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Relationships

Mumsnet has not checked the qualifications of anyone posting here. If you need help urgently or expert advice, please see our domestic violence webguide and/or relationships webguide. Many Mumsnetters experiencing domestic abuse have found this thread helpful: Listen up, everybody

Second Baby

20 replies

Cupcakesaregood · 21/04/2020 00:02

Hi everyone - why would you have a second baby if you are unhappy in marriage?

OP posts:
Cupcakesaregood · 21/04/2020 00:04

Or do you know anyone that this has happened to?

OP posts:
LittleMissBumFun · 21/04/2020 00:11

You wouldn't.. weird post.

Cantpickausername5 · 21/04/2020 00:14

3 reasons I can think of. No 1 bandaid baby, thinking a baby will bring them back together and solve there marriage problems, 2, 1 person maybe be unhappy in the marriage but the other is clueless or 3 they are not as unhappy as they have lead you to believe. Don't really know without knowing the situation.

Candyfloss99 · 21/04/2020 00:19

No definitely not.

rvby · 21/04/2020 00:23

Loads of people do it because they believe its cruel to have an only child.

AnneLovesGilbert · 21/04/2020 00:25

I think you’re pregnant and in an unhappy marriage OP so not sure this will be helpful to you.

Cupcakesaregood · 21/04/2020 00:26

Ok maybe I should have given more specifics..post is about me. Caught H having emotional affair almost three years ago whilst pregnant with DS1. Our marriage hasn't been great ever since but have been wanting another. Have also since found out that despite them no longer speaking, he has kept her number. Now pregnant with number 2 and I'm not naive, I know people in unhappy marriages have sex..yes I will be honest and admit that I was hoping this would make things better between us

OP posts:
Cupcakesaregood · 21/04/2020 00:27

@AnneLovesGilbert you're completely right, I was just wondering if this was just me in this situation

OP posts:
Candyfloss99 · 21/04/2020 00:27

Leave now before the baby is born. It will be easier.

LittleMissBumFun · 21/04/2020 00:30

Don't you have a really big thread running about this already from a week or so ago? I'm sure I remember all this.

Cupcakesaregood · 21/04/2020 00:31

Yes @LittleMissBumFun but that was more about the number

OP posts:
Dery · 21/04/2020 09:23

Hi @Cupcakesaregood - I remember your previous thread well (it was very recent) and am going to use some knowledge that I gleaned from that in responding to your new post. Hope that's not a breach of MN etiquette.

I really feel for you. You are in a deeply painful situation which you are - understandably - struggling to come to terms with and work out what to do next. Based on what you said before (feel free to correct me), you had been married a year when you discovered an unplanned pregnancy six months or so into the pregnancy so you had only a few months to adjust to the arrival of your DC. Shortly after discovering you were pregnant, you discovered that your DH appeared to be having an EA with another woman. Your DH agreed to give her up and apparently deleted her number from your phone. Fast forward a few more years and, as you say, you are intentionally pregnant with no. 2 and it turns out that DH has kept her tel no. You say he has not been in touch with her during the last 3 years - presumably that is what he is telling you - but as I recall from your previous thread the position was somewhat unclear about that. The real point, though, is that your marriage is an unhappy one. It's been unhappy ever since you discovered the EA which means that - roughly speaking - for 75% of the time you have been married, your marriage has been an unhappy one. And perhaps it's been unhappy for your DH from the outset given that he was having an EA within the first year of your marriage, if not earlier.

If I have understood the situation correctly, the very painful difficulty you face - through no fault of your own - is that you are trying to build a family life with a man who is not emotionally committed to you and is hankering after another woman or at least is hankering after the freedom to pursue other relationships. It may be that without the unexpected arrival of DC1, your DH would already have ended your marriage and gone to be with OW. Or maybe not. But as you pointed out yourself in your previous thread, he was already having an EA within the first year of your marriage (perhaps before that) and that can only be a bad sign - looking elsewhere in the first year of marriage shows he was already not equal to the commitment which he had taken on by getting married.

You don't mention your age (I can't remember if it came up in the previous thread) but I'm guessing you're still young (20s/30s). You most likely have several decades of life ahead of you. Don't you deserve better than to spend those decades in an unhappy marriage with someone who you know, deep down, isn't able to commit to you emotionally in the way a marriage partner should and who will probably leave you when your DC are grown if not before then? It can surely only be bad for your emotional and indeed mental health. It is also not a good relationship model for your DC who might grow up to replicate it themselves and think that an unhappy marriage is the norm. Don't you deserve to be free to find someone who does love you and wants to be fully committed to you emotionally? Of course, no-one can guarantee that you will meet such a person but the chances are high that you will. I know a number of people who have made very contented second marriages after extremely painful experiences with their first.

