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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

Please help a very sad and confused new dad

475 replies

LostBoy · 21/02/2010 11:25

Hello all
I am writing this post out of shher desperation in the hope that someone will be able to offer me some helpful advice.
I have been with my wife for 8 years and we have had what i would consider a normal healthy loving relationship, Of course we have had ups and downs and rows and disagreements but no more so than any other couple I know.
We have recently become parents (9 months ago) to a beautiful baby girl and things at first were fine we were a very happy little family and were getting along really great working as a team learning how to be a family.
Our daughter had slept in her cot from the day we come home from the hospital and would wake on average 3 times a night for feeds.
we both shared all responsibilites and were supporting one another really well and really enjoying being parents.
However when the baby was around 6 months old she got a bad cold and was very poorly and upset and would not sleep without being cuddled so we had her in bed with us which was fine and we both discussed that we would not let her get used to this and as soon as she was better she would go back to her cot as our bed is not big enough for all three of us and both me and my wife were not sleeping as well as a result.
However when the baby was well agian my wife refused to put her back in to her cot and insisted the baby sleep in with us saying that the baby would no longer sleep in the cot which was untrue as I had been putting her down to sleep in the cot but my wife was then getting her out of the cot and bringing her in to bed with us.
I tried to explain to her that I thought this was not a good thing to be doing as it was a big step backwards for the baby and none of us were sleeping as well anymore.
She accused me of not wanting the baby in our bed so because I wanted sex which was totally not the case as I love my wife very much and would like nothing more than to be able to make love to her but she has told me that she dosent feel ready too and that is fine with me and I would never ever try to pressure her in to something she did not want and I told her this and that I was more than happy to wait as long as she needed.
ut then she started to accuse me of only doing stuff for her helping her and being nice to her so that she would have sex with me, she also began to accuse me of thinking things and would make her mind up what my intentions were and what i was going to say before I had had a chance to say anything choosing always to see the bad side of whatever I said or twst my words and actions in to something really ugly,
I love my wife with all my heart and it is deeply upsetting for me to hear the spiteful and nasty stuff she says about me and accuses me of.
It got so bad thet she would not let me even hug kiss or touch her and whenever I showed any sign of affection towards her she would get angry,
She is seeing a CBT councellor for post natal depression and we have been going to relate together but she is unwilling to try to make it work and it has now come to the stage where she is saying she dosent love me and has made me move out of our flat and I an now staying with friends.
I have continued to tell her I love her and that I will always be there for her and tried to make her feel better about herself but all i get in return is anger and spitefull comments.
She is almost unrecognosible as the woman I Love and behaves so completely irratonally and unreasonably but refuses to see this and blames me for everything and gets angry over nothing and will use anything to try to start a fight with me. I am at a total loss as to what to do now.
I love my wife so much and she has given me the most amazing thing in the world all I want is to be able to love them both care for them be there and be a family. But she has got so hostile and aggressive towards me now that I am scared for her and cannot stand to be around her and see her this way.
Our daughter is upset that I am not around and although I try to be ther as much as I can my wife is making it impossible for me to vist and refuses to let me be alone with the baby.
please please help me I have never felt so sad and desperate.

OP posts:
RubyPink · 23/02/2010 16:22

He sounds quite mature enough to me, also seems to have done everything in his power to improve the situation

Ladyscratt · 23/02/2010 16:29

I do think some dads do get a raw deal on here and it is not fair to tar them all with the same brush TBH. Apart from wearing a willy lots of men feel and hurt the same way as women do.

Lots of them are complete arsholes too but not all and a desparate dad should get the same amount of symapthy as a desparate mum.

FioFio · 23/02/2010 16:30

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dittany · 23/02/2010 16:41

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RubyPink · 23/02/2010 16:44

He didn't try to turn it into a battle, he tried to do the right thing. It is a bad idea to let babies co-sleep with you for too long isn't it?

FioFio · 23/02/2010 16:46

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FioFio · 23/02/2010 16:47

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OrmRenewed · 23/02/2010 16:52

I don't see that at all dittany. She is suffering from PND - an experience that is new to both of them. How is he supposed to realise that his wife has gone from being a rational person, open to discussion, to someone who cannot brook disagreement? It's a learning curve for them both. If they both beleived that co-sleeping was a no-no before the PND, how could he instantly understand her sudden volte-face?

dittany · 23/02/2010 16:58

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Ladyscratt · 23/02/2010 17:00

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FioFio · 23/02/2010 17:01

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Spoof · 23/02/2010 17:04

His choice of posting name doesnt reflect his maturity OR his humanity! What an utterly ridiculous proposition! It's just a name. Perhaps "caringdad" "wonderhusband" etc had already been taken.

