MSE Newborn to 1 year Baby Club 1

*Nutella*

Katie, been meaning to tell you that following your rave reviews on here, we now have a Lamaze musical inchworm! I really like it, and more importantly LO seems to like it too!

katiechoc_2

Glad you both like it Nutella! I should ask for some commission

Aimless

turtlemoose wrote: »

We have second jabs tomorrow, I am dreading it, I'm such a wimp. I managed not to cry last time but he is so much more aware of his surroundings now that I don't think I'll be able to bear it. I hate that they make you sit in the waiting room for ten mins afterwards....it's one of the very few times he wants to comfort suck and I'll happily let him as I feel sooo guilty, but don't want to get my baps out in the waiting room!

We've never been asked to wait, not that it is a good thing that they're not bothered! Try asking the nurse or receptionist if there is anywhere you can feed, once I happened to mention to my doc that I'd better find somewhere to feed before I went home, and he found me an empty examining room to use.

turtlemoose

Well i am wide awake and OH is asleep. The down side to having a superking bed is when you're not getting on, the space between us feels like a chasm. He couldn't be any further away from me without actually getting out of the bed. The tribunal is going round and round in my head. I havent expressed enough milk yet and worried i won't be able to get enough. I don't know what is happening with me and OH as we are just like two polite strangers at the minute. I want to ask him when we are going to talk properly about it all but I dont think i can cope with it now when I have the tribunal all next week. If i don't win the tribunal then i have no money at all, and after next month I will have no choice but to default on my loan payments. In my ten years of being able to have credit, ive never once defaulted before. And then thats assuming OH will pay the rent and bills for here by himself, which I suppose depends how our conversation goes! My parents dont have money to lend me, so that's it, I don't know, sell the car I'm guessing? It's the only thing I can think of right now. I'm sorry to be so negative - I try not to be but feel pretty sh1tty all the time lately - I just wanted to bleurgh...let it all out. Going to try to sleep before reuben wants milk. I actually had hoped he would have woken up by now so we could have a cuddle.

Lirin

Turtle, are you alrighrt? Stupid question, really, you've so much stressing you it's no wonder expressing is hard at the moment. It all will work out, somehow. I know how huge the tribunal is to you right now, and I really hope you win equal, and maternity too....

They're so stressful going through- I've been through one, and it was not the nicest experience I've ever been on. They're only interested in the facts, and they need you there to answer any other questions they'll have. It's actually very clinical inside, and nothing like I'd thought, certainly.

About your OH- It's so difficult at the moment, and all the things mounting up- it's no wonder you're both finding it hard talking.... I'll give you a ring in the morning, if that's ok?

little_miss_moneysaver_3

Oh turtle. No wonder you're feeling so stressed out. It's enough just with the baby without the added stress of the tribunal and OH not being close. Can't imagine the stress you must be feeling with the uncertainty. I don't really have any advice hun, just hoping it all works in your favour next week xx

sunshine_1988

Morning all

Turtle, I cant advise you on the tribunal as I have never been through it, but it seems like Lirin may be a good person to talk to. If they have already offered you a certain payment, allbeit a silly one, it seems maybe they know they are in the wrong? I really hope you get every last penny you are owed.
Re your money situation, is there anyyhing you can do with the house you own? Increase the rent maybe? Or is there any equity in it, can you remortgage?

Hope everyone had some sleep? Aiden now seems to be set in the pattern of 815-640. Although its only been 3 days so there is time to go backwards!!

Xxxx

fluffnutter

little_miss_moneysaver wrote: »

Fluff hope Freddie behaved himself, your description did make me laugh though.

Hmm, he started shrieking the moment the coffin turned up, so I had to nip in the loos (glamorous!) and whack him on the boob for a few minutes in an attempt to calm him down. One feed later, three volcanic burps and some suspicious rumblings 'down below' he was calm enough for us to try again. We sneaked in at the back only to be greeted by the last 30 seconds of the closing song (Neil Diamond I believe) and then trooped out with everyone else. Missed the whole bloody thing

fluffnutter

turtlemoose wrote: »

Lirin, swimming sounds like it was great!

The chairs are not fixed so I may just grab one and face the corner.

Pre-baby I used to scoff at parents who got bothered by stuff like this, and even in the run up to his first set I wasn't too bad, then he screamed and it was the same scream from when we were in hospital after the birth so wham I was straight back in time, horrific.

I've had an offer of a settlement from my employer....I'm claiming an equal pay part and maternity pay part. If I win the equal pay it's enough to pay off all my debt (16k) and have enough left over for a sizeable house deposit. If I win the maternity pay part, that only pays my solicitor's bill ...so you can see its the equal pay bit that's most important. However, if I win the maternity pay part, it actually opens them up to claims from lots of other people (around 70) who could claim money and contractual terms they would be entitled to, I would be setting the precedent.

So anyway, it's risky for them, that part, so they have offered to pay me some maternity pay on the agreement that I drop that at the tribunal next week. they've offered to pay me £2000 ...which is half what I should be entitled to!!!! Do they really think I would accept that? It's hilarious...but also a ittle scary. They've sent me a really nasty threatening letter, but as its "without prejudice" I basically can't tell on them to the tribunal and my sol says don't worry just ignore it, it's part of the game....still scary though!!!!

Turtle, you're in the same position I was. Bear in mind that what you believe you're entitled to might not be what a tribunal awards you. I too thought that my employer was offering me less than I thought I should get but my union rep made me realise that my calculations might not be particularly accurate. I was thinking 'right, I've been underpaid for three years therefore they owe me X' when in reality it's not until I'd formally raised it via a grievance that my employer would have been expected to take my complaint seriously. Therefore a tribunal might well have said 'yes, you've been underpaid for three years but you didn't actually raise this until a year ago, therefore we'll only award you a third of what you think you're entitled to'.

I settled. The sum was OK (reimbursed me for the cycle of IVF!) and I was suffering really badly with morning sickness by then and couldn't face a further battle. Plus, if I'm honest, I was just doing it for the money and not to prove a point; if other women felt they'd been similarly overlooked I felt it was up to them to raise their own grievances - I wasn't doing it as some test case. Hence I didn't feel the need to have my day in court and for the tribunal to rule that, yes, they had discriminated against me.

They didn't uphold my complaint (i.e. they didn't admit they were discriminatory) but they did pay me off. I was happy with that.

katiechoc_2

Hugs turtle, how are you feeling this morning, did you get any sleep in the end?

Sunshine sounds like you've got the beginnings of a good routine goi there! Georgewas up at 12 and 3.30 last night which wasn't too bad, it's when thes barely an hour between two wake ups that I really struggle.

My new pram is here! I saw the courier outside and ran downstairs before he even had chance to ring the bell, poor guy must think I'm a right loony! So now the hallway is completely buried under 17 miles of bubble wrap and a half built pram - George got impatient with being left to his own devices while I sorted it out. Looks good so far, just need to figure out how the extra bits attach - one problem with eBay is that you rarely get instruction manuals!