My husband and I keep fighting - we’ll be fine for a few days and then we’ll have another argument. I acknowledge that I’m more sensitive recently as I am 7 months pregnant with our first child and am also grieving the sudden loss of my dad (which also happened 7 months ago) and the first Christmas and New Year without him. I’ve also lost my auntie (dad’s sister) and uncle (dad’s brother) within the last 7 months.

My husband doesn’t like my mum (although he is civil with her, but then will take his annoyance out on me) and doesn’t understand that she is also grieving and in need of support.

I have an older sister but she doesn’t talk about my dad at all, as her way of coping is to almost pretend that it didn’t happen (she had her second baby a month after my dad passed and so feels like she has to hold everything together) and so she’s not able to be there for my mum in the way that she needs.

My sister lives 10 minutes from my mum while I live 3.5 hours away. This means that any time my mum comes down, she has to stay over (which has happened twice). My husband has said that he doesn’t want anyone staying over when the baby arrives but that we can have visitors - that essentially means that his family can all meet the baby, as we live 40 mins away from his family and extended family, but that my family won’t be able to come down to meet the baby when he or she arrives.

My husband’s main issue in our relationship is that he thinks that my mum has too much control, but anytime I give an opinion he says that it’s what my mum would say and dismisses it, so I feel like I’m not listened to. It’s gotten to the point where I don’t want to engage and give opinions but now he thinks that I don’t care about our relationship - which isn’t the case.

He also thinks that I should be doing more in the home, more housework etc. In fairness, he does do more, but he works from home every day whereas I am in the office 3 days a week and also work longer hours than he does.

I don’t want to fight anymore and I want to be able to move forward and resolve things, but we seem to be going in circles. We’re caught in a cycle where things will be ok for a few days and then there’ll be another fight.