bluesuperted

Another vote for cosleeping as a great way of getting MUCH more sleep. I never thought I'd cosleep but I love the closeness, love the extra sleep and my husband rarely goes to the spare room (3x in last six months) as he sleeps better too. It's not forever and at 11 months I can already tell that my boy needs me less and less at night (outside of feedings) as he sleeps further away and doesn't need constant snuggles/contact. I know I will miss him so much when he goes to his own bed/room and I'm happy to keep cosleeping until it stops working for him and us. Good luck with getting more shut eye!

Would be very interested too, as fail to get further afield for nice soft play sessions due to public transport reliance! September would be perfect as my 11 month old is super mobile already so after a summer of adventures with his daddy will no doubt need a lot of energy burning activities!

I also went to see Daniel based on recommendations here - last week in fact as had a very similar injury from just one baby :) He was great and I feel 100% better just over a week on (had 3 sessions in total). He was able to see me the day I phoned which was invaluable. Hope it gets better soon! PS re: scary side effects - he does a thorough case history to check you're not a risk for anything adverse happening.

Have been thinking about this thread and feel that he was being mean/miserable and taking out his annoyance re: able bodied people not giving up seats on the wrong person! I often get thrown around by the bus drivers erratic turns and it scares me when I have baby in the sling and I'm only usually walking to my seat! Totally inappropriate to expect a 3 yr old (or really an 8 year old!) to stand if possible for them to sit as they would be legally obliged to be in a carseat in a car! Ruth: that is insane!!! I used to get really feisty when I was heavily pg on the bus/train... I remember one huffing commuter sighing loudly when I nipped in and got a seat as was exhausted - I stared at him and said 'Sorry, are you 35 weeks pregnant too?'.

In case you haven't seen the various Facebook/Meetup information and fancy coming. The plan is to meet at 11:30 at the Princess of Wales pub, near Blackheath station. A couple of us are getting the 1121 from Peckham Rye station so will be at the pub closer to 1140. Hope some EDFers can make it :) xx

Wow they sound yummy! But I would just want to eat the whole tin of condensed milk on its own... Oops!

Yes forward facing is not good for either the carrier or the carried - for mum/dad it puts much more pressure on the spine, and for baby, it means they are not in the ergonomically/developmentally preferred 'froggy' position (seated, legs wrapped round) which is better for their spine and yes, their bits if they are a boy! I read an interesting article saying the for babies with hip problems, the braces that are used keep them in this same 'froggy' position - so think it's really optimal for the development. Also, sling time in the correct position counts as tummy time! I credit my son spending lots of time in the sling (and not too much having traditional tummy time) when very young as helping him crawl pretty early. The Gemini is a lovely sling, I use it everyday in the facing in position and find that once big enough babies can see loads by looking out over the side so no real benefit for me to facing out with a larger baby. Some of the prints are lovely but I must admit I also covet a Rose and Rebellion and they are more lightweight.

Hi Buggie, We are BLW but just mentioning that so you know as totally understand your choice and that it's not for everyone!! I just wanted to say that at pretty much exactly that age my LO stopped eating much at all in the way of solids having previously got really into it - everything was systematically thrown on the floor (and this was very enjoyable for him!). I put it down to teething but also read that it's hugely developmental for that age too - a real spike of throwing stuff off the highchair from a great height (think my source was the babycentre newsletter, not massively academic but other mums I know agreed that their LOs became (only temporarily) less interested in food at this point. I would say - up her milk if you can (as you know, most of pre-1 year old nutrients come from breast or formula milk at this point) and offer her her favourites for a couple of days until her interest levels pick up again - sounds like you are doing all the right things to avoid a battlefield, so even though it's hard to not feel a bit stressed (lovely nutritious dinner on the floor or in the bowl, argh!) sure you are doing great. But in the knowledge you're offering lots of extra milk where you can. If I was doing this with E, I'd need to feed him at home for a few days to reduce distractions - and probably in a darkened room too!! I hope this is some reassurance - I'm sure it will pass as quickly as it came on - when E had a tummy bug in February he went off his food lots as well but I guess that's less noticeable at 6 months. I've seen Bugglet being a great eater so I'm sure she soon will be again! xx

Agree with Knomester... I also had many sweeps (although even the power of two pessaries could get me anywhere near 0.5cm dilated!!). I also did EVERYTHING bar only castor oil and baby came at 17 days late, by EMCS after a 5 day failed induction... Massive day long hikes, curry everyday, acupuncture, sex, pineapple, bouncing on a birth ball; nothing! I almost think next time I'd do absolutely none of it but I'm sure at the time I'll do it all again out of desperation!!

Second the lovely views at Strada! Pizza Express also has nice views of St Paul's. Other nice choice which I imagine would be babyfriendly is 'Tas' - very nice and reasonable Turkish food down from Borough Market.

