Mum has been given an extra, extra chance to redeem herself and have some meaningful contact with her babies. A date has been booked for next week and Mum’s request that we do not drop off or collect the babies has been refused by the Social Work Manager. As Foster Carers we do consider it part of our role to facilitate contact and I am 99% sure that Social Workers have far better things to do then ferry children around. Mum also demanded a travel card to enable her to travel to contact. She asked for a monthly pass but this was refused. It didn’t really bother us either way as we had got used to the journey and the wonders of satellite navigation enabled us to go different routes if there was an issue with our normal route. Mum had also asked for unsupervised contact which, again, was refused. Mum was told that her own behaviour would dictate how she would be trusted in the future. She wasn’t happy about this but she was lucky to be regaining contact considering her past behaviour. We had a lovely weekend with family and the babies were thoroughly pampered and spoilt. Little T was quickly losing her ‘premature’ gaunt look and becoming a real cutie and her big brother L was doing more age appropriate stuff that was lacking when he first came to us. Their sleeping habits were getting better and we were beginning to get more sleep ourselves, which was a godsend. Those of you who have been parents or cared for babies will understand how hard it can be, both physically or mentally, to cope with sleepless nights over a prolonged period. You have to be able to get into a routine which may, or may not, involve grabbing 40 winks when you can. However I’ve never been one for naps and have a tendency to sit wide awake while everyone else is snoring. At the beginning of the week we did a bit of training, wrote up our notes and had a midwife visit. We also did our accounts and checked the babies clothing to make sure that they had everything they needed and that it all fitted them ok. We were both very keen to make sure that they were always well turned out and that they always had nice, well fitting clothes. It had been difficult getting much for little T as she was so little. We also bought some hair products for them both as the both had afro Caribbean hair and it needed to be properly looked after. Mum had found it very funny to give L a ‘Mr T’ haircut, which frankly looked ridiculous. So I got my clippers out and tidied it up, with the blessing of the Social Worker. So contact day came around and we set off. We had plans in place for if Mum turned up and, if she didn’t. Anyway Mum turned up, albeit 10 minutes late. She didn’t acknowledge us in anyway and we headed off for a coffee and a mooch around the shops. Contact was supposed to finish at 11 but we received a call at 1045 to say that Mum had left as the babies were crying and she couldn’t cope. So we headed back, loaded up and set our course for home.
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