My strange marriage
I am 33 and have been married for a year and a half. I have two children. My husband now and I just had a baby boy in August. my c section was traumatic and because of extensive scar tissue, the delivery took over an hour. My baby was born in shock and would not respond to any stimuli for 3 days. I got to finally hold him on day 3. My other two kids c sections were so effortless and I got to meet them immediately.
My husband is 10 years older than me and has three older children. The youngest is 17 and lives with us. Since I’ve had the baby, I feel as though the 17 year old has taken over him. When I came home from the hospital my husband would take the baby from me while I was breastfeeding and give him to his daughter. During the day I’d try to breastfeed but it made everyone, especially his daughter, upset when I would take the baby to feed him. So I quit. After that I never got to spend time with my baby during the day. I’d ask for him and she would ignore me or she would give him to me and then get mad and go to her room. I finally had a meltdown at 3 months because I honestly felt like the baby wasn’t even mine. Anything I did was wrong to my husband. The bath water was too hot or cold. The bottle was too hot or cold. But the daughter did everything right. My baby is 6 months old now and it’s gotten a little better. But when I put my baby in the swing, the daughter will come and say hey dad can I put him in his chair? When the baby is totally fine! When we get to stores she rushes out of the car to get the car seat. It wasn’t until 4 months that I got to push my baby in a basket in a store. Last night we were driving home from vacation and my husband tells her he doesn’t know what we will do without her when she starts college. It hurt my feelings so bad. I constantly feel like my husband sees her as our sons mother. I feel like a milkmaid except I don’t breastfeed. Where I just feed him at night and do all the dirty work but they all enjoy him. I feel like my husband treats his daughter like more of a wife than me in general. I have no respect as a mother or a wife. I don’t know if I’m being dramatic or overly sensitive. I want constructive advice please.
Step up to her husband. Tell how you feel, truly feel, no blaming, no accusations. If he loves you he understands. Your boundaries have been crossed, make them clear and make it clear you no longer tolerate his non-support and his daughter's behavior.
Talk.