Hi ladies
I would really appreciate a fresh perspective as I’m feeling very lonely with a clock ticking as baby due in 2 weeks and don’t know where to turn....
I apologise for the long post but writing this has been helpful for me as I don’t know where to turn.
Today my husband and I had a horrible row which resulted in him saying
-I’m a horrible person
-he feels I drag him down and unless I change he doesn’t want to spend the rest of his life with me
-he is prepared to let our 3 year old and unborn son grow up with separated parents because living with me drags him down too much
-I am due to give birth in 2 weeks and he doesn’t think he will be able to support me through birth unless I ‘start being nice to him’
These are clearly quite powerful statements which have left me feeling distraught and very anxious so close to birth. I admit we’ve not had the easiest year but the venom I’ve experienced today has left me shocked especially given I’m full term!
I admit I’m no angel but I feel my sins don’t really compare to these hurtful things.
Having had a very easy first pregnancy, this one has been physically very tough with spd. I am often in pain, particularly when I do too much. We have moved to an old large house requiring LOTS of maintenance. We have also entertained a LOT. All of which would have been possible had I had the health i’d had in my first pregnancy but has been too much for me this time round. He has been very good and done a lot around the house and with our son, including doing early mornings with our son (my husband is also naturally an early riser). My husband has a very flexible job so he has been able to find time to do these things whilst also playing sport a number of times a week. He also has come up with a new business idea and is spending a few hours a week pursuing this alongside his job, sport and household duties.
Reading this, it all sounds very ‘first world problems’ but I do feel that he has enough time in life to pursue his own interests so it’s not unreasonable for me to ask him to do more around the house given i have been incapacitated.
I still do a lot around the house and with our son but not as much as before-I’m now at 38wks pg rather tired! I have just stopped my part time job and now finally on mat leave. However apparently I have been nagging him about chores and am constantly stressed by the amount of things I have to do. For my part, I admit that there have been moments when I have been stressed however right now I’m just being busy and productive and just trying to nail as many of those dull chores before the baby arrives as I know I won’t have the time to do them once the baby arrives. I admit all these are not essentials (hospital bag was done a few weeks back) but I do think that getting ahead on things now (eg batch cooking, making sure my son has clothes that fit him for winter) is worth it given it’s harder to do things like this with a newborn.
I think he sees what I see as practical preparations as me being ‘constantly stressed’ And ‘a horrible person’
This week, he’s been in a foul mood with me. Specifically , the things I’ve done to annoy him are
-ask him not to invite a friend round to our house on the evening i’d booked to have a massage in our open plan house on the grounds I didn’t want his friend to see me either mid massage or straight after when I wanted to go to bed
-he came home late from a work do and as we are currently sleeping in separate rooms due to both of us having sleeping problems, I’d asked him to pop in to say goodnight. My light was on and I was watching tv so I’d assumed he’d seen I was up but he didn’t come even when I shouted for him. When I then got up to find him he got annoyed at me as apparently I was having a go when all I was saying was I wanted to say goodnight.
-we had an argument today as had been talking about baby stuff and I feel like he’s not engaged in the process. He has not even tried to feel our very active baby kick. I feel like he’s hiding away from this pregnancy by absorbing himself in our son and his new business idea. I told him this and I admit I cried and got very upset as I do find this a very sad thought. He accused me of being too stressed.
Reading this back, I think our problems are
-his sleep deprivation due to early mornings with our son and his general insomnia
-trying to do too much (house stuff, trying to keep up a busy social life)
-poor communication
I would like to resolve this by calming things down and focusing on us. I would also like to try marriage counselling. He point blank refuses to do marriage counselling. He doesn’t want to spend more evenings together as he thinks I’m ‘dragging him down’ and he thinks we will spend it talking about chores. I admit we do spend quite a high proportion of our time talking about chores right now but only because we don’t actually have much time together due to joint socialising and his evenings playing sport!!!!
I am fearful about getting through labour as he’s told me he doesn’t know if he can support me through it. He told me tonight he ‘thinks I’m mad’ to try for a VBAC this time (had an elective last time). This was news to me as he said nothing during the appointment with the consultant last week!
I am also very conscious I’m about to go through a few months of sleep deprivation and separate beds due to breastfeeding. Not sure how things can improve in such circumstances!!!
So ladies....my questions to you are
-am I being unreasonable???
-what can I do in the VERY short term to get things back on track so we can have a positive birth and our son can have a positive welcome to the world???
-how can I persuade him to do marriage counselling so we can salvage this marriage in the medium term? We are definitely going though a rocky spell but I don’t think we are doomed as a couple and I want to make things positive for the sake of our sons.
Thanks in advance!!!