Looking for any advice/guidance how to handle this situation please?
I, 41f have been married to DH 41 for 2 years (together almost 5). We have 1 DS, 19 months, and I’m 37 weeks with our second child.
Our marriage has been through an extremely difficult time for the last 6/7 months, after I found messages between DH and my MIL on his phone going back to the time of our wedding. He was complaining about me, my cooking skills, washing, how I cared for our son, kept house etc etc. They had an extremely emeshed and toxic relationship, so she of course loved hearing the criticism and took it several steps further, calling me unstable, a terrible wife and mother and telling him he should tolerate me until DS was older and he could move back in with her and take DS with him. I cannot explain how hurt and betrayed I felt, and it seriously knocked my confidence and made me question my capabilities as a mum.
We separated for a few months (still lived together) and have only recently reconnected through marriage counselling where it became apparent he has been in an extremely abusive and damaging relationship with his mother since childhood. We’re very slowly trying to work through things, but I’m still not sure how things will work out in the long run- I don’t know if he has the strength to work through his issues and I don’t know if I can ever forgive what feels like a betrayal from him. DH has put several boundries in place with mil now and they have a sort of uneasy truce, but the situation is further complicated by the fact that DH sees in-laws every day (they farm together) and this can’t/won’t ever change.
Since I found the messages mil blocked me on all social media platforms and has made no contact with me or made any attempt to explain her behaviour or apologise. When DH told her I’d seen the messages her response was “she was entitled to say whatever she wanted about anyone.” I don’t allow DH to take our DS there as my view is if she can’t respect me (she doesn’t have to like me) and doesn’t want to communicate with me then I don’t want her around my child. DH says she regularly asks to see pics of DS and asks how he is etc.
Now my issue is when this baby is born, how do I navigate the relationship with her and sil (who has also not reached out throughout my pregnancy, which I understand to an extent as she has the same emeshed relationship with mil where she would no doubt be punished for being disloyal to mil be reaching out to me.)
DH says mil asks him how I am etc, and so I think she will expect to come and visit when baby has arrived, and I suspect sil will also want to visit with her DH and DC to meet the baby.
What do I do? Do I allow them here and just be civil for the sake of keeping the peace?
Do I tell DH they’re not welcome as they have made no effort to reach out to me, and mil has made no attempt to apologise for her hurtful messages over many months about me?
I’m so conflicted. If I refuse then I know that’s closing the door on any type of reconciliation in the future, but at the same time I feel like I’m being pushed into a corner where I have to once again tolerate their behaviour and keep quiet so as not to rock the boat, which is what I’ve done throughout our marriage when mil was always passively aggressively treating me like a surrogate or nuisance (I.e. held DS who was only a day old for four hours while I was trying to establish breastfeeding, and despite my many hints refused to give him back saying everyone had a right to their turn, would tell DH he wouldn’t be able to bond with DS if he couldn’t feed him, I had dressed DS inappropriately etc etc) I hate myself for tolerating this behaviour, but I’m worried this has made me unable to see what is reasonable in this new situation without bringing all of my bagge with me.
Thank you in advance for any advice, apologies for the long post.