prdarling

Don't know what the policy is, if indeed there is one, but this very nice Spanish research fellow just blurted it out the second he'd got the the scanner on my stomach. Just to round off the joke, the scan picture looks like the baby is lying there with his little willy pointing skywards. Unlikely to be a willy at all of course, but once the doctor had divulged, we couldn't get it out of our heads that was what we could see on the picture. They do a great job at Kings but often bedside manner/tact etc is out of the window. This was the same scan where the same Spanish research fellow said "I just need to ask the dootor in charge to come and check the measurements as the baby's legs look extremely short". Doctor checks it all and all in normal range but the 10 minutes that took felt like 10 hours - cue more tears from me. A simple, "The measurements need to be double checked" would have sufficed and then they could have panicked me as and when it was really necessary. Sorry Sally, you probably don't want to hear all of this but you should be prepared! I should also point out that they do much of the scan in silence, taking measurements and sometimes conferring with another doctor. It's quite unnerving to have two people looking at your insides and whispering in hushed tones, but this doesn't mean there is anything to worry about x

I think you'll be astonished at how easy it is and what a piece of cake a newborn is compared to a small child. As long as you have help for your older child you will be fine I'm sure When is the baby due? Best of luck with everything!

Curious to know if this is your first baby or not? I do translation work from time to time and had a project on just after my second baby was due. I was very nervous about it, knowing that when I had my first child, I was unable to achieve basic tasks like putting a wash on, or making a bit of pasta for dinner, simply because staring at the baby, feeding him, cuddling him, ambling round the park with him, checking he was breathing every five minutes just took up every minute of every day! Imagine my surprise whn my second child was born and, as all newborns do, slept for about 20h out of 24! I couldn't believe how much time I had every day when I was used to the demands of an 18 month old! I was planning on getting extra help but I just didn't need it - my toddler was out of the house 3 days a week and I did the work when the baby was asleep. I would never have been able to do it without help had it been my first baby

Sorry I didn't read from the start and the last one I read from Clare said 'Good luck for tomorrow' Apologies, I have misread threads twice this week - am losing marbles I think. Good luck for next week - the waiting is awful. I didn't feel pregnant at all with my first and had had an ectopic pregnancy 6 months earlier so I was absolutely convinced something would go wrong but it was completely fine. I took books amd magazines for the waiting room but there was no way I could read them, I was pacing up and down feeling sick with nerves. PS if you don't want to know the sex, make sure you tell them immediately. I was convinced that they wouldn't even be able to tell this at the 12 week scan so I didn't bother mentioning that we absolutely didn't want to find out the sex. I then spent the rest of the scan really upset after the doctors first comment was "there are the male genitals"

How did you get on Sally??

L'Oreal and Kerastase have a product called Aminexil which is for hair thinning caused by hormonal changes amongs other things. Is from salons only & is a set of take-home treatments. It's not cheap but I found it good. I imagine the Kerastase one will cost more but Kerastase is owned by L'Oreal so it will ostensibly be the same thing. Might be a good follow on after you have seen a hairdresser?

Biff in the village are very very good for first shoes

Burbs = Sidcup, Beckenham, West Wickham, Penge, Bromley, Surbiton, Sutton ED of course not city but so not suburbs. Has urban vibe similar to Stoke Newington, Crouch End etc. Very very different feel to the Burbs. Lots more grown men in football shirts, even when they are not watching football :)

I'm afraid the only thing you can do is ring round to see if there are any spaces anywhere but as you probably know already many in this area have 1 or 2 year waiting lists and some are so in demand they won't even add you to their waiting list. Others will be along to recommend good nurseries but off the top of my head Asquith, Nelly's , Gumboots, Mother Goose are all mentioned often on here but you may struggle to get a place for a 1 year old?? You really may need to consider a childmider as you can invariably find one at short notice. If it's any consolation I have used a childminder for 3 and half years and she is amazing. She has looked after both of my sons from age 11 months to about 3 - one is still with her and she still helps me out with ad hoc days for my elder son over the summer holidays. She is much more flexible than a nursery would ever be, cheaper than most nurseries and the children benefit from a home environment to eat and nap in, plus one or two other playmates, plus all of the other activities like childminder playgroups, trips to museums/parks/soft play etc. They are Ofsted registered and provide activity reports each day and every 6 months I get a wonderful CD of images which gives a snapshot of what they have done over that time. I can't recommend them (well mine) highly enough. Anyway, it may be something you have to consider even in the short term while you get on a nursery waiting list. Good luck!

Aah sorry, so passionate in my dislike for FHR Co-op that I missed the point. Sorry.....

