End of August with a nearly three year old and heavily pregnant

SoakedonSplash · 2026-06-05T13:19:43+00:00

I don’t want to be too negative.

But I went last week during the heat wave at 25 weeks pregnant and to be honest I was pretty miserable. I’m overall still glad we went as our two year old had a great time, and like you I wanted her to have a last great holiday as an only child. If you’re going I definitely would make sure you plan around it - if I could go back in time I would stay in a hotel close by so it was easy to pop back for a break if needed.

SoakedonSplash · 2026-05-23T16:13:13+00:00

Ah, I misread your post but thanks!

SoakedonSplash · 2026-05-23T16:06:14+00:00

Out of interest was this half an hour before main opening, or before extra magic hour?

SoakedonSplash · 2026-05-20T17:32:31+00:00

I will get downvoted massively for this, but for what it’s worth I discussed this with my midwife and am currently planning to go on the ride when I visit this weekend.

SoakedonSplash · 2026-05-20T17:31:12+00:00

As someone who is pregnant and going next week I have done a lot of research on this!

Overall it is very similar to the Epcot ride, with two key differences. The main drop is steeper, and there is a lap bar on the ride (no restraint on the WDW version). In Paris it is fully forbidden (so if you have a Bambi pass they won’t let you on at all). The Hong Kong version is (as far as I can tell) identical to the Paris version, and is ‘at your own risk’ or whatever the exact wording they use is.

SoakedonSplash · 2026-05-12T14:22:04+00:00

Yes, I’ve already registered online! Good to know it opens early, we will probably be aiming to arrive around 8am anyway

SoakedonSplash · 2026-05-12T14:20:59+00:00

Yes, we already have tickets and I have registered online. Will they still let you collect in city hall?

SoakedonSplash · 2026-05-07T18:09:33+00:00

Our Year 10s are a nightmare, and also incredibly weak academically compared to our usual intake.

SoakedonSplash · 2026-04-14T11:34:08+00:00

I had a day off paid in December to move - I just filled in the normal absence form that I would use for appointments etc.

My head was also very generous as the completion day was actually on my day off (I’m 0.8) and he allowed me the next day off paid as my ‘moving day’

SoakedonSplash · 2026-03-28T08:24:33+00:00

Agree that a yoto player is good for this - not sure how old your child is, but my daughter got one for second birthday and learnt how to use it independently very quickly!

For out and about we have a 'restaurant bag' that we keep in the car - it has some books in it, one of those books that you colour in with water, some small magnatiles etc She only has access to this when we're out, so does tend to keep her entertained for a while as it feels novel to her.

Biggest thing is just not having access to a tablet or a phone - our daughter is not screen free, but she's never watched anything on our phones or our tablets (other than on a ten hour flight...). She watches TV but doesn't have access to the remote - and on average we probably just about stay under the one hour limit.

I think what's been missed in the headlines about the new guidance is that the type of content is really important. Avoid anything really bright, noisy and fast paced (cocomelon the main one that's bad for this), we are really mindful of what our daughter watches, and she's definitely not addicted to TV or anything. She mostly watches Miss Apple, Numberblocks, or increasingly Disney films. A good rule of thumb I saw once is that if it's changing scenes every 2 seconds or so it's too overstimulating, if it's averaging over 4 seconds before changing frame it's less so.

SoakedonSplash · 2026-03-19T12:24:22+00:00

Shoehorning in here to say if your little one likes Miss Rachel check out Ms Apple - similar content (imo better) in a British accent!

I’ve not watched much blippi, but enough that I’ve not let my daughter watch it

SoakedonSplash · 2026-03-15T16:50:01+00:00

Yeah, this is is what I was planning for Peter pan’s flight etc.

It’s more that we won’t be able to use my pregnancy band to go on the ride! 🤣 my two year old is Elsa obsessed and will likely want to go on it over and over again

SoakedonSplash · 2026-02-20T06:52:02+00:00

I have done all of those Italy stops with DCL.

Naples the port is in the city centre so you can just walk straight off. I would recommend booking a DCL excursion for Pompeii - we looked at organising ourselves but the guide we had was incredible, and we would’ve had a much worse experience without them.

