My husband and I were meant to be a team when we welcomed our first child, but he turned on me. I was close to leaving him after his treatment of me became worse when something horrific happened in front of family and friends. Luckily, a massive change occurred with the help of outside help to save our marriage.
Recently, I, Mary, 25, experienced one of the most embarrassing and eye-opening moments of my life. Let me backtrack a bit. My husband, Jake, 29, and I welcomed our beautiful daughter, Tilly, three weeks ago.
She honestly is my world. But here’s the problem: whenever I ask Tilly’s father for help with her, he says, “Let me relax; my paternity leave is so short.” I’ve struggled alone with sleepless nights due to the constant care our baby requires. It’s more exhausting than I ever imagined.
My precious angel won’t sleep more than an hour at a time, and Jake hasn’t watched her even once since her birth! What breaks my heart about his actions is that he had promised we would split parenting duties 50/50. but recently, his version of “help” has been minimal at best.
It’s gotten so bad that I’m so sleep-deprived that I often nod off while cooking or doing the laundry! But, things went too far last Saturday, and it was a defining moment for both of us!
Okay, so to celebrate our daughter’s one-month birthday, we arranged a small get-together at my mom’s place. It was supposed to be a joyful occasion where the people closest to us would finally get to meet Tilly.
As the party progressed, Jake was all over the place. He was busy telling everyone, “I needed this paternity leave because I couldn’t imagine how much more exhausted I would have been working AND taking care of the baby.” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, but I had no energy to confront him right there.
As I mingled and tried to keep up appearances, my body finally gave in from utter exhaustion. I felt dizzy and clammy, and before I knew it, everything went black. I fainted right there in the middle of the party.
I awoke quickly and found myself surrounded by concerned family members. They helped me up, and someone handed me a piece of cake, saying it might help with my sugar levels. As I reassured everyone that I was fine, just tired, I caught Jake’s frown.