Living with MIL while pregnant

[Strawberryjam45]

Hey all. I really could do with some advice, especially from anyone who is or was in a similar position. I've been with my husband for 10 years and married for 5 years and we're currently expecting our first child. We've lived with his mother for the whole of our married life (he is S Asian and was clear this would be the case very early on) and I agreed as I didn't think it would be so bad, she was in her 70s, I could understand why he felt the need to look after her. The last 5 years have been hard but broadly tolerable. His mother is controlling and overbearing and generally wants to be heavily involved in our lives but as we've been so busy, her impact has been minimal. Now that I'm pregnant and in nesting mode, I'm finding living with her impossible. She's retired so is ALWAYS at home. She can also be catty, bad-tempered and aggressive occasionally. And I'm just finding it all a lot and I'm not sure how I'm going to cope on maternity leave with her always there. DH knows how I feel, but his hands are tied as he's made this commitment to live with his mother. He does try to overcompensate by being super attentive but I'm just not sure it's enough. Advice please!

Hi, not been in the same situation but could you mark out some territory in the house for yourself. Like if you have a room for yourself and your child, try to spend as much time in them as possible and you wont have to see her that much. If you are similar to me, everything is annoying / upsetting you more than it usually would while pregnant so if it hasn't been too bad up until now it might go back to that when your hormones settle down?

Why is this DH’s decision and not a decision of both of you? Can you go back to your family?

You must have some privacy and space.

Any possibility you can move to somewhere with a granny flat, or even adjacent flats/houses so that your DH can look after her while you have some space?