MSE Parent Club

Sarahsaver

My little DS is taking his sats, he is in year 2. he is taking it all in his stride, but I think kids pick up on the stress of the teachers, after all its targets targets targets now first and foremost rather than individual need.
i just bought an expensive pushchair well would have been, a Mutsy, for £60 off a friend. its v well looked after. it will fit on our new people carrier anyway!:)
i will get something smaller for later on when the babe is a bit older.
dont like travel; systems, my other 3 kids never suffered from being ...OH MY GOSH...lifted out of their car seats!!! :rotfl: plus i think its safer if you fit the carseat in the car then leave it in place permanently.

tsstss7

Just took LO for his first set of jabs which we are very late on due to all his feeding problems (now thankfully resolved like they never happened) - CAN'T BELIEVE HOW NERVOUS i WAS LOLOLOL the first jab was quick - second one a bit of a cry and then over.

DS1 has practice sats all week (YR5)- do other schools do this too? His school seem to use SATS week for everyone rather than just test the two yrs.

3KIDSNOMONEY wrote: »

My daughter is year 6 too and has SATS this week - not too worried as she seems to take it all in her stride, early nights this week though.

Regarding prams - i bought a graco mosaic travel system and hate it!! Baby faces away from me unless he is in his car seat on it but i don't like him to sit in it for too long. i took ages on deciding what pushchair to have and still made the wrong choice. I have bought a maclaren for the car which he is able to use when he is 3 months but am trying to find a cheap (as OH is going mad at me about pushchairs) pram that faces me which will be nice for walks and going into town and things. You would think as this is my fourth child that i would have bought the right thing wouldn't you?!!! A loola looks like a good option and they aren't too expensive to buy new if it is the only one you are going to buy and not end up with lots like me.

Finding things difficult at the minute - it's just a culmination (??) of everything getting on top of me, plus i have OCD which makes this time of year with my kids particularly hard for various reasons. Plus the house is a tip and i can't see any way of ever getting things mended, decorated, cleaned, etc. My baby is lovely apart from not sleeping for great lengths of time in the day or at night.

plus my son is now 9 weeks old and my back has started to get really bad an weak especially at night when it feels really bad. Sorry about the moaning

Hope everyone else is doing ok.

3kids - ditto this - funnily enough pregnancy was a merciful release from backpain due to the muscle relaxing effect....now kicked in double thanks to csection.....can hardly get up some mornings - have to warm up first lol :rolleyes:

My house is also a tip but lack of sleep has left me unable to care lo is 6 mths and still wakes most nights at 11/12 3/4and then 6/7 - however last night he skipped the 12 and didn't go back to sleep after the 4.30 feed so I have been awake since then .....YAWN......

Anyway on the subject of prams - specifically loola's.....

I have a loola which I bought after a LOT of research because I had very specific needs from a pram system....I also considered the quinny buzz and some more expensive systems like the bugaboo but the loola won because of the reversable seat that can be used from birth as well as the fact I can fit in my very small car boot.....

Anyway having a few feeding moments on hand I thought I'd list a few positive and negatives about the loola as lots of people seem interested in perhaps buying one so here goes;_

positives

relatively cheap (for a travel system) - mine was 275 from toys r us with car seat, frame, pushchair seat, car seat sunshade and pushchair rain covers.

lighter than a conventional pram

car seat clips into frame which means you could for example take train to visit rellies and take taxi and have car seat with you (can buy rain cover also)

REVERSIBLE SEATING - both car seat and buggy seat face forward and back.

Can be used from birth (car seat better than buggy seat for this though imo)

can switch from static to swivel front wheels without crouching as adjusts on side of frame.

folds easy if you detach seat and reasonably compact

rain cover for push chair zips on so is quite dinky.. easy to carry around with you.

washable covers - can replace if needed - change colours etc

pushes nicely - smooth ride

nice and shiney frame

car seat nice and big - suits baby for longer in better back facing position.

car seat has good positioning for newborn so as not to stress back.lies very flat in frame too so minimum stress there.

car seat quite light



negatives

quite wide - does go through doors but small shops are a bit fraught.

foot rest doesn't adjust

lie back position a bit high - sitting up position too low...(still quite comfy for baby though

shopping basket inaccessible (I can hang bags on handles ok though as weighty enough with lo in so not to tip with little bit of weight there.)

quite heavy compared to a buggy.

not one handed operation either pushing, folding down or putting up.

car seat too big for supermarket trollies.

not adjustable handles (ok for both me and oh though and we are very different heights)

foot muff and changing bag big prices (easily 80 quid for both!!*- got mine from boots! 20 quid and bag - free with pack of nappies.

talkiing to baby while walking is so much fun you can bump into old ladies without noticing. lol

Nodding off now so thats all for now - will add to later if I think of anything else.

tsstss7

Sarahsaver wrote: »

i will get something smaller for later on when the babe is a bit older.
dont like travel; systems, my other 3 kids never suffered from being ...OH MY GOSH...lifted out of their car seats!!! :rotfl: plus i think its safer if you fit the carseat in the car then leave it in place permanently.

quite agree ....

