Hello all, new here and I’ve come in hope of some help, so please give me your honest opinions.
I’ll try and get to the point but will give some context so apologies if this thread seems long winded!
Me and my girlfriend have a 15 month old boy and we also have a girl of 11 and boy of 7 from her previous marriage. We were together for 3 years before we decided to have a child together - it worked very well as family of 4 and I loved family life after being a bachelor for some time. We have been very lucky in this respect. My girlfriend is a midwife with a very natural view of birth and consequently we had a really lovely home birth with very little interventions (just gas and air). Our son slept soundly for 5 months then when this changed it hit my girlfriend very hard as she was/still is breastfeeding which I am immensely proud of her for. We also didn’t go down the sleep training route as it didn’t sit well with us. My girlfriend developed quite severe post natal depression and moved quite quickly to SSRIs - which if I’m being honest surprised me and was hard for me to deal with even though she has told me this has happened with her first two children. Since then I’ve managed to get her to go to the gym once a week with her friends which she is enjoying and she’s started a private practice which has gone very well and also made her very happy. I have supported her all the way financially, emotionally and most importantly with time but struggle with the mood swings this has bought about as I’m quite sensitive myself. Life has become hard but it’s always ok when we are good and there for each other. I’m a manual labourer and business owner/operator, in the evening I only look after the kids, help cook, clean up and do bedtime every night. I’ve recently taken over the night shift with the baby in the hope this helps. I rarely see my friends, don’t train anymore and feel my health declining under the weight of this. The general consensus is that things will improve as our boy gets older. If I had my girlfriends support/positivity I know I could maintain this indefinitely but when she is low I worry and start catastrophising about the future. I love my family so much and in so many ways we are very lucky.
Any advise, critisms or suggestions greatly received. Many thanks for your stamina!