Really like Astley Clarke rings, here's a link to rings under ?150. I especially like the candy stacking (over ?100 though) and the enamel stacking rings... http://www.astleyclarke.com/uk/rings/rings-under-150?limit=48

What a lucky goddaughter! My godmother was amazing, like Joyce Grenfell, she was from another era really, but she died when I was 16, I'm sure she would have been even more amazing to have in my life as an adult... As she had no children I'm lucky to have a beautiful piece of her jewellery (a gold ring with a huge green stone, I love it). Anyway I totally digress but think it's lovely that you're being so thoughtful and I suppose my point is jewellery is always fantastic even if you have a lot! A fab cocktail ring is a great reminder of a funky godmother!! Otherwise photobooks (like on photobox.co.uk) are always amazing but mucho time-consuming... Let us know what you decide!

Wish I'd seen that interview... (mega grrrr)

Some really good advice here and I would second getting her to a speech therapist, I know that there are waiting list problems due to cuts but a suspected stammer should be prioritised as it's much easier to treat at a younger age. There may be nothing to worry about but parental concern is usually enough to merit an assessment so it would definitely be worth looking into the different routes to see an SLT (GP, drop ins at Children's Centres, calling Southwark directly, private therapist assessment). Hope this helps, agree that keeping calm and having time to listen without prompting is really helpful - sounds like things have been hectic and new arrivals/moving house are often cited as coinciding with the onset of stammering - fingers crossed it's transitory but if not, rest assured she's really young and there's loads that can be done at this age to treat a stammer.

We are really behind on rearfacing in the UK - in fact irritatingly lots of manufacturers don't even bother selling their brand's rearfacing seats in the UK despite them being much safer. In the US they just changed the guidelines to two years minimum rearfacing and in Sweden it's 4 years (where they have very very low child fatalities in RTA). The rearfacing site is great and I just hope that UK manufacturers/importers get their act together as at the moment the choice is small and expensive if you want to keep RF. It's a minefield the carseat world and I think mumsnet is running a RF campaign to make the likes of Halfords and Mothercare offer them as standard.

Poor you!! Hope the aches and pains ease soon. xx

Fantastic! I will search out information now... thanks for posting!

My son's took at least 6 weeks, probably two-three months and isn't awful but is noticeable. A friend of minw's dad is a oral/facial surgeon and gets so angry about the BCG site - saying there is no reason for it to be where it is (could easily be underside of arm or leg) and it often ends up leaving a nasty scar. As someone who had to get mine done at 27 for my job I agree and hate my scar!

They do it in the opposite arm so there's no problem with other vaccinations I think...

Surely there's a forumite who is also a journalist or knows one? Totally agree it's shocking how little coverage this is receiving outside of social media...

I just don't understand how this could happen. It terrifies me as the so-called 'chaotic' patenting style that appears to be under criticism is my own. What is it about extended breastfeeding, BLW and cosleeping that has angered the authorities in this way? I'm stumped.

So sorry to hear this. Another idea, if you can bear it and don't think it would be too upsetting for your friend, would be to use wordle.net to make a word collage of nice words that remind you of her (places, adjectives, funny words etc). I've made them for friends for happy occasions and they have always been well received as it's lovely reading what people think of you. If a word appears more than once in the list it appears bigger on the collage. The site is quite easy to use and you can then print out your word cloud to frame or just give as it is. Hope this helps x

Words fail me on this, I hope as many forumites as possible sign this petition. The thought of it makes me feel sick.

Damzel makes some really good points - good that the course was so useful. Reducing the number of questions and focusing on commenting/labelling is great as it means the you are building on experiences and items that the child is already engaged with. We were given the metaphor of the child's language learning brain being a filing cabinet and focusing on what they are looking at in any given moment means the right 'drawer' is already open; asking a question adds an extra layer of complexity as the child has to search through the cabinet for the relevant section! Also totally agree with not correcting pronunciation - sounds appear in a rough order and some are a lot later than other (r and th for example) so unless a child is really unintelligible or making really unusual errors there's usually no need to worry as they're likely to be following the speech sound developmental curve.

Hey Lochie, shame I would have seen you at Anna's yesterday if baby hadn't had a long nap! If you PM me your email address I can send you some speech/language norms which are fairly lay-person friendly. Sounds like your little boy has really good receptive language/understanding and boys do tend to develop slower than girls with their communication so probably nothing to worry about as there is so much variation and many are simply late talkers. Also you might find he soon has a vocabulary explosion (often around 2yrs). However you could pop and ask your GP for a speech therapy referral - they may wait til he is two and then do an assessment (based around play in a nice environment) - no harm in mentioning it but in the meantime try not to worry and continue modelling/encouraging good language for him (but not correcting) - for example when he says 'woowoo' for 'dog' affirm this by saying 'yes it's a dog!'. If he starts saying 'dog' or something approximating that, expand with things like 'yes it's a big dog!'. Sure you're doing all the righ things but please PM me if you have any further questions and want the norms. If I manage to do any revision in the next 10 days, I should be a qualified SLT in a month or so!!