What Would You Do as a Parent? I Need Advice......

Okay, I am at a loss here. As many of you already know from one of my past posts, we sold our house in order to be free & clear once my husband gets his transfer back to California. The house sold in one day, we were in a rush to find a rental, moved into a mold infested house that immediately started compromising my son's allergies (and which looked perfectly fine when we viewed it due to the former tenant's stuff covering the mold growth), yadda yadda yadda. After less than a week at Moldy Manor we found an apartment in a newer complex just outside of Portland, jumped at it since it was mold-free and our son's cough was getting worse by the day, and moved again.

Now here is where I am starting to develop major nervous breakdown symptoms....we may need to move again. My husband can't get his transfer until at least February so we are stuck in Portland until then....so moving there right now is not an option.....but moving out of this apartment might have to be necessary and here is why.....

This complex has an incredible community of pigeons that has moved in and called the rafters of all of the buildings home. I've never had anything against pigeons until now. They really are filthy creatures. The pigeons who are nesting above our porch constantly drop bombs on our patio and patio furniture. When the excrement isn't wet, then it is in large dry ball form that they seem to be kicking out of their nests constantly.

This stuff lands in our cats' food & water bowls....it lands everywhere to the point where we can't use our patio at all. The last time I went out to water the plants, my son grabbed a ball of pigeon guano and held it up to me asking what kind of rock it was. I nearly went into cardiac arrest and ran him in to wash his hands for the proceding five minutes. Now my kid just stands at the sliding glass doors looking outside with a forlorn look on his face. I'm a mom, it breaks my heart, I can't lie about that, but I can't have him contracting some avian flu crap from the bird dung.

And it doesn't stop there. Lately, we have been finding egg shell remnants on the porch and this morning, on our way to preschool, we found a pigeon carcass right in front of our door. The entire way to school our son kept talking about the "broken bird". Now, if there are birds just dying and falling on our doorstep, it makes me think that those winged rats must have some kind of pestilence attached to them. Wouldn't this be considered a health hazard? We plan on talking to the management about it, but they are notorious for taking a millenium to fix broken blinds, so I can imagine that cleaning out birds' nests from the rafters will take them well until kingdom come.

The other thing that is proving to be a problem, and once again, health concern, is the fact that the neighbors on either side and below us are smokers. Summer has just started, the units have no AC and now we can't leave our windows open because these f****s are out smoking on their patios (which I understand they have a right to do.....bastards.......) and the smoke comes wafting right into my 5 month old daughter's bedroom. Second hand smoke has been pinpointed as a possible cause for SIDS, not to mention everything else. Yesterday we got up to 107 degrees and I had 2 options A) let my daughter suffocate in the heat & humidity of her bedroom (the whole house is this hot, so it's not like keeping her in another room would have helped) with the windows shut, or B) leave the windows open, even though the wind was still hot, and have her suffocate with the second hand smoke fumes that were making the entire house smell like a bar.

I am truly loathing this living situation. We are paying over $1200 a month to be here and can't leave windows open in the summer or let our son out of the apartment for fear that he'll end up eating birdshit or playing with a carcass. What the hell do I do? We are locked into a lease for the next 5 months and really can't afford to pay the $2000 lease breaking fee, but I want to get out of here. And I know with all this housing drama that I may seem like some snobbish primadonna, but I promise you I'm not. I grew up in government housing for a great portion of my childhood because my father was on disability for a long time, I have lived in hovels while in college and while modeling, but when my kids' health is at stake, I just can't compromise.

Ok, BP moms.....what would you do in a case like this? My son already has chronic allergies with bronchial asthma always a possibility since his dad and I both have it. We left the other rental because of the mold danger, and now we have this to contend with. I feel a little shat upon (figuratively & literally) right now. I don't want to come off as whiny, but any opinions & advice would be so helpful right now.......