{"id":7693,"date":"2026-08-20T03:05:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T03:05:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/?p=7693"},"modified":"2026-08-20T03:05:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T03:05:13","slug":"during-labor-my-husband-begged-me-to-moan-more-quietly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/?p=7693","title":{"rendered":"During labor, my husband begged me to moan more quietly"},"content":{"rendered":"
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My sister, Megan, was sitting on our couch feeding one of the babies.<\/p>\n

My mother-in-law was beside her with another.<\/p>\n

And at the dining room table sat my father-in-law, a family attorney, and me.<\/p>\n

There were papers spread across the table.<\/p>\n

Eric stared at us.<\/p>\n

“What is this?”<\/p>\n

“Sit down,” I said.<\/p>\n

He looked from his parents to the attorney.<\/p>\n

Then his eyes landed on me.<\/p>\n

“Why is there a lawyer in our house?”<\/p>\n

“Because while you were in Cabo recovering from the stress of becoming a father, I had some time to think.”<\/p>\n

His face tightened.<\/p>\n

“You’re kidding.”<\/p>\n

“No.”<\/p>\n

He looked at his mother as though expecting her to rescue him.<\/p>\n

She didn’t.<\/p>\n

Instead, she adjusted the blanket around her grandson and said quietly, “You should listen to your wife.”<\/p>\n

Eric gave a short, nervous laugh.<\/p>\n

“This is insane. I was gone for two weeks.”<\/p>\n

“You were gone for fourteen days and thirteen nights.”<\/p>\n

“Same thing.”<\/p>\n

“No, Eric. It isn’t.”<\/p>\n

I surprised myself with how calm I sounded.<\/p>\n

I’d imagined this conversation during 2 a.m. feedings and 4 a.m. diaper changes. In my imagination, I screamed at him.<\/p>\n

Now I was too tired to scream.<\/p>\n

“I had three babies six days before you left,” I said. “I was still recovering. I could barely get upstairs without pain. And you decided you needed a vacation.”<\/p>\n

“I told you I was overwhelmed.”<\/p>\n

“So was I.”<\/p>\n

“That’s different.”<\/p>\n

The entire room went silent.<\/p>\n

Even Eric seemed to realize what he’d said.<\/p>\n

“How?” I asked.<\/p>\n

He opened his mouth.<\/p>\n

Nothing came out.<\/p>\n

I pointed toward the papers.<\/p>\n

“I spoke to an attorney because I needed to understand what would happen if you decided being a husband and father was too stressful permanently.”<\/p>\n

His expression changed.<\/p>\n

“You’re divorcing me?”<\/p>\n

“I haven’t decided.”<\/p>\n

“Then what are those?”<\/p>\n

“A proposed separation agreement.”<\/p>\n

He stared at me.<\/p>\n

“You planned this while I was gone?”<\/p>\n

“No, Eric. I survived while you were gone. There’s a difference.”<\/p>\n

Megan looked down, hiding her expression.<\/p>\n

Eric’s father finally spoke.<\/p>\n

“Son, I think you need to understand how serious this is.”<\/p>\n

Eric turned on him.<\/p>\n

“You’re taking her side?”<\/p>\n

“I’m taking my grandchildren’s side.”<\/p>\n

That landed.<\/p>\n

Eric walked toward the bassinets.<\/p>\n

For the first time since entering the house, he really looked at the babies.<\/p>\n

One was sleeping. Another was making tiny restless noises in Megan’s arms. The third had just finished a bottle.<\/p>\n

Eric’s shoulders dropped.<\/p>\n

“I missed them.”<\/p>\n

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.<\/p>\n

“You video-called twice.”<\/p>\n

“My friends had plans.”<\/p>\n

“Exactly.”<\/p>\n

He rubbed his forehead.<\/p>\n

“Okay. I screwed up. Obviously. But you don’t end a marriage over one bad decision.”<\/p>\n

