrible sleeper. Now he's on meds it's much better, and he can self-settle to sleep and has a set bedtime of 7pm, all of which is an improvement. It's not getting him to sleep which is the problem - it's staying asleep! On a good night he's up once at around 3.30am and then we have to wake him up at 7am, but that kind of night is very rare. On a bad night he's up 3 or 4 times a night and then up at 5am/6am for the day! The wakings are always completely random, I never know what kind of night to expect. I'm sure one of the problems is inconsistency, sometimes my husband tries to sooth him and often works, but then other times I feed him (which always soothes him), partly because I don't want to wake toddler or husband and I are both too tired, but I suppose I'm worried that it's too early for hardcore sleep training until 6 months. But then also worried about leaving it too late and bad habits etc. Sorry for the ramble, as you can tell am v tired! Any advice welcome!

Thanks everyone for all the advice, really brilliant. I've started looking into the nurseries on the Southwark Family Information Services website: http://www.southwark.gov.uk/info/926/advice_and_support_for_families/545/family_information_service/1, and then will look into childminders or a nanny share. I definitely might need your advice about a nanny share amydown, will PM you if we decide to go down that route. cashewnut, I'll PM you about Bright Horizons checklist, definitely useful, and one of the nurseries I want to go have a look at. Thanks everyone!

Hi, I'm just wondering if anyone could help me with advice about childcare for when I go back to work? My daughter is 4 months old, and I'm looking to go back to work full-time after either 9 or 12 months (depending on if our finances can stretch to that long)! I think we'll be able to get her Grannies to take care of 2-3 days, so that leaves me with 2-3 days of childcare to sort. I don't think we can afford a Nanny, so think a Childminder or Nursery is a better option. However, I have no idea how to research into this! With regards to a Childminder, how do you go about finding a good one? How much approx. do they charge? Are there specific questions I should be asking them? E.g. how many babies/children will they be looking after? As for nurseries, I live near Dulwich Library, are there any recommended nurseries nearby? I've heard they all have horrendous waiting lists, is this right? And again, are there specific questions I should be asking when investigating? I'm completely clueless about this, and would appreciate any advice - I'm a first time Mum and kind of panicking about what will happen when I go back to work! Thanks!