June 07 PN - Christmas is coming, and our little puddings are becoming cheeky monkeys. Will Santa come?

[educatingRia]

best I could come up with on my enforced alcohol limitation

natty that's shite. but if it's their mistake then they have to let you repay it at a rate you can afford, not one that they set. Is your house a council house then? I thought you had a private landlord?

we are private, u get housing benefit to help with soaring costs of renting in london. for instance most 3 bed properties are 1110-1300 a month, most outer london rentals are a hell of a lot cheaper.

they are taking 9 pounds a week, which is a further 40 pounds a month nearly, on top of the shortfall because they reckon a three bed shouldnt cost more than 1000 in croydon like to see where they rent from...

so we are already finding an extra 300 a month for rent, plus council tax is 180, and hubby only brings in 1000 a month, b4 they did this we were already -80 a month.. where am i supposed to cut back? i cant cut back anymore, i have no luxuries, we dont run a car, i walk everywhere, no sky tv, no landline, no credit cards or overdrafts anymore, ive already cut the food to £40 pound a week to feed 4 ppl, which is less than 1.40 per person per day, which is about 50 pence a meal

and ive canceled xmas and birthdays for the forseable future, we are downsizing properties to a 2 bed when we are going to have 3 children. what else can i do?

sorry DS1 is causing you so much greif daisy, delayed reaction to the new baby do you think?

Sorry about that Natty. I agree with Daisy that you should be able to repay in installments based on your ability to pay.

Had mostly a lovely day with Jamlet. We played "shop" this afternoon, when she half emptied the kitchen food cupboard. I set up a pile of tins and packets in front of her and kept pointing to things asking "can I have the rice/tin of fish/juice/whatever please" and she would give it too me. And later we emptied the change jar out and she posted the coins back through the slot one by one. Kept her occupied for aaaaaaaages. And the look of concentration on her face! She can't half be cute when she wants

ah, that explains things for me natty. Can you see them about paying back less? or at least not starting to pay it back till after Christmas?

Jammy, DD loves our "penny pig". she goes rifling in my bag to steal money from my purse, then runs around shouting "penny.......pig". She seems to be adding a couple of words a day to her vocabulary as well and is making simple sentences (well stringing two words together!)

Other than Ma and Da Jamlet still only says hiya and yeah really. And her "best friend" (as far as they have a best friend at this age ) says bye, so mw and his mum reckon they make a great team But her understanding of what we say is obviously quite good and she is finally getting parts of the body. Until a couple of days ago she only had a tummy. If you asked her where her anywhere (head, nose, foot...) was she showed you her tummy. But today she pointed to her nose and head as well

mw and his mum = me and his mum

aw everyones LO's chatting away merrily..

ellen said "sit up" today and "more please" yesterday..

now i count them as sentances.. so does daisy.. does everyone else?

Absolutely Natty, they are sentences. Dd is doing the same (said 'where's daddy' the other day when they were playing hide & seek) so I'm sure this must count as sentences

Sorry to hear about the council. Do they have any kind of appeal/negotiation process?

DD has come down with a temp today, tho was happy till about late this afternoon. Dh gave her a cool bath which cheered her up, but she went to bed early. Hope its just teething, not any nasty bugs that are flying around.....

Shit Natty

Are you on any Housing Association lists?

I think you should contact Shelter. They will campaign on your behalf I think.

I would also write to the Leader of the Council and the Director of Housing.

If you don't pay it and they take you to court you will pay less then that - they have to take any reasonable amount offered, even if its £1. I'd also get to Citizens Advice if you can.

Also reconsider staying put. Then have the Council come and have a look at the place. If they deem it uninhabitable they will tell the Landlord to sort it, if not, they might be more helpful in finding you somewhere. If you leave under your own steam, even if its a shite-hole, they will say you are making yourself 'intentionally homeless'. (Because that's what pregnant women with two children do ).

Sorry to lecture you Natty. I know you are a bright young thing, and don't need some stranger telling you what to do I just wish I could do something to help. The system fails people like you and your DH and it is so fucking shit and unjust

Rant over. As you were.

Sorry

bossy and ranty

ignore me.

hello everyone!

Hey foxy

what do I do with a little boy who only settles on his tummy over mum or dad's knee? As soon as we try and lay him on his back....off he goes with his grunting and groaning and crying

Hi Foxy.

I've just cut out 80-odd green triangles to make trees on my Christmas cards this year. Actually, they're not all green. Some people will be getting brown or blue Christmass trees

Jamlet was kind of like that when she was tiny Daisy. At times the only way to get her quiet was to lie her on her tummy over mine or DH's knee. Baby time out we called it. I think it was linked to her colic, and the position helped relieve it.

tell me it passed quickly jammy.....pleeeeeeeeeese

I am on active service all night tonight....I think DH is going to have a complete emotional meltdown if he doesn't get a good night's sleep. He has been on a successively shorter fuse for weeks now!

anyone watching Outnumbered? It's hysterically funny

thomas had colic, he slept on his front from abour 4 weeks when i gave up trying to get him to sleep on his back (controvesal i know)
when the HV came to visit one day he was asleep and i had to shove in front of her to flip him over b4 she saw
entirely up to you i know SID's is scary, but if thats how he wants to sleep he will sleep on his front as soon as he can roll over anyway.
thomas still does to this day, and ellen still sleeps on her back..

thanks foxy, i dont mind u being bossy. im under croydon council, and they wont home me just cos the house needs work. we cannot afford the rent now, not by any stretch of the imagination, since we moved here the council have annouced we owe them 2 1/2 gand in council tax (how the hell that is possible i dont know) and that we now oew them over a grand in over payments, and they are putting our housing benefit down even further.

i dont want to move, but ive not got much choice

You know what Daisy, I really can't remember. So either it wasn't very long or it's the mind blocking out what it doesn't want to remember Sorry not much help am I? Thinking hard, it wasn't too long (weeks rather than days, but not stretching into months), but at the time it seemed horrendous. And we were lucky that it lasted through afternoon and early evening but then she would go to bed.

jammy...it lasts all fecking day and night here

natty, I have seriously considered putting him on his tummy to sleep, but I'm not a natural born risk taker and would worry myself senseless, inspite of the fact that we all slept on our tummies, as did my two older nephews.

daisy perhaps during the day? and u can keep an eye on him? maybe if he isnt so tired cos he has slept well during the day he will settle better at night?

i can remember spending many a night waking up just to check on him, it does make u nervous, but like F tom was up all night and day screaming cos he was tired but it hurt to be on his back, u could see it was causing him pain
some babys are born difficult lol, i knew it was a sign of things to come with tom

Daisy

I saw a HV having a mild fit when she saw a mum at a group putting baby to sleep on front, but she calmed down a lot when the mum said it was only for day time naps and said that wasn't too bad as long as she was about to watch him. So might be worth a try as Natty says

I might have a chat with my HV about it on Tuesday.

but.....as per our old mantra.....This too shall pass

did I tell you that I tried to put him in a vest that fitted him two days ago and couldn't get the poppers done up on the crotch . He seems to have doubled in size in the last week.

gosh daisy must be your super mummy milk..

ijust went upstairs to check on ellen, she is running another fever, high one again, she is shivering as well, even with tons of blankets on her
i am fast running out of calpol, praying it lasts till monday when i can hotfoot it to the docs and get a prescription! no money to buy any either.. tho i might have some points on my boots card

DH and tom are asleep in my marital bed! looks like im sleeping on the sofa with smelly tonight, bugger going up and down stairs all night!

Aw Natty, hope E is OK. And that you get some sleep, wherever you end up!

I'm off to bed now though, so have a good night everyone.