Maki

If you don't mind travelling a little longer and have a bit more cash to spend on a flight I would urge everyone to go to Madagascar (before end of Dec though as Jan is start of rainy season). It is so interesting, fun, so many incredible national parks, lemur spotting, safe, humpback whales in Oct- Dec, out of this world snorkelling, cheap (once you get there), great food (French), and loads to do. Children will need jabs and malaria tablets and depending on the accomodation you choose it can be a bit basic (to say the least), but what an adventure. The most touristy places are Isle Saint Marie, Fort dauphin(my fav place!)and Nosy Be, both of which have basic - 5 star hotels/guest houses. You can get flights from Paris to Nosy Be but Isle saint Marie and Fort Dauphin would be another local flight on top. My husband and I spent 6 months there and cannot wait to go back with our baby but need to save up for the flight or sacrifice our snowboarding trip.. I've got loads of pics if anyone is interested! Essaouira is lovely but will be cold this time of year.

Thanks ever so much for all the replies! It has certainly helped and very interesting to see that almost everyone agrees it is worse to put it off. Melbourne groover I can totally understand that once they start questioning what's happening, it would be harder to handle, especially as we are there allowing their pain to be inflicted. I don't suppose at 2.5 years they can really understand bigger picture stuff like the fact that it is for their long term health and so that they can go to adventurous countries when they are older.......(although I don't know - not even sure what a 12 month old can understand! Motherhood is one great big wondrous learning curve for me!) Anyway, safe to say we will be getting her inoculated sooner rather than later. Interesting to hear also that it doesn't get injected into the muscle and also the reasons why it gets injected into the arm (and brought back memories of my hospital cleaning yoof days when I had several nurses inspecting my arm to see if I had an immunity to TB or not - I had, but they can tell by finding the scar and I don't have one).

My 10 month old daughter is due to have her BCG jab and I am in a quandry about whether to let her have it or not, or whether to wait until she is a bit older. I have researched a bit on the JABS website but am still unsure. Having read the (rather heated) thread on homeopathic immunisations, I am not interested in hearing from those of you that think I am selfish for considering the possibility of waiting to get my daughter immunised, but rather I would be interested to hear from anyone who has any particular negative side effects from having the jab or anyone who has contracted TB or heard of anyone who has contracted TB in the area? I know we live in a high risk TB area, but also that you would need to spend quite some time breathing the same air as somebody with TB in order to contract it. My baby goes to nursery in an area which is low risk for TB. I would also like to know if anyone knows if she could get the jab in her thigh?? There is a LOT more fat there so think it would hurt less. MY HV is unsure.

I have become enthralled with Criminal Justice! I also thought the same thing about the newborn baby and wondered if it was a shot of the mothers boob when she was breastfeeding. I doubt I would let a new baby of mine be on television but if I worked in TV then my opinion might be different as I have no clue about what goes into making a programme like that. I love the fact that there is nothing clear cut about the story at all and I feel so many different feeling towards the main character. What a great actress!

Champange!! My best ever present pre birth were a pair of silver champange flutes so that they wouldn't break in my hospital bag (bought for me by a friend who knows me well!) It was the most exhilerating experience of my life and I loved celebrating the new bundle of joy into my life with my brilliant midwives. Food as other have said was important (my husband said he would take care of the food for the hospital bag and yet the only thing he thought to pack were after eights!! I had to eat the midwife's lunch!! It's not as if he didn't have any time to prepare either - I was 9 days overdue!!) Mittens for your baby (attached to the babygrow is best so they don't fall off) as their tiny nails can be sharp.

Ryedalema, I was due on NYE last year! Reading your post just made me feel all emotional, brought back all those xmas/baby excited feelings I had. What we did was christmas at ours and the in laws stayed over but they had a back up plan in that 1 of them didn't drink so could drive home later that day if needed. As it happens our daughter was 9 days late and I was full of energy right up until she was born so I had no probs coping with hosting xmas. Sorry, no real help with recommending places for your family to stay, although maybe the Rye hotel has rooms??

My baby is 9 months in a few days and I'm still a stone heavier than I was when I got pregnant. I've always been quite skinny (apart from now!). Pregnancy just seems to have caused my metabolism to dissappear! I have to say it doesn't bother me too much but only beacsuse I am SO much more hung up on the consistency of my skin on my belly. It has been so badly scarred with tiny little white stretch marks that my skin is like crepe paper and the only thing to fix it is a tummy tuck :( Boobs will be Spaniels ears soon too! Bugger! Think I'll pop another 1 or 2 out then get myself on the surgeons table and sort this belly out! At least there is something I can do to get it fixed and I have found that exfoliating randomly but aggressively has really improved the depth of the stretch marks. This forum is such therapy!! Oh and yes back fat - what is that all about??

I didn't do a course in hypnobirthing, and actually didn't think there was much point as i didn't believe that breathing/thinking in a certain way would help with such intense pains BUT when I got to the point in my labour where the tens machine just wasn't doing it for me anymore and we were stuck in commuter traffic trying to get to the hospital I thought to myself that I had to do something incredible or I may die from the pian (sounds dramatic, but that's what I was feeling). So, I really tried hard to envisage myself on a specific beach that my husband and I had sunbathed on in our honeymoon with the water lapping up against my legs and do you know it really really helped me relax and feel more able to deal with the contractions when they came. The second thing that really helped me was when the contractions started to think of them as if you are climbing a mountain. Soon you will get to the summit and then shortly after you climb down again. It also was incredibly effective for me (along with the water birth and the gas and air), as it helps make the intense pain seem more temporary than before (or it at least gives you hope that it will soon go away!) Thirdly if you can get a referal somehow to a hospital with a birthing centre or have a home birth I would really reccomend looking into it at least. I was lucky enough to have my baby 8 months ago at Queen Charlottes birthing centre which was amazing. My husband stayed overnight with us after our daughters birth and it was like being at home. I think St Thomas' have a birthing centre.

