I'm 12 weeks pregnant. It's my first pregnancy, and will be the first grandchild on both sides. My mother is a retired nurse, midwife and healthvisitor in her desperation to help (and she really is trying to be helpful), is firing twenty questions as a minimum during every telephone conversation. The answers to these are almost inevitably: I don't know. It's making me feel like a failure and is overwhelming and this is only the 12th week so it's only going to get worse. Today she asked me about my haemoglobin levels. I HAVE NO F-ING IDEA! WHY WOULD I? Then she demanded to know the results of blood tests which were taken a month ago, and the Dr told me were to establish if I was a high risk pregnancy. I haven't had any results. My understanding was that it was for their info.
I should add to this, that I am living abroad, and some of the practices here are different. For example, my birthing choice consisted of which of these 2 hospitals do you want to go to? So some of the things she's asking about, don't exist here, or are done differently. So all in all, she's confusing me, overwhelming and really not helping me.
How do I best deal with it? How do I ask her nicely but firmly to stop in a way that wont completely alienate her? I'm pretty sure that she'll be wonderful when the baby actually comes, but not sure I can cope with the next 7 months!