My In-laws Called Me Paranoid Until My Sil Almost Let My Baby Fall Out Of A Second-story Window. Now They’re Threatening To Sue Me For Cutting Her Off. What Do I Do?

The Social Worker

The social worker showed up about 20 minutes later, a man in his 40s wearing khakis and a button-down shirt who introduced himself as Cormack Richardson. He pulled up a chair and opened a laptop, then asked Keith and me to walk him through everything that had happened since Lily was born.

I started with Bridget’s declaration at the hospital about being a second mother, then moved through each dangerous incident. Keith sat next to me holding Lily, and I could feel him getting more tense as I talked.

I described the water bottle at Lily’s lips when she was 3 weeks old and how Bridget dismissed my panic as internet nonsense. I explained finding Lily’s face pressed against a teddy bear, barely breathing, and Bridget saying I kept her in a cold prison. I told him about the honey incident and how we’d been here before for observation.

Cormack typed everything I said, his face getting more and more concerned. I described today, how Bridget went upstairs during their intervention and took Lily out of her crib for photos. My voice cracked when I described the open window and how close Lily came to rolling the other direction.

Cormack stopped typing and looked at both of us, then asked a question that made Keith flinch. He wanted to know if Bridget had any mental health history or obsessive behaviors we knew about.

Keith shifted Lily in his arms and his voice was quiet when he answered. He explained that Bridget had been trying to have a baby for 7 years with multiple failed treatments and several miscarriages. He said she’d struggled with the infertility but seemed to be coping until I got pregnant so quickly.

Cormack asked if Bridget had been in therapy for the infertility issues, and Keith admitted he didn’t know. Cormack typed more notes and then said something that made my chest tight. He explained that what I was describing sounded like something beyond accidents or just not knowing current safety guidelines.

He said the pattern suggested someone who was either deliberately creating dangerous situations or was so obsessed with the baby that she couldn’t recognize the risks she was creating. He asked if we’d documented any of these incidents, and I told him about the hospital records from the honey incident. Cormack nodded and said he was going to recommend that the hospital keep Lily overnight for observation, both for medical reasons and to give them time to properly document the situation.

Keith asked what would happen next. Cormack explained that he’d be filing a report about the pattern of endangerment and that we’d need to take steps to protect Lily from further contact with Bridget.

Elena came back in and confirmed that she wanted to keep Lily overnight to watch for any delayed symptoms from the head injury. She said babies can seem fine after a fall but then develop problems hours later. A nurse showed us to a room in the pediatric unit, a small space with a crib and a chair that pulled out into an uncomfortable bed.

Keith’s Realization

Keith and I took turns holding Lily while she slept, neither of us willing to put her down even though the nurses said she’d be safe in the crib. Around midnight, Keith started apologizing. He said he was so sorry for