I love this thread! I am also trying to cook dinner so that we all eat at 6pm and here are my favs for convienience and being quick: Gnocchi (sp?) with asparagas and boursin with some optional lemon zest grated in. My favourite! Tuna steak with green beans and tomato salsa. So quick. Cold Leek and potato soup. Mini beef wellingtons (bought ready to roll pastry), it only takes 10 mins! Most of these ideas come from the 'simple suppers' bbc good food recipe book.

I will be commuting to work in 4 weeks time with my 8 months old. I don't think it will be a problem though as I will be driving (Canary Wharf area - so not long), but there is no way I would want to get public transport. The main down side for me will be that my husband won't ever get to do any of the drop offs or pick ups, and it would be nice to have that flexibility. The upside is I get much more time with her, can see her within a few minutes if needed and because my work own the building the nursery is situated in it is half the price of a ED nursery, meaning I don't have to work full time. Sledge - you must be superwoman! It sounds like a very tiring day. I guess there is no way you can drive? Fingers crossed you find a local nursery place soon ( I just pulled out of a place that was held for me at Ascquith day nursery - Peckham Rye, so they may have a spare place...)

Just to say thankyou everyone for your support and suggestions! I have bought the Baby Sleep System book and although I'm hesitant about following the advice (and going against my baby led instincts!), something has to change!! Alieh - I'm So pleased he is sleeping through for you now. Looking forward to seeing you, and seeing how much he has changed! Crystal - I'll text you in the morning to see if you're up for meeting for a coffee or something.

My 7 month old daughter in the past 2 weeks has been waking up on average every 20 mins from when we put her to bed (7.30pm) until she wakes (anytime from 6am to 9am). It takes sometimes 40 mins to get her back to sleep again. Really I have just been waiting for this phase to pass, but now it's really getting to me! She previously was sleeping through the night. We went on holiday (where she slept in a different place each night followed by camping) and since she's been home screams whenever we put her in her cot. We have tried changing the cot around, putting her favourite toys in the cot, changing the smell of the room, feeding her more, putting her to bed earlier and later etc etc and nothing works. At the worst point she was waking every 5-20 mins for the whole night and this lasted 4 nights. Does anyone have any sugesstions as to what it could be, or things we could try?? She is a a very very happy, easy going baby during the day and there is no sign of teething. She doesn't eat too much so I think it could be that she is hungry although I'm still breastfeeding about 6 times a day. We have tried giving her formula before bed for the last 2 nights in the vague hope that it might fill her up more but this also doesn't seem to have much effect. Help!!!

We bought our Goddaughter the mr men box set. I personally would have loved it for myself/my daughter!

My sympathies Carrieon23, it's worrying isn't it! My 7 month old is going through exactly the same thing and for the last 4 nights or so has not slept very well at all due to being hungry in the night. I think as long as you keep offering milk, he will take what he needs and the situation will improve shortly (hopefully before you go to France). The frustrating thing is not knowing when!! Our baby suddenly decided she was ready to eat normally again today, and tonight she went to sleep soundly and has only woken up once so far (which is entirely different to the last few nights already). One trick my husband tried was to give her a toy and as she opened her mouth to eat the toy he quickly nipped the spoon full of food in. She didn't look so impressed but she swallowed it nonetheless and after that meal she has eaten well of her own accord. I'm not sure I entirely condone this kind of cunning feeding practice but it did seem to do the trick for us. Best of luck!

Oh Goodness, I am dreading this! Sent my boss an e-mail asking if i could possibly work 4 days within 3, and am anxiously awaiting a reply. I am an accountant and my days are never 9-5 anyway so working long days doesn't bother me but I cannot bear the thought of them refusing to let me work anything other than full time. They have been fantastic in the past (I got pregnant after 3 months working there) and they have been nothing but supportive - but then I am fantastic at my job haha!! I just wish more employers provided a creche - or that I still worked at the BBC, which was uber flexible!

Yep, I got scammed in Aura Court on peckham Rye about 3 years ago. Sounds like the same woman, and I flet so sorry for her - she was very distressed. Only after I gave her the money did I realise that none of the flats in Aura Court have electricity meters!! I felt so stupid, and sick to my stomach that someone can act so bloody well to scam you out of your money and also make you feel so sorry for them.

Err.... does anyone know of a service that will be on at around 9am in the area? New to this forum and unconfrontational at heart, but I would like to say that I like to go to the service each year mainly as a personal tribute to my grandfather and how hurt he was at the many friends and family he lost in the second world war. It has really annoyed me this year that I have been asked a few times by people why I am wearing a poppy! Having said that I do think it is unreasonable to expect everyone to feel as strongly as I do about respecting those that have died in service, as everyone has different experiences and backgrounds. However, as you can tell, I need to find a service that fits in with my prior plans for Sunday!! I feel bad but this year if I cannot find a service early on in the morning I'm will miss it to go wedding dress shopping for my best friend, so I do also understand that everyone has priorities and this year my best friends wedding wins....