My MIL Insisted I Stop Breastfeeding My 5-Week-Old Baby—I Went Pale When I Overheard Her Real Reason

My mother in law told me to wean my little baby boy after only a few days of breastfeeding so that she could have a whole day to herself with the baby. I agreed, unfortunately. But I was shaken, when I found out the true reason she wanted him, because it was darker than I could have ever guessed.

I am Olga and 5 weeks ago, I delivered the most handsome baby boy. Childbirth was lengthy,Arguably, childbirth was painful, the kind of tired that sticks to your bones. Yet all of it vanished the moment I look at his sensitive face or when his little fingers contract around my fingers.

I was looking at my sleeping son when I heard the voice of my husband Juan in the hallway.

“Olga? Talk we can?”

I fixed the blanket of the baby and headed to the living room where I found my husband sitting on the edge of our couch holding a phone. His dark eyes had that look about them — the look which came when his mother phoned.

His news was, “Mom comes next week. It is what she wants to do; spend time with the baby.

“That’s wonderful! I cannot wait until she gets to know him officially.”

She desires to kill him. Only the two. Throughout the entire day. Says you got to wean him to the bottle.

The words struck me as ice water. Juan, he is only breast fed. He does not adopt a bottle. He has never been apart fro me.”

You have got to begin training him, honey. Switch him to formula. mom says you are selfish, you are depriving him of his family.”

“Selfish? He is five weeks old! and I am not holding him against her, Juan. I am keeping him in food. That’s different.”

Babe, let — She only desires to have a single day with him. Missing a day of breastfeeding is no an ordeal.”

The following morning Ruth, my mother in law, called again. Juan gave me his phone expectantly.

Hello, honeybunch, it was Ruth and her voice had that saccharine sweetness that never failed to give me the creeps. She is extremely thrilled to meet her grandson.

we are also waiting to welcome you.

And now, regarding our little day together… you and the baby. Before I come you must get him accustomed to bottles. There are so many places I wanted to take him.”

I grasped the phone tighter. Oh, Ruth, I know you are excited, but he is so little. Or what about spending some time together, all of us? You may have him when I am there, and when he wants to nurse, etc.

“Nonsense!” Her voice became more aggressive. I have five children. I understand baby needs more than some first time mothers.”

I am not a first time mother. I have two daughters.

Girls are not like that. Grandmother should influence boys at an early age. You are not reasonable, Olga.”

The connection was dead and Juan was looking at my face as I returned his phone.

You know, she is right, he hissed. You are not being reasonable.

It was in the kitchen that Juan caught me up that evening as I was chopping turnips to make soup.

He started, Leaning against the counter, talking to Mom again. She is wounded, Olga, quite lost. She believes that you do not trust her.”

It is not a matter of trust…

Then what is it about? She is going from state to state to meet her first grandson. She just wants to have a day with him.”

A day, entire! Listen to thyself, Juan. He is a newborn baby who has not spent more than 10 minutes outside of my sight.”

Perhaps that is the trouble, Olga! Perhaps you are too much attached. Well, perhaps it is you who is guilty of a problem.”

I could feel the old familiar prick of tears. What do you mean, how can I say so? I am his mother.

and she is his grandmother. She is family to him. Some thing you appear to have forgotten.”

We were interrupted by the cry of the baby and I rushed to our bedroom with the words of Juan ringing in my ears. The desperate howls of my son changed to contended moans as I eased myself on the nursing chair. This was correct. Breast feeding was natural. How could they not see that?

I whispered to my baby, “You cannot know what it is like. to love someone so much that itatormented to think of them frightened or hungry… or in need of you when you are not there.

I was tired after two days of arguments. With every refusal Juan was getting colder, and he was talking longer on the phone with his parents, repeating something in fast Spanish, which I could not understand.

One morning over coffee he said, basically and harshly, I will not be with a person who would deny my baby to my mother. That is not the woman I married.

and the man I married would not be attempting to compel me to give our newborn baby to a person he hardly knows.

She is not someone. She’s family.”

Why does she refuse to say where she is staying then? What are her intentions or where does she exactly want to take him?”

The silence of Juan was eloquent.

