EmilyPie

Location sounds good. I also look for somewhere kid friendly: not too many expensive breakables; cot; stair gates a bonus; any other touches like a potty or toys or plastic spoons etc are also really welcome. An open fire is nice for winter months. Access to an enclosed garden good, even better if it contains garden toys. Ideally detached is good so we don't need to worry about waking the neighbours at 5am when the kids declare morning, but if not then good sound proofing. Also a bath not just a shower. Hope that helps!

You could go to the sling library before your LO arrives if you wanted to have a look at loads of different ones, although trying them on with a bump is always a slightly different experience!

Second the sling library recommendation. They're brilliant. I didn't get on with an ergo. Currently using a connecta which I find much better suited to the combination of my and my baby's body shapes.

If you're concerned you could always pop along to the south London sling library and get them to have a look and maybe borrow something until he's ready for the ergo. They're in beckenham.

Generally I think they're much better off direct, they seem to get a bit shafted by agencies in my experience. I generally still pay if we're on holiday but not if she's on holiday. I also give a bit extra at Christmas.

I'd say whisky(whiskey) too. My husband is keen on a bottle of Springbank 10.

Very sorry to hear that. I was at the girl's school so had relatively little contact with him but he was a tour de force whenever I did and helped and inspired generations of kids. Very sad to hear he isn't getting the retirement he deserves.

Deptford market is good too.

Brockley and crofton park are also nice areas with good schools and green spaces. As others have said it depends where you need to commute to. You can also look on the starting school in lewisham in 2014 document which gives the last distance offered for lewisham primary schools. These change every year and also get a bit bigger after they do further rounds of offers, but is useful as an indication of where the primary school black holes are. The rightmove app is also useful as it gives you distances from stations and shows you nearby schools. Coming down and walking round a few areas would really help too if you can as getting a feel for a place helps you work out which compromises you're prepared to make.

I don't have any advice I'm afraid but just wanted to say that I feel your pain! No. 2 needed LOTS of settling which was never really possible as no 1 would stand at the bottom of the stairs and scream for me at the top of his lungs if I tried to leave him with telly/toys etc and would chat/poke/jump about of he came with me. I did naps in sling/buggy. Bloody hard work! Good luck.

We like Suffolk coast and heaths. Southwold and aldeburgh both lovely seasidey resorts, in quite a well healed way, orford a bit wilder and bleaker (in a good, windswept way) and nice villages inland with lovely wild heathland for walking and exploring. Try http://www.suffolk-secrets.co.uk/?gclid=CLS6p_b_774CFaQIwwodajUALQ Also a pretty easy drive.

HOw about turkey. You could do some combination of Istanbul, coast and cappadocia (amazing caves and rock formations). If you want a bit of luxury these guys organise it all for you. http://www.exclusiveescapes.co.uk/

What about making a wormery http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/gardening_with_children/homegrownprojects_watchworms.shtml You might need to get or help him get the worms, depending on how much he can do.

Low blood sugar maybe? You could try whacking one of those fruit pouches down her as soon as she opens her eyes.

We have one of these http://gro.co.uk/gro-clock . No noise and we say goodnight to the sun as part of the bedtime routine. Worked a treat for ages, although he's recently started waking us up to tell us mr sun isn't up yet. Sigh.

Monniemae I think it would be worth it. We used her with my then 7mo who would only fall asleep on the nipple and then would only stay asleep on my cheat with me sitting upright, and even then he still woke every 1-2 hours. We had just the chat and it written up into a plan for us, no ongoing support, which was ?100. It was really hard, and you need to be confident that you have the willpower/stamina etc to implement whatever approach you go for consistently. Ours now sleeps from about 7-5.30 in his owncot without waking, which has been life changing. We still need to sort naps and early wakings, which are in the plan, but even so it is SO much better. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

Have done this but not sure how much sense my answers will make as have ticked unemployed, maternity leave but I still have an employed identity and have answered all the questions thinking about my job, including last questions which are only for those employed. Tricky to get right but given the survey is about identity might be worth thinking about how this works in the survey.

Kids disco at the Albany in deptford tomorrow, with lunch at the big red pizza bus first - great pizza, on a double decker bus, plus some great raving afterwards with lights, a dj, dancers, the works. you can park on frankham st.

Ocado is more expensive but the ocado iPhone app is brilliant. Let's you do all the stuff mellors said as well as adding stuff when you remember with a one click system, which really helps when you realise you're about to run out of bin liners etc as you can add it immediately rather than trying to remember to do it later.

Thank you so much everyone. Lots to think about. I think I'm leaning towards a scooter now for portability. His much worshipped older cousin has one so I suspect he'll be quite motivated to get to grips with it. Expect we'll end up with both eventually though. Thanks everyone. I can always rely on the family room for advice.

Hmm, I guess mostly just for pootling about the park. He has a baby brother so we can't ditch the buggy completely and he's not really big on obeying instructions at the moment so I think scooter on the roads would be really stressful. Maybe a balance bike at first then. Thank you.

It is my 2yo's birthday in a couple of weeks and I'm planning on getting him either a scooter or a balance bike. Does anyone have any thoughts on which would be best? He has a little scuttlebug which he likes going down hills very fast on, so I suspect whatever I get him will be terrifying but I guess that just comes with the territory. All words of wisdom gratefully received.

My LO goes to Busy as Bees in between honor oak and forest hill. Really lovely, kind staff and a great settling in policy. They do morning sessions from 8.45-12.45 Monday-Friday. Mine currently goes 2 days a week.

I think I remember hearing on embarrassing bodies that dairy can exacerbate acne? Worth checking though as I'm not 100%

Yum!