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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

to be be miffed at dh regarding ils

415 replies

NameChangedJustInCase · 10/04/2012 20:31

ok, Iv gone back to the name change in case iabu. This is not about bashing my ILS or DH. I get on perfectly well with them, they are lovely.

I joined mumsnet when i first became pregnant (so just over a year ago) and after reading a few threads on here, i decided to have a big conversation with dh about what was and what was not acceptable to do when baby finally got here ie, birth and just after. I said that if possible i would want my sister and him to be my birth partner but i did not want ANY visitors in the hospital other than the two of them, which he said was alright (he wanted to have his mum and other family members come to the hospital but i said i would not be comfortable with that, he wasn't that happy but accepted it was my decision ) i also made very very clear that i did not want any family to visit for the first few days of being out of hospital, i wanted to slob about in my dressing gown with my boobs out comfortably trying to get breastfeeding established, trying to bond as a family with our new baby, resting when baby was resting. I didn't want to be running back and forth from the bedroom feeding dd, i explained all my reasons why i didn't want family there and made it very clear to him how uncomfortable it would make me feel. we argued a bit about it, he couldn't see why i would be ok for my dsis to be there and not his mum, because it was his baby as well ect but in the end he agreed that he would tell them no visitors for a few days til we got settled.

All good. Anyway, a couple of weeks later after an extremely long and traumatic labour i wake up to hear that dh had spoke to mil and told here that she (and the rest of the family) could come over. he told me that they would either be there that day (of me giving birth) or the next day as they were all excited and couldn't wait to celebrate and meet dd. i was upset, exhausted and defeated so i told him hed really let me down by doing this behind my back (whilst i was sleeping) but just went along with it. I had to go home, deal with this tiny new little person, tidy the house (i know i should have just left it but i really cant do that) when i just wanted to take things at my own pace.

I Know that dh loves me and he didn't do it maliciously or anything (he just got caught up and excited) but I still cant get it out of my mind. i have brought it up with him since but he says (quite rightly) that there is nothing we can do about it now,so i need to just let it go. aibu to still be seething about this months later and actually get the urge to slap him in the face when i think about how vulnerable i felt at the time? AM I????

OP posts:
mathanxiety · 11/04/2012 19:06

WRT compromise -- I doubt very much that any visit by these ILs would have taken a mere 15 or 20 minutes; with this particular H so inclined to put their interests (cf breastfeeding squeamishness) first I doubt if he would have been amenable to persuasion that a visit should be short, and if the wife was getting tired or emotional I doubt he would have taken the hint and asked them to come back another time.

His comments about the sister being there for the delivery and therefore his family should be there to visit seem to indicate to me that he saw the whole thing as a desire not to be one-upped by his wife -- all about him in other words. Unfortunately in his desire not to lose his perceived status he lost sight of the welfare of his wife: 'he couldn't see why i would be ok for my dsis to be there and not his mum, because it was his baby as well' This is a man who has lost sight of what his wife was going to go through and was only thinking of himself.

I have a feeling that the visitors thing is still so painful for NameChanged because the breastfeeding issue is still ongoing. I think if the H wasn't being such a stupid prat about the breastfeeding it would have been easier for her to get over the hurt of him disregarding her feelings and allowing the intrusion of his family on her privacy.

NameChanged, if you're still there, you need to tackle the breastfeeding issue head on. What your H is expecting of you, and why, is not right.

NoOnesGoingToEatYourEyes · 11/04/2012 19:10

"But it wasn't a discussion. She told him what she wanted and he wasn't happy with it but he didn't have q choice. How is that fair?"

Of course it was a discussion if, as the OP says, they spoke about it at length weeks before the birth.

How is it fair for him to listen to all her valid reasons for feeling the way she did, agree to support her even if it wasn't what he wanted, and then wait while she was asleep after a traumatic birth to go back on his word and invite everyone to visit regardless of her feelings?

How is it fair for the OP to wake up to a fait accompli when at least she had the decency to discuss things with him first?

"and everyone thinks the mother is more important than the father."

I don't think it's about that as such, but briefly putting the wishes of someone who has just been through hours of painful, complicated labour, perhaps with major medical intervention, and who isn't feeling their best or thinking that perhaps at that moment those wishes are a little bit more important than everyone else's wishes is no bad thing.

BoneyBackJefferson · 11/04/2012 19:16

mathanxiety
"Either that or some mistaken idea that this is all about the poor menz"

Careful, your predudice is showing.

mathanxiety · 11/04/2012 19:22

I am not mistaken in thinking that for some posters here it is, in fact, all about the poor menz and how this selfish dictator of a woman ruined a special experience for one of them.

HillyWallaby · 11/04/2012 19:32

She doesn't have to keep everyone happy math. But it would be nice if she had listened a bit more to what the father of her child might like, and how he might feel, and tried to find some small way to accommodate that, without compromising her own needs too much, instead of marginalising him and disregarding how he felt, and overruling him. It would have been nice. That's all.

exoticfruits · 11/04/2012 19:38

That is it in a nutshell-Hilly.

NarkedPuffin · 11/04/2012 19:42

'marginalising him'

Seriously??????