So at the end of a tiring afternoon, when I was doubting every motherly instinct I had, I found myself saying yes, when he asked the question the second time.

All right, I said to myself. “One day. But I insiste on details where she is taking the baby… and I want to check-in regularly.

The face of Juan brightened up like Christmas morning. He drew me to him and kissed me on the forehead in the way that I had been longing to feel during weeks.

He was muttering, “You are right,–you are doing the right thing. Mom will be so glad.

But somehow happiness was delicate in our home. The lump in my stomach would not leave me alone when I was trying to sleep later that night. There was something wrong.

At midnight or thereabouts I abandoned all hope of sleeping and went barefoot to the kitchen to get water. It was then I heard the voice of Juan in the guest room, deep and thrilled. The door was ajar and the light on his phone screen played shadows on the wall.

Mom, she agreed, finally! chirped he into the phone. She is going to give you him all day long!

I could not breathe… literally.

Juan stared at his phone, “I know, I know, it says here–” But it was more difficult than we imagined; she purchased it, however. You will have him, and when you are there…”

My heart knocked on my ribs. I stood nearer to the crack of the door.

Mom, are you certain of the tickets? Cuz when the baby arrives, there is no returning. He won t be found in Martindale, certainly not if we get him off to the mountain house at once.”

The room was revolving. I slowly took out my phone and pressed record with trembling fingers and placed it near the door.

“”Ideal scheme,” crackled the voice of Ruth through the speaker. I have waited 30 years to have a grandson and this American wife of yours is not going to deprive him of his proper family. He is one of us, where he can acquire our language, our culture… and our ways.

Allow her to make the attempt. It will be too late for her to discover where we have gone by the time she does figure it out, and then we will be established in residence. I have spoken to my friend the lawyer there already. It has been said that possession is nine-tenths of the law particularly where the custody of a child against an unfit mother is concerned.”

“Unfit?” I could crawl with laughing at Juan. And to breastfeed him, because she wants to? Cool!”

That woman has kept that baby separate form family since birth. It feels unnatural. It’s selfish. He requires his Nanny, his culture and his heritage. Not a clingy female who believes she is smarter than generations of females who have successfully brought up children.”

I fell back to my bedroom holding the phone in my shaking hands. The recording was obvious, incriminating, and shattering. They were not arranging a day out but to steal my son and go to another country.

I played the recording again as I sat on my bed gazing at my sleeping baby. Every word was a slap. The husband I had married, the father of my children, was conspiring to steal our son.

“Unfit mother?” I said to the dark, and held my infant. Not to give my five-week baby to strangers?

I was not able to sleep. I passed the night in writing lists and devising plans and attempting to determine how I could defend my baby against his own father. The answer came to me by morning.

Over breakfast I said to Juan, keeping my voice steady though my world was falling apart, I need to run some errands. “Baby going to stay with my brother a few hours.”

“Sure, babe. Everything okay? You are tired.”

Didn-t sleep well.

I took my son and my evidence and drove to the office of my lawyer directly. Mr. Chen had taken on the divorce of my sister a couple of years back and his track record in defending children is just what I wanted.

He listened to the recording twice and said, “Play it again.

The voices of Juan and his mother were heard in the room again, as they plan to take my baby. Mr. Chen was grinding his teeth and his face was like a rock with every word.

This is conspiracy to commit kidnapping, he said. Kidnapping on an international scale, in case they intended to remove him out of the country. We have to get an emergency restraining order as soon as possible and I am suggesting that we initiate divorce proceedings this morning.”

Olga, they were going to steal your baby. Visit him or take him out on a day out. And the architect of the Whole plan is your husband.”

and the burden of it all came down on me then. The cheating, the manipulation, the months of gaslighting regarding my unreasonable behavior. I was not insane, overprotective or selfish. I was a mum who had instinctively felt danger and believed her instincts.

What should I do?

You pack up what you and all three kids will need, you go home, and you leave. Tonight. Do not give him an opportunity to put their plan into operation prematurely, do not tell him where you are going. Tomorrow morning we will deliver him the divorce papers.”

It was at seven sharp in the morning when the explosion came. I could hear Juan like thunder in my parents house as he was screaming into his phone in our driveway.