In Law School, it is normally better to publish that PhD as a book rather than papers, if one wishes to do a postdoc.

Congratulations on becoming a parent and doing a PhD at the same time. As I have previously mentioned, academia is not child-friendly. A cheap nursery or a baby sitter might solve the problem. I was raised by various babysitters (my dad was an academic and my mum was working full time), and I had a great childhood.

Can you clarify if your general pass degree is a university degree please? Or it is a high-school / lyceum / college degree? In any case, there are ways you can do it in the UK. Timmy may be right, or consider my option if you like. I know of someone who started a masters in management in a UK university. He had finished college, had no BA but he had been working as a manager in the last 10 years. He was accepted at the Masters and got the degree with distinction.

Or... you can do a bit of work on the topic you want to study (e.g. actively work in the field for let's say 3-4 years minimum) and then enrol into a MA after your work experience is taken into account.

Seriously, do something now before it is too late.

If you have read my story, my story started like yours, only I developed serious mental problems and OCDs because of stress, and made myself very ill (physically and mentally).

A few suggestions from my experience:

You can
a) take a long extension on medical grounds,
b) take a long extension due to being on leave to visit home,
c) withdraw from the course and re-register in a year's time.

For a start, delete your social network accounts. Completely. Don't give a damn about others. I am sure others are too busy with their chaotic lifestyles to give a damn about you. Stop comparing yourself to others and see a counsellor (I had to have 12 sessions of counselling in order to stand on my feet and be able to resubmit my thesis).

And enrol to your local swimming pool. Trust me. Swimming is the best anti-stress ever.

I would offer the abstract as an attachment and a summary of my research on the main body of my email to them (try to shorten it somehow, if possible).

I am reviewing the whole book after all. Thanks.

I need to publish more papers. I am ok with book reviews, conference reports, and co-editing a book, but I have published one sole-authored paper so far (need more).

My field is in the humanities. I am discussing sole-authored papers here. Any of you acknowledge the supervisor is he / she provides a second opinion? I think that this is a must.

Do you share your academic papers with your supervisor before sending them to journal editors for publication, asking your supervisor for a second opinion? Or simply send them to the editor without your supervisor having had a look first? What do you normally do?

If the field is somehow relevant, then you can do a PhD and then follow a post-doc in a different field. E.g., my PhD is in law and human rights but I am discussing a post-doc in journalism.

Nobody will notice. Draw a line on it if you like. I have seen far worse mistakes than this on theses.

I have been offered to review a book. It is written by one author only (it is not a collective work) and effectively it is divided into three parts, which are on the same field, but deal with completely different topics and are not that connected to each other. I am more interested (and specialise) in part 2. Do I only review only this part, only briefly mentioning the other parts? Or I have to review all parts equally? What do you think? The review must be under 1500 words.

A colleague of mine once submitted a thesis which was only 74.000 words and received a resubmission verdict. She simply wanted to get done with it, but she wasn't lucky. I would advice you not to risk it, and wait a bit longer. Your supervisor knows your work. He knows how much more work it requires. Also, don't think of the number of words - think of the quality of the thesis. Is it good? Is it original? At the point you are now, in my opinion, you should not take risks.

Congrats on starting a second doctorate. Well, in theory it will be faster than the first one, as long as you stay committed. But could we ever predict where things will take us? I don't think so. But how long the PhD will take you to finish is unpredictable. It depends on life circumstances, whether you work or not, how you contribute to the finances of your family (if you have one) and how much you have researched the topic before starting this 2nd PhD. If I ever decide to do a second PhD, I will probably sit down and write a good 40.000 words on the topic, then approach a supervisor with this document, and start the PhD. This way I guarantee myself that I am not starting from zero but I have done half the job already.