It would at any time be very hard to face the fact that your DH doesn't care for you as he should and it is particularly hard to do when you're parenting a toddler and pregnant with no. 2. You're in a vulnerable and dependent position. But the end of your marriage - if that is what happens - doesn't have to mean the end of co-parenting. From what you've said, your DH is committed to your DC and you may well be able to build a very successful co-parenting relationship which could in turn be a great model for your DC.

It's not a foregone conclusion that your marriage has to end but it is hard to see how you can turn a marriage which has been unhappy for the vast majority of the short time you have been together into a happy one, and that is what you deserve.

Thinking of you, OP.

Cupcakesaregood · 21/04/2020 09:47

Hi @Dery thank you for your honest and kind post. Yes not too sure what MB etiquette is because maybe I shouldn't have started a new thread but to be honest I just feel so lost I don't know what to do at the moment and coming on here has been a great support. Yes, you're pretty much right in what you've said, he has been in contact with her since 2017, he only stopped when we found out we were pregnant with number 2, but as discussed on previous thread and what I have come to realise, is that stop isn't a permanent one otherwise he would have deleted/blocked her completely, happy to hear your thoughts. Also, yes dc2 was planned and yes, I know it's possible to have sex in an unhappy marriage and yes it was me that really made the decision re dc2. H has previously said he is only here for dc1 so when I got pregnant with dc2 I was hoping maybe he isn't just here for that reason but I'm realising that's quite naive

OP posts:
TheSnootiestFox · 21/04/2020 13:00

I did. No regrets although it did move my escape back by 8 years. In my case it was wanting a second child but being 37, having known fertility problems and, and this is a personal choice and I know a lot wouldn't agree, if I was having two kids they were having the same dad that I was married to. I knew I'd made a mistake within 3 months (virtually sexless relationship from married day 1, took him 3 months from wedding day to first shag) but I wasn't exactly fighting other offers off and was desperate for kids. Love my kids with all my heart but wish things could have been different. Have your baby, get your ducks in a row and don't waste as much time as I did xxxx

Cupcakesaregood · 21/04/2020 13:02

Thank you @TheSnootiestFox for such an honest an open post xx

OP posts:
Dery · 21/04/2020 14:26

@Cupcakesaregood - I just typed a dementedly long post and lost it! But @TheSnootiestFox has given you the best advice and she has lived it so she knows what's what.

Focus on your DC and your coming baby for now. Do all the practical stuff you need to do to get ready for having 2 children. Unless your DH takes pre-emptive steps, you can review your marriage and what to do about it after your baby is born and the dust has settled somewhat and you have got your ducks in a row.

FWIW, I think you sound terrific. You may have been naive but it takes guts and maturity to face what you've had to face and admit that you may have naive. You have fought for your marriage and I don't think you can be criticised for doing that, particularly when you and your DH were so recently married and had a young child. You have taken your marriage vows seriously. Unfortunately, it seems like your DH has not - he appears to have taken his responsibilities as a father fairly seriously but not seriously enough to treat the mother of his DC properly.

If your marriage does come to an end in the coming years, you will have the comfort of knowing that you did what you could to hold it together and having nothing to reproach yourself for on that score. But you will also be free to find someone who will love you the way a spouse should and I for one certainly wish that for you.

Keep posting here if it helps. Thinking of you.

Cupcakesaregood · 21/04/2020 14:46

Hi @Dery I've sent you a PM, I hope you don't mind. Thank you for being lovely

OP posts:
ukgift2016 · 21/04/2020 14:55

I do think a lot of women do just to give their first a sibling close in age.

I could have done this with my ex husband. However I was only 25 when we split, I had career ambitions and knew I could not cope as a single mother with two children.

It may been different if I had been older and with a settled job. I can understand why you are doing it.

deepwatersolo · 21/04/2020 15:06

Hi everyone - why would you have a second baby if you are unhappy in marriage?

I think you have been honest when you said you wanted the 2nd baby to basically 'fix' the marriage, so you obviously know your own motivation.
Therefore I assume you wonder, why your husband agreed. In your shoes, I would ask him. You have said previously that you made his life miserable (whatever that means) until he agreed to the second child, but maybe he had other reasons, too?

SallyWD · 21/04/2020 15:08

People do it because they think another baby might heal the relationship (highly unlikely!). Or because they want another child and it's just not that easy to find a new partner and have kids.

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