3KIDSNOMONEY

got to admit that i don't leave my car seat in the car all the time as both me and OH have a base in our cars but only one seat. originally i thought it would be great to be able to put car seat on pram and don't get me wrong sometimes it is, but i do hate to see babies pushed round in them for hours.

tsstss7 - i too never suffered with back pain during pregnancy, my dr said that after 4 pregnancies everything gets very stretched. i know i did too much and too much heavy lifting when pregnant and i'm paying the price now. thanks for the pram advice too.

SusanC_2

tsstss7 wrote: »

Just took LO for his first set of jabs which we are very late on due to all his feeding problems (now thankfully resolved like they never happened) - CAN'T BELIEVE HOW NERVOUS i WAS LOLOLOL the first jab was quick - second one a bit of a cry and then over.

I found the worst set of jabs was the third because there were three so by the time she got the third she knew what was coming and cried in advance. As a result I was dreading the 12 months one but amazingly she didn't cry at all for that.

tsstss7 wrote: »

DS1 has practice sats all week (YR5)- do other schools do this too? His school seem to use SATS week for everyone rather than just test the two yrs.

They make SATs for every year which schools can choose to use and either mark themsleves or send off to external markers. I did teaching practice at a school which used them for all the years with external markers because it helped them to keep track of how the children were doing based on an external assessment and also it got the children used to doing the SATs so that they were used to the style of the tests and also it was less of a big deal when they did the ones which "count". To be honest the results only count for the schools and not for the individual children. Secondary schools usually reassess children in their first term because they find the SATs results are not that useful.

Sarahsaver wrote: »

i will get something smaller for later on when the babe is a bit older.
dont like travel; systems, my other 3 kids never suffered from being ...OH MY GOSH...lifted out of their car seats!!! :rotfl: plus i think its safer if you fit the carseat in the car then leave it in place permanently.

Safety is one of the reasons I liked to keep the car seat in the car - I didn't like the idea of refitting it for every journey or bashing it and potentially weakening it by carrying it around (that's probably a bit OTT but I felt better keeping it in the car). Personally having helped a friend who had two children close together, I found it easier to put the child into the car seat already into the car than to carry the child around in the car seat and then put it in the car with the child already in but that's just my personal preference.

We've managed so far to get away without a pushchair and just use the sling when we go out in the car. It takes up very little space and if you're out when it's wet you don't have wet muddy wheels to put in the car.

Sarahsaver

I took a lollipop to shove in their mouths at the jabs once they were 12 mths or older. of course you could take an organic free range rice cake or something.
Little ds just said 'ouch' once. mind you hes the same one who just nodded at the hearing screening test :rotfl: You know whan they whisper '*** can you hear me?'
I think us parents are the more worried party.

Lu_T

Imogen slept through her first set of jabs. Has been less impressed at the others, but no big deal. Until we flew off on holiday 4 days after her MMR - then she screamed for 4 hours solid, yes solid :eek: She hadn't been well, but I didn't realise she'd be that bad.

She's staying at my mum's this week. She's only 'stayed out' for one night so far and now she's away for a week. I really miss her, but know she's having a good time, so that's okay. I'm going over after work on Thursday night and hubby is collecting us on Sat.

Took her to my cousin's wedding on Sat. Had an :eek: :eek: moment when I had her sat on my lap during the speeches, then noticed a brown stain on my cream linen dress! Good old leaky disposable! So straight up to our room - lucky we were staying over - OH put her in the bath while I washed my dress with the hotel soap in the sink and rang reception for an ironing board. I refused to get changed into my jeans at only 7pm at my cousin's reception. Managed to dry it with a hairdryer and finish off with the iron, then re-appeared downstairs as if nothing had happened. Am such a 'Mum' these days :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Snaggles

Lu, how resourceful!! :T

Snaggles

We are having a nightmare - all 4 of us have spent the last few days throwing up - Natasha started on her birthday (Friday - didn't stop her eating cake though!), Stu started on Saturday, I started on Sunday and Ryan started today - Stu and Natasha are improving a bit now, so I'm hoping I will start to soon.

The birthday party was lovely though, can't believe the last year has gone so fast.

SusanC_2

Hope you're all better soon. Cute photos. I especially like the last one.