All it shows is your prejudice based on the perception of the name you are responding to.

You are interpreting his demeanour by his name, no-one else is. I'm quite baffled by your projection, tbh.

OrmRenewed · 23/02/2010 17:07

"we both discussed that we would not let her get used to this and as soon as she was better she would go back to her cot as our bed is not big enough for all three of us and both me and my wife were not sleeping as well as a result"

They both agreed no? Unless of course you don't beleive the OP in which case there isn't much point in this discussion at all.

dittany · 23/02/2010 17:13

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SodaPopRock · 23/02/2010 17:17

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OrmRenewed · 23/02/2010 17:17

But you might also ask if there is a rule that says fathers can't have an opinion.

dittany · 23/02/2010 17:17

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giveitago · 23/02/2010 17:18

LOST BOY OR LOST DOG - sorry - I'VE HAD a horribly busy day

OK a nonna1 wrote something possibly relating to you re their daugther and granchild and outed your name.

YOU said can nonnna speak English - but as we all know nonna is Italian for grandmother - WAS IT YOUR MOTHER IN LAW. If you mother in law ITALIAN - are you - ifnot you might get a better view under multicultural families.

I say this as if you're english and married to a person from another culture is there cultural difference? Could you get another viewpoint from people from other culdtures.

Shot in the dark but to me the word nonna raises means my mother in law also.

OrmRenewed · 23/02/2010 17:18

FWIW we co-slept with all of ours and for us it was the ideal solution. But we both wanted it.

dittany · 23/02/2010 17:18

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FioFio · 23/02/2010 17:20

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mathanxiety · 23/02/2010 17:23

"She is seeing a CBT councellor for post natal depression and we have been going to relate together but she is unwilling to try to make it work and it has now come to the stage where she is saying she dosent love me and has made me move out of our flat and I an now staying with friends."

It is worth noting that this reference to PND is an afterthought here in the very long OP, where the following language is used wrt the DW:

Verbs: 'accused', 'insisted', 'refused'.
(There's quite a contrast with the OP's language in relation to his own words and actions, btw)

Descriptions/ adjectives: 'spiteful and nasty stuff she says about me and accuses me of...' 'angry', 'unwilling', 'all I get in return is anger and spiteful comments', 'She is almost unrecognisible as the woman I Love and behaves so completely irrationally and unreasonably but refuses to see this and blames me for everything and gets angry over nothing and will use anything to try to start a fight with me...', hostile and aggressive'.

The last comment reveals a complete lack of understanding of the fact that the wife is suffering from PND. It followed immediately after the reference to the CBT therapy the wife was receiving for PND, but the OP doesn't seem to have made any connection anywhere between the DW's depression and why he is now sleeping with friends.

She 'will use anything to try to start a fight with me' -- I am now wondering if there have been fights, or heated arguments. No mention has been made of the outcome of the DW's efforts to start fights...

The OP hasn't acknowledged any questions about the wife's support system (which is very important when a couple has a baby, even in the best of circumstances), whether her HV or her family or friends, nor has he reported any efforts he may have made to find out more about PND. He has said absolutely nothing about what he has done to help his wife through PND, except to try to do the babycare (normally very welcome but in this case, his involvement in babycare seems to be one of the contributing factors to the problem as far as his wife is concerned, so not actually helpful.) And furthermore, the report of his efforts to take care of the baby was in the context of regaling us with an example of his wife's unreasonableness and how unhinged she is, in contrast with how nice he is.

To judge from what he himself has posted, the situation as he sees it is one of the OP vs. the DW, whom he sees as existing in some sort of insane vacuum. There are details in his posts that reveal a lot of anger and hurt feelings on the part of the OP, and an inability to see things from the pov of someone near and dear to him. The gist of his OP was his anguish that Relate was getting him nowhere and he was missing his wife and family, even though she was such an unreasonable, spiteful and angry woman.

None of his subsequent posts have revealed much insight, although he has thanked everyone (after dividing posters into categories, 'For Me' or 'Against Me') and stated that he will try to make sense of everything that has been said. Almost 300 posts have appeared, with many terrific insights, yet the fog persists. What's to make sense of? It's not rocket science.

OrmRenewed · 23/02/2010 17:26

" There are details in his posts that reveal a lot of anger and hurt feelings on the part of the OP"

Do you blame him for that?

However I take the point that he needs to try a new tack and take on board the advice he has had. Shame that the usual MN thing happened - and it ended up polarised.

Spoof · 23/02/2010 17:29

No need to apologise, dittany. I really don't feel as though it's my problem, just a by-product.

FioFio · 23/02/2010 17:30

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