4 weeks post baby- am I overreacting? I feel I’m doing very well emotionally postpartum considering what we go through plus the exhaustion. (I’ve been really lucky with a super easy pregnancy and labor and hardly any physical recovery- hallelujah!) emotionally I’ve felt anxious at times but far from sad or depressed!

For some reason my in-laws (that I normally have a good relationship with) are driving me absolutely NUTS! Every little thing they do I can’t stand!!! I don’t even like it when they hold our daughter for more than a few minutes! (I don’t feel this way about my family when they’ve held her so far.) The WORST is that they baby talk to no end! It’s absolutely ridiculous how stupid they sound! I’m horrified! I do not want the baby talk to continue and I’m sure the longer they do it will be even harder to stop. Our baby girl will pick up on it! What do I do? I think I’m extra sensitive to it postpartum and hoping it fades. (That’s what my husband thinks- he’s a physician) They live 25min away and I know when they haven’t seen her in a few days they start to get antsy. (But always want US to reach out) which is a blessing and a curse because when we don’t reach out they get “hurt.” We can’t read their mind! Maybe if they were actually helpful! They just want to come hold her. They’ve come to our house after work and eat our food and aren’t really helpful at all!

Backstory: I’ve had a fairly good relationship with my in-laws the entire time my husband and I have been together! (11+ years now) Occasionally my mother in law will get extremely moody and/or have a moment where she acts irrational (we’ve all been there right?) Example: she bottles things up then has a little outburst. Then she’s fine for a while or just keeps quiet and everyone wonders what’s wrong and walks on eggshells around her. The weekend our daughter was born she had an outburst at my mom because I invited my mom and sister to come to the hospital and she was not invited (this was the second day after all our immediate family including my MIL already met her)! My mom simply didn’t tell her she was at the hospital since she didn’t want to hurt her feelings- but my MIL found out and was super rude to my mom and caused drama. Meanwhile we have a newborn and shouldn’t be worrying about her childish self the day we came home.

(My husband agrees with this!)

This is their first Grandaughter. (They only had sons also) & their one other Grandbaby (grandson) lives far away and my MIL always feels somewhat left out since she doesn’t see him often. (I do feel for her and don’t want to deprive her of her granddaughter) But I can’t stand when she makes comments about the baby... and says things to her like “Nana’s here... that’s all you need.” Ummmm NO! My baby doesn’t truly need her at this point in time! She gets in my personal bubble while breastfeeding.

She’s judgmental about how her other son and daughter in law raise their baby- I know this because she’s talked about it a LOT. It makes me think she’ll do the same thing with us. My in-laws are good people- Obviously they raised my husband and he turned out great- but it’s been a few years since they’ve had a newborn themselves! She’ll make “suggestions” that really aren’t helpful. She told me I should switch the baby from each breast after a certain number of minutes (cause that’s what she was told 30 years ago) and says I should pump so someone else can feed her (when I def wasn’t ready to do that yet!) When the baby started fussing (because she was hungry she tried to shush her and take her in the next room!) I had to tell my husband to bring me the baby so I could feed her!

She tried to put the baby in in her car seat SO tight- even my husband said no! The baby was very securely in her seat already!

I CRINGE thinking about them ever babysitting her someday.

I truly care because this whole topic in my mind just consumes me for too long during my days at home with my newborn and I’m wrestling mentally with it CONSTANTLY. But then I get mad it’s causing me so much angst I feel like id be perfectly fine not seeing them again for a year! Anyone else experienced anything like this? I’m worried I will snap! Grandparenting is a privilege; not a right!