Fully qualified Grans?

I can do 1,2,3 but not 4 or 5 (I've just added that!) the pesky high chair that bites me everytime!

Buggy is the bugbear, even after 7 years as a gran I can not master the blessed thing.

Gave up on buggies would rather walk and put baby into high pram and walk,don't care how far I have to walk just don't give me a buggy.

And remember which way round babies are supposed to sleep... let me see... at the bottom of the cot, on their backs isn't it. And then there is the turning the baby alarm off before you pick them up if mum is sleeping skill, otherwise alarm goes off and mother leaps 6 ft into air like a cartoon character (is that how it goes ? Its been a few years)

I can't remember how many times I've shoved the upright buggy into the boot, after having a full-on wrestling match with it in the street! It doesn't seem to matter how many times I'm shown, the dratted thing refuses to budge for me. Pitiful looks from DD make the whole debacle worse! I loved my Marmet Imperial - it didn't need to be folded down, just stood royally in the hall. (It wouldn't go in the car, though!)

Baby monitors. I can't master baby monitors.

Og gracemum so know were you are coming from, I was trying to help my DIL open the blinking buggy one day as she had my GS in her arms and I just could'nt do it!!! I felt such a plank. In the end she gave me My Grandson and she opened the buggy!!! This was when he was a baby of course he is 4 now.

And its not getting them into the car seat that's the problem, it is loosening the straps so that you can begin the task without crushing their internal organs (while wrestling the child out of the buggy in a public place) Once had to accost a passing buggy pushing man to help me.

The plastic clips that fasten the harnesses are what get my arthritic fingers.
I have been known to just pull dgd out of one corner when the clips were too stiff

The buggy always has muddy wheels when it won't close, and I can't get it in the porch!

*JessM8 N0, not on their backs. In the night on the right, in the day, the other way.

Had to enlist help of a neighbour with young children the first time DGS stayed with us as I had NO idea of how to undo the straps on the McLaren. Buggy of course stayed erected for the duration. Another bugbear (!) is the baby alarm , as I always forget that you can be heard at the "other end" which includes Granny's tuneless lullaby rendition. DGC not so discriminating but assembled company in stitches down stairs!

Fortunately DS & DDIL also cursed their buggy and had problems with it, so I never touched it. I am nearly more cackhanded than DS when faced the things mechanical

My dd uses a sling! There's no way I'm carrying DGD on crutches with a tendency to fall!

If you're a grandmother, you're a fully qualified Grans.

oh the sleep drill has changed? Is that because all the babies were getting flat backs to their heads. My GD still has a slightly flat head bless her.

Oh dear - I have come over all nostalgic for the days when I used to push my grandchildren in those dratted buggies. When I was living with my daughter in Yorkshire I used to take my great-grand-daughter to the park to feed the ducks and we both enjoyed ourselves. Perhaps I will get another go when my New Zealand grandchildren start to have children.

I have a sun-lounger which is the devil to open - there is a knack which makes it very easy, but I forget it every time and end up lying the thing down on the floor and wrestling with it. Who designs these things?

Last thing I read was that babies should be laid on their backs because they can get overheated lying on their stomachs. No doubt more recent grandparents can confirm the new advice.

After nearly 5 weeks with DD here in Oz, I have mastered the erection and collapsing of the 'stroller' and can also manage 1, 2 and 4 quite efficiently but 5 is a different story. They have a ridiculous Hauk high hair which 'grows with the child' and getting the baby into it requires at least 3 hands. The sitting space is very narrow and once installed, the baby is pushed forward - try feeding a recalcitrant infant with its chin pushed down onto its chest ! [I give up emoticon]. The other three gc's also each have a chair like this (they turn into a high level/low level chair and then a stool) - SIL is all arty farty and thinks they look the part. All DD wants is a cheap Plastic Ikea highchair like I have at home but he won't hear of it. [what a prat emoticon]

I thought it was on their backs!

All gc's have been on their backs and one has the most peculiar shaped head. Doesn't seem to bother DD 'his hair will cover it' . All my DD's were on their fronts/sides.

Definitely on their backs- but only after you've managed to remove the blackout thing off your head because the suction pads somehow don't manage to attach it to the window....when did Mums start needing blackouts??

I bought one of those blackout blinds for when DGS came to stay and ripped it first time! Blackout curtain linings more effective any day (or night!)
The most useful advice I ever got was from Jane Fearnley-Whittingstall's book Good Granny guide regarding disposable nappies -"The picture goes at the front". Then there's the "Sun'sup" clock. A brilliant concept, but can I ever remember how to set the damn thing? (Do not answer)
Baby bags with 2-way zips - plus baby wriggling for Britain. The knee across the stomach technique I perfected for our children seems a little draconian these enlightened days

Trouble is, *Gracesmum' there are pictures on both front and back these days and if you don't have the specs on, you can't see which one is facing which way! I go with the bigger tabs at the back theory
The 3 year old sets the sun's up clock - easy option....... Maybe she can sort out my next PCM problem too

I thought they were on their backs as it is the best way to avoid cot death, which I believe has become much less common since the Back to Sleep campaign. I would rather take the chance of having a live DGC with a flat head (although mine seem to have perfectly ordinary heads in spite of sleeping on their backs from birth until they could choose, and move, for themselves).

gracesmum, is there any other way of 1) strapping a wriggling toddler in a buggy or 2) changing the nappy of someone who has decided that this is crawling time, not nappy-changing time, than the knee, or possibly elbow, in the stomach technique?