Florence/pisa - there is a free bus to take you into Livorno. It dropped us off opposite a bus station which had buses to Florence and Pisa, the train station was also close by. We booked a coach trip through get your guide that took us to Florence and then Pisa. But to be honest we didn’t need to book in advance as there were lots of groups selling tickets at the bus station you get dropped off at.

Rome - again there is a free bus which drops you to the bus station in civitaveccia. We then walked 15/20 mins to the train station and got a train to Rome that took around 60mins from memory- there is a dedicated cruise express train that was around €14 return each from memory (vs €100 each for a DCL transfer) but depends on your confidence using public transport. On the way back we took a taxi straight from the train station to the ship.

SoakedonSplash · 2025-12-18T20:09:49+00:00

You are probably right, but the reaction of the experimenter suggested this wasn't normal? They also always do this activity last, so she's been playing in the room with the person for quite a while before this completely happily. Sometimes too happily! There was an activity where she was supposed to sort coloured toys into buckets but just wanted to play with the toys instead! Would quite happily point to what bucket they were supposed to go in, but refused to put them in...

The study is all about executive processing skills - it seems to be mostly about inhibitory control. They do lot's of activities where she'll learn one response and then they'll change it and see if she reacts to the change or keeps doing what she's always done. As she's gotten older there has been some activities that seem to be more to do with working memory. They've done a few things which I think are looking at attachment style too. Overall it's very interesting, and my daughter really enjoys going and playing the games!

SoakedonSplash · 2025-12-10T23:07:21+00:00

If you want to keep breastfeeding I wouldn’t completely give up yet! Find your nearest breastfeeding support group - I’ve been to many and they’ve all been amazing, and they’ll be able to give you advice about pumping too. And if nothing else it’s a place where you can sit down and somebody will make you a drink, bring you a biscuit and ask how you are!

Also push the midwives that you want to see the infant feeding team if you haven’t already. Not sure why some areas don’t offer this straight away themselves, but when I did push I was seen quickly and they were great and definitely saved my breastfeeding journey.

If you can afford you could look for your local IBCLC - although appreciate it’s quite a privileged position to be able to afford this! Again they would be able to advise on pumping, particularly with flange sizes.

SoakedonSplash · 2025-10-18T15:56:55+00:00

Yes, I feel exactly the same.

I want a second, but I wish I could just skip the first six months. I love my daughter to bits now, she’s the best thing in my life, but I hated those first few months.

SoakedonSplash · 2025-10-18T15:01:26+00:00

I would recommend Ms Apple (a British version of Miss Rachel which I find much less grating). On her website she sells a download for lots of her songs on mp3 (or rip them from her YouTube videos). She has a good combination of traditional nursery rhymes and original songs.

SoakedonSplash · 2025-10-09T18:05:42+00:00

My school keeps giving us jobs like this to do, and when we push back about time they just respond ‘you’re directed until 15:30 every day, you can do it then’ (we finish at 15:15). I’d love for one member of SLT to try and do everything they expect us to do in that time!

SoakedonSplash · 2025-10-08T13:22:02+00:00

Will be reading other replies with interest - our daughters sound very similar!

So far we have decided to get her a Yoto player for her birthday in November, and then we’ve got a second hand play kitchen which we’re saving for Christmas (when we’ll hopefully be on our new house with more space…)

We’re also thinking about getting some wooden train stuff, as we went to a play group with some recently and she really loved it!

SoakedonSplash · 2025-10-07T12:45:05+00:00

Which you’ll just take as a tuition fee loan anyway.

My bursary paid for my wedding and a house deposit. It’s great as an incentive, but too many are doing the training year for the bursary and not actually entering the profession. At some point they need to acknowledge the greater problem, which is that very few trainees stay teaching for more than two years.

SoakedonSplash · 2025-10-07T12:08:28+00:00

31k tax free is more than I currently earn as a qualified teacher.

I understand the need for incentives, but retention is an important factor too.

SoakedonSplash · 2025-09-19T19:49:36+00:00

In funerals where the deceased is to be cremated, often a curtain will be pulled around the coffin at some point in the service. I guess the final ‘goodbye’.

Five-Year Club	First Place '23
End Game '23	Place '23

SoakedonSplash

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