Friday, 21 September 2018

Had first argument with wife...


Sorry if this is the wrong subreddit...​We are only 17 days in with our newborn. Just had our first big argument. I feel super lucky in our situation and so I can't really talk to many people about this... here goes reddit.​To set some context, we are both staying at home to take care of the baby. I've worked really hard and managed to get us into a situation where the 2 of us don't have to work anytime soon, so it is basically 2 full-time adults for 1 baby. I feel we've been relatively lucky in that our baby sleeps 2-4 hours at a time since birth, and has a really calm temperament. My wife will obviously do the breastfeeding, and I'll change diapers, burp and put the baby down, around the clock. I make sure to take care of my wife too: keep her water bottle full, prepare snacks/meals for her, down to the details of cutting her meat for her so she can eat 1 handed; I really feel like I'm paying attention. During the nights, I'll basically stay with the baby in a side room, so she can sleep as much as possible between feeds. I feel like we have it in easy mode.​A couple days ago, our baby started getting pretty fussy, almost a colic, we think it is due to gas pains. So, things have gotten a bit harder. We had a long day where basically my wife had to constantly soothe him with "breastfeeding" although it was more for comfort than feeding. I was with her the entire day, supporting her how I could. I took 40 minutes at the end of the day to unwind and play a couple of games (this is a trigger for her). She was watching TV during this time with the baby. Then it starts. She starts treating me as if I don't know what I'm doing and micromanaging me (I didn't fill her water bottle up, I didn't put the water-absorbing pad down right, I didn't turn on 1 of the 3 night lights) and saying that I'm not helping as I'm literally trying to help with all the usual stuff. She tells me to go away, and so I do, but I snapped a "fine, have fun with that", which I shouldn't have said. I basically wait patiently for 2 hours downstairs while she tries to put the baby down. In that time, I checked in on her twice, asking if I could help take over, she refused. She also needed help twice but refused to ask me for help. She tried to carry a exercise ball upstairs WHILE holding our baby, instead of just asking me for help. I got super upset at this because she's taking unnecessary risks with our child, just because she didn't want to ask me for help. Then she fell asleep in the rocking chair with our baby in her lap, because again, she didn't want my help and was just trying to power through it on her own. I was upset that she'd let her pride take precedence over what is best our baby. But I kept my mouth shut and just told myself to deal with it in the morning when we are both calmer. She finally gets the baby down and I figure great, we made it through the day. This is where she goes to sleep in the bedroom and I sleep on the air mattress outside with the baby in his bassinet. But no, she comes out and tells me to leave so she can sleep with the baby. I lost it. I told her I don't trust her to be alone with the baby anymore because she's taking unnecessary risks (falling asleep/exercise ball instead of asking me for help - just to clarify, I think those things are okay to do if you have no choice, but to do them instead of just asking your willing husband is stupid and prideful). I tell her we are both staying with the baby. She says she can't be in the same room with me because I make her upset. But I don't back down. She starts breaking down crying, saying how this is my fault, that's she's trying to remain calm but I'm bothering her by being around trying to help. I ended up leaving as she wanted and slept down stairs.​I'm not really sure what I'm suppose to do from here. Am I just suppose to take anything my wife says to me and deal with it? Or should I hold my ground on how I should be treated? I know this is more of a relationship question but I feel only parents can understand this stress. Thanks for any insight.​ via /r/Parenting https://ift.tt/2xDbqkf

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