Don't make the mistake of thinking everywhere except here has schools graded outstanding by Ofsted which are empty and just waiting to be filled! My sister in law lives in Oxfordshire (in a small town between Henley and Oxford) and couldn't get into her first choice school and we were considering moving to Berkshire for all of the reasons outlined here, only to find that the popular schools in the borough of Wokingham are being bulged to accommodate the extra children that they just can't place, while the poorer schools are being snubbed. Sound familiar? Also I've found that house prices for what we were looking for (4 beds with a big garden) are startling similar to here - well, probably SE23 as opposed to SE22. True you get more for your money in Beckenham, West Wickham and the like, but it's so far removed from ED that it may as well be on another planet. I go to the gym at Beckenham Spa and it feels SO far away from London! I do like the idea of living in the country but nice houses in the country cost big money...I'm not ready (and don't think I ever will be) for the suburbs. On the subject of secondary schools - Kingsdale has just been graded outstanding in virtually every category on its latest Ofsted, which is highly uncommon for a secondary school so I shall watch with interest

Sue I live on Ryedale, it is my misfortune to walk past it and yes, sometimes under duress, even pop in. I was in there yesterday and the shelves were as decimated as usual and the outside of the shop looked like the cntents of a skip, as usual. I beg to differ re the garlic issue. I could never ever find it which was how I came across the lovely Turkish shop up the hill, which, shock, sells herbs as well. Now to this day you'd struggle to buy some basil in the Co-op. Narnia I have ths magic box in the corner of my room called a TV

Smiling at the idea of Missus trying to find celeriac in there. It was only a year ago that they looked blankly at you if you asked for garlic. It's absolutely rubbish. Virtually every shelf of anything fresh is 3/4 empty most of the time. It always reminds me of when you used to see shops in Moscow during the Cold War - endless queues, not a scrap of fresh food. It's scruffy, badly stocked, badly run and an eyesore to boot

At least your name's not Xanthe ryedalema Don't think there are many duplicate names at my sons' pre school. Two boys called Louis and a couple called Lucas, so you might be as well to do some L's!

Adding myself to he good luck list - thinking of you x

Both of mine were vaccinated with it. One at 6 months with no adverse effects, just a pin prick in his arm. The other at 9 months - the site was red and swollen and infected with pus and it took months to heal...he now has a purple crater the size of a 5p piece on his arm (he'll be 3 in Sept). It can be really nasty but there's no way of knowing. I agree with the sooner rather than later school of thought though if you are going to do it at some point, as they do seem to get over it quicker

I think finding your body less sexy post-childbirth/breastfeeding is one thing which many people, including myself can relate to but what this woman is saying is that she cannot feel comfortable giving her breast to her baby to feed from as her breasts are too intrinsically linked to her sexual activity. I just find this bizarre. Sex is one thing, breastfeeding a baby is another and not being able to separate the two is,in my opinion, a bit unusual. There seem to be 2 discussions going on...breast v bottle and all the associated prejudices and then this belief that her breasts are the domain of her lover and therefore not to be accessed by a baby. This is a very peculiar stance for the dep editor of a leading parenting magazine to take

Any Mother & Baby journalist who thinks a newborn baby latching onto a breast to sustain life from its mother is 'creepy', really ought to consider a change in career. I'm not disputing the message that everyone has a right to choose but I just don't grasp that an intelligent adult woman (and mother) can't seem to separate using her body for sex and using it to nourish a baby. Whoever taught her sex education has failed miserably. I hope I can instill teach my children that their bodies can perform different functions at different times and that everything's not black and white... I also cannot take seriously anybody who uses the words 'fun bags' (which is probably the least sexual expression for breasts ever) Looks like Mother & Baby are desperately seeking PR and they certainly have found it. Hmmm must log onto mumsnet...bet it's caused OUTRAGE on there!!

Jamma I don't get the relevance of where Fuschia's husband was. She's talking about the failings of the DMC. Whether her husband was away on business/at work/elsewhere doesn't seem pertinent to the dicussion. Clearly it was made more difficult by the fact she was alone with 3 small children at this specific time, but surely the point is about what the midwives did/didn't do? If her husband had been there the situation would have been identical just with additional support/childcare. I think you have missed the point

My advice would be to definitely keep calling them to make sure. Don't be embarrassed to pester them and certainly don't assume that they will know about you. I was with Oakwood for my births and I seemed to drop off their list with my first baby and didn't get seen by them until 17 weeks, even though my scan appointment had gone ahead routinely at 13 weeks. I just waited for them to call me and it was only when I saw another pregnant friend that I realised that I should have been seen. I had had a worrying scan at Kings and gone for a private one at the Fetal Medicine Centre and really needed to chat things through with someone so it was a desperately scary time and I really wish I'd pushed it. This is not a criticism at all, the Oakwood midwives, like all of the teams in ED do an incredible job but they are really really stretched which means that admin slip-ups can happen. Just be on top of it!

I resorted to sticking cut-up black bin liners on the window when my second son was going through a tricky phase! Not a thing of beauty but I was deranged with tiredness so I didn't give a monkeys. Worked a treat but is probbly not a long term solution!

James We have been offered a place at my first choice school - at last! Thanks for all your help PRD

Thanks girls - it's been the longest 2 months of my life. All the support on here has really kept me going, thanks again PRD x

We have been offered a place at Goodrich today - obviously we are delighted and extremely relieved A huge thank you to everyone for being so supportive over the last 8 rotten weeks. I was beginning to think we'd never get there, but everyone on here assured me we would and you were right. A great start to my weekend!

Park at the Brockwell end of Rosendale Road and cut through the park. It's free and you'll find much more space, especially if you go early