I looked at him for several seconds.<\/p>\n

“The vacation wasn’t the decision.”<\/p>\n

“What does that mean?”<\/p>\n

“The decision was believing that when things became difficult, your comfort mattered more than everyone else’s.”<\/p>\n

He sat down.<\/p>\n

I told him about the night two babies started screaming while the third needed feeding.<\/p>\n

About crying in the laundry room because it was the only place where nobody needed me for thirty seconds.<\/p>\n

About Megan leaving work early three times.<\/p>\n

About his mother driving forty minutes each way to bring groceries.<\/p>\n

About his father assembling the third crib Eric had promised to finish.<\/p>\n

His mother finally looked at him.<\/p>\n

“Do you know how many times she apologized for asking us for help?”<\/p>\n

Eric said nothing.<\/p>\n

“She shouldn’t have needed to apologize,” his mother continued. “You should have been here.”<\/p>\n

His eyes filled with tears.<\/p>\n

For once, nobody rushed to make him feel better.<\/p>\n

After a while, he asked, “What do you want me to do?”<\/p>\n

That was the first useful question he’d asked since coming home.<\/p>\n

“I want you to stay somewhere else for now.”<\/p>\n

His head snapped up.<\/p>\n

“Where?”<\/p>\n

“Your parents said you can stay with them.”<\/p>\n

He looked at them.<\/p>\n

His father nodded.<\/p>\n

“And the babies?”<\/p>\n

“You can see them. But you’re going to learn how to care for them.”<\/p>\n

“I know how.”<\/p>\n

Megan finally spoke.<\/p>\n

“Which one takes the smaller bottle?”<\/p>\n

Eric stared at her.<\/p>\n

“Which one?” she repeated.<\/p>\n

He couldn’t answer.<\/p>\n

That hurt him more than anything I’d said.<\/p>\n

Over the next month, Eric came every day.<\/p>\n

At first, his visits were awkward. He waited to be told what to do.<\/p>\n

I stopped telling him.<\/p>\n

If a baby cried, he had to figure out why.<\/p>\n

If bottles needed washing, he washed them.<\/p>\n

He learned which baby hated being swaddled, which one needed to be burped twice, and which one would only settle if he walked slowly through the hallway.<\/p>\n

He also started therapy.<\/p>\n

Not because I demanded it, but because his father told him something that apparently stuck.<\/p>\n

“Being overwhelmed explains why you wanted to run. It doesn’t excuse running.”<\/p>\n

Three months passed before Eric asked whether he could come home.<\/p>\n

I didn’t answer immediately.<\/p>\n

“Do you want your old life back?” I asked.<\/p>\n

He shook his head.<\/p>\n

“No. That life doesn’t exist anymore.”<\/p>\n

Then one of the babies began crying upstairs.<\/p>\n

Eric stood automatically.<\/p>\n

“I’ve got her.”<\/p>\n

He disappeared up the stairs.<\/p>\n

I listened as the crying slowly stopped.<\/p>\n

We didn’t magically become the couple we’d been before.<\/p>\n

I didn’t forget Cabo.<\/p>\n

And he never asked me to.<\/p>\n

Eventually, I agreed to let him move home, but the separation papers stayed in my desk.<\/p>\n

Not as a threat.<\/p>\n

As a reminder that love wasn’t enough without responsibility.<\/p>\n

One evening months later, all three babies finally fell asleep at the same time.<\/p>\n

Eric collapsed beside me on the couch.<\/p>\n

Neither of us spoke for a while.<\/p>\n

Then he whispered, “This is really hard.”<\/p>\n

I looked at him.<\/p>\n

He gave me a tired smile.<\/p>\n

“But I’m staying.”<\/p>\n

This time, he did.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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My sister, Megan, was sitting on our couch feeding one of the babies. My mother-in-law was beside her with another. And at the dining room table sat my father-in-law, a family attorney, and me. There were papers spread across the table. Eric stared at us. “What is this?” “Sit down,” I said. He looked from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5185,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7693"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7693\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7694,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7693\/revisions\/7694"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}