June 2013; Toddling into our second year!

[BeanCalledPickle]

New thread ladies:-) I think we filled about ten threads when pregnant and this is only our fourth post natally!

Goodness, baby bumps popping out everywhere! Congratulations Cuphat

Anyone other than me not pregnant??

Ah, lovely news, cup :-) Congratulations!

Looks like we've all done well at getting close birthdays between our children. Bad financial planning!

Thank you both. I know, Hungry! Though we're thinking we can do a joint party as they'll be so close together. All being well - I don't want to get ahead of myself.

I've already decided on a joint party midway between the two! :-)

Mrs81 - I am NOT pregnant, nor am I trying to be! Don't think I could manage four of them :o Although it's the right time of year - my EDDs have been early April, early May, early June (which clearly is why my children have birthdays in February and May...)

Congratulations cup!

Hurray, I have a buddy! I think my EDD is 7th may but I ovulate late so it's more like 10th. With an ELCS I guess I could be at the end of April. When are you?

I'm also definitely not pregnant and not likely to be for at least another year. Can barely afford childcare as it is!

Congratulations though Cup - I'm very jealous as I'd love to be growing another human about now

I'm not pregnant either! :-)

Tell me about it sunny. Polly is 793 quid a month for three days. Two will take us to £1426; discount for second child. At the moment the £793 actually costs us £400 as vouchers and my mother pay the other half. I will need the new government scheme to kick in and pay 20pc instead of vouchers but that's still £1100 a month! Which is an extra 700 quid! Basically the only way we can afford it is to pour 10k of savings into the nursery black hole to fill the gap between both in nursery and school....

Nursery would cost us far too much, so DH is a SAHD as we are better off that way. Bonkers really.

Yeah we will lose money once two in nursery. Post tax, expenses and travel card DH doesn't earn enough to cover it. But... No way he wouldn't work. He says it would be job suicide to take five years out which I guess is true. And honestly cannot imagine trying to entertain polly all day every day. I have one day on my own with her a week and it KILLS me. I think it's because at nursery they are entertained constantly. I just can't do it!!

Thank you

EDD according to NHS calculator is 4 June, however with DD they brought my date forward at the scan due to her size, so I'm expecting the same to happen again. The due date they gave me meant that they thought I'd conceived before I'd actually ovulated (I knew exactly when I ovulated)! I think the same happened to hungry with your DD? With ELCS it'd be another week early.

I'm on an official career break with work for 5 years (think i can extend to 6) as it's not worth paying the childcare. It's much harder work than my job, but much more enjoyable and I love it. I'm lucky I have the option - they have to give me a job at he same grade when I go back.

wow that's an example of how much more childcare costs darn saarf. We pay 440 a month for 2.5 days a week.

That's why we're waiting to have the next when Lil turns 3 so our childcare costs won't double.

I'm in the position whereby if I went freelance I could practically double my income but we'd lose the security of a monthly wage, maternity pay and pension. In reality in my career it's the men who go freelance and the women stay as employees.

How much is that a session then? There are some sweeteners though; wouldn't you get a discount for second child? And the new gov scheme that replaces vouchers will help, that pays 20pc of the costs for each child.

Childcare is expensive (though ours at £39/day is relatively affordable compared to what some pay) but for 10hrs of care, food and nappies it is v good value in some ways.

We have had two firsts in the last 24hrs: projectile puke in the car yesterday followed by one in the cot during the night and also over DH The windows are open, the washing machine is busy and DS is asleep.

Stop trying to get me pregnant Bean!

Ours is £61. On a micro level less than six quid an hour seems really very reasonable to feed and entertain my child. It's more when you look at it on a macro level it gets scary!

Ours is around £56 the last I checked, but I'm nowhere near London.

Cup, it happened both times...DD was moved forwards 4 days and DS a whole week (meaning my 38 week section with DS due to unstable breech was actually at 37 weeks).

Nursery here is about £45 per day, I think. It's been a while since I looked (and fainted!).

£45 is nothing!! That's less than a fiver an hour. Brilliant. My £61 quid is a little more than the local going rate but has slightly longer hours which is helpful to have if not use. I know of some that are 80-100 quid a day. For that you get classes like mandarin and baby Zumba:-)

I have read somewhere that the best thing you can do for your child is keep them at home until 2.5-3, after which they should go to nursery. I just couldn't do it! Money aside I'd go mad!

I was pricing for 2 though...it was very expensive for 5 days a week!

right folks I've discovered nursery's secret to the magic sleeping baby formula! Now hold onto your hats. Its complex and will take some getting your head round it. Forget BABY whisperer and Gina Ford. This secret will sell millions of books.

The secret? Rubbing her tummy.

Yup that is apparently the secret to getting my fussy arsed toddler to sleep on a matt in a room full of toddlers in broad daylight.

DH told me about it and tried it and said it worked immediately. I was skeptical but have just tried it on a screaming planking toddler who within 3 minutes was snoring her head off.

WTF???

balls. looks like the small girl might have chicken pox. Poor DH is at home with her while I'm in London with work drinking wine. Bad mummy.

SunnyL - DD had that at Christmas - get some vitasooth ASAP, it seems to be the only thing that works to stop them ripping their skin apart.

Congratulations to the pregnant ladies. We've basically decided 2 is it. So i'm done. I'm sort of ok with it, until I see a bump. As DD is now running about the place and starting saying what sounds like words, I'm feeling that this part of my life - the baby years - is nearly over. Not helped that I've spent the day calling round pre-schools to get her name down.

Guys, you are scaring me by getting pregnant when not trying! What do you mean by 'not trying' (not being indelicate, just panicked at thought of this happening!)