How about next time he pushes a baby out of his body and lies there bleeding and shattered while she invites the rellies over?

Whe it comes to childbirth the man is not the one labouring.

Kayano · 11/04/2012 19:44

She did invite the rellies... Just not his

Kayano · 11/04/2012 19:46

I still think the mother should have absolute
Control of the delivery suite and labour and have who she wants there

But afterwards (not labouring) the child's father should have just as much right to introduce his family to their newborn joy when he wants, same as her....

NoOnesGoingToEatYourEyes · 11/04/2012 19:47

She didn't overrule him though, he disregarded and overruled her. While she was asleep in hospital shortly after a difficult birth.

She wanted everyone other than her sister to wait two days for her to get home and settle in. It's not a terrible or selfish request.

He looked at his wife asleep in the hospital, ignored something that was clearly important to her, something she took the time to discuss and explain, something he had agreed to do for her and ignored it all and did what he wanted anyway.

All this talk of naps and baths and sitting upstairs, it just doesn't work like that. In the early newborn days nothing goes to plan, there's no such thing as a routine or a schedule, plus you are still being visited daily by the midwife for some very personal checks and discussions. It's almost guaranteed that midwife and visitors will drive simultaneously.

Regardless of what she wanted and what she asked for, her DH made sure she didn't get it so he could have his own way instead. And no matter what anyone else here would have done differently, she's not being unreasonable to feel upset about that even now, which is what she was asking in the first place.

bruffin · 11/04/2012 19:48

I had abeen in hospital for two months followed by 2 days of inducing and an awful 24 hour labour and I do think yabvu. I was more than happy to have Mil visit and came home to my sister and mum and mil and nieces waiting for me to meet Ds.

NarkedPuffin · 11/04/2012 19:48

No she didn't. She had her sister as a birth partner, to support her. And if anyone starts about him needing support may I point out that all he was doing was standing there, and it's good that she had at least one person there who would put her needs first.

Kayano · 11/04/2012 19:50

It is a selfish request, her family can be there and his cant. Even for two days it's not fair

If she said for everyone to wait two days (inc sister) i would feel differently, but to just place this restriction on his family is well... A bit crap

NarkedPuffin · 11/04/2012 19:51

So two days is too much to ask?

In the past women stayed in hospital for a few days after the birth to be looked after. Now you're kicked out a few hours after the birth.

NarkedPuffin · 11/04/2012 19:52

So who did she have at the house? (from her family?)

Kayano · 11/04/2012 19:52

So you now describe the sister as birth partner supporting her and him what... Just standing there?

He was a birth partner too and supported her through labour surely?

NarkedPuffin · 11/04/2012 19:54

Grin I wonder how many women would like to feel free to choose not to have their DPs with them when they give birth.

Kayano · 11/04/2012 19:54

But the point is her family got to meet the newborn, and his did not. Why ok for one lot of 'rellies' to meet baby on day one but the other lot have to wait 2 days? I do see that as unfair

ilikecandyandrunning · 11/04/2012 19:55

He doesn't want you to bf in front of them so they aren't uncomfortable?!!!! Tell him to sod off - what an idiot.

NarkedPuffin · 11/04/2012 19:56

I could be wrong, but I think that in most situations where woman opt to have a second person present (as well as their DP) it's because they feel that they need someone there to provide support their DP can't give.

NarkedPuffin · 11/04/2012 19:56

Who 'got to meet the newborn'?

NoOnesGoingToEatYourEyes · 11/04/2012 19:57

She wanted her sister as a birthing partner, that's very different to saying "my sister can visit afterwards but your parents can't come until I say so."

From what she says in the first post, afterwards at home she did want it to be just her, her DH and the baby.

Plus, the sister, who the OP has described as being her only family and like a sister and a mum and dad to her all in one, never actually came anyway, it was weeks afterwards before she got to see the baby.

Her DH did an ultimately much more selfish thing than the OP did.

HillyWallaby · 11/04/2012 20:00

NoOnesI think they both overruled one another. She did not initially take any of his feelings into consideration or listen to his side of things, but just gave out orders to be followed, which were one-sided and unfair. If you look at the wording of the OP again it's pretty clear he was unhappy about being made to agree to her rules, but I think he gave up trying to reason with her or trying to get a compromise out of her.

Yes he did overrule her, when the time came. It was a rather underhand thing to do, but I understand why he did it, in the circumstances.

HillyWallaby · 11/04/2012 20:05

Narked originally I think she had been planning on making them wait for several days, rather than just two. I think evenif she'd had an easy birth two days would have been too soon for her liking, so after a 'traumatic and tiring' birth who knows how long he would have had to wait before he was allowed to show his baby to his parents? She was rather non-specific but she said 'not at all while in hospital, and for the first few days when out of hospital'.

What's a few? Three? five? Ten?

Kayano · 11/04/2012 20:05

Could she not have let them pop in for hospital visiting time just once though? I just can't get my head around the mentality of restricting one set of relatives.

Didn't work out that way anyway but if op had her way she would have done

They were BOTH UR! But the husband was backed into a horrible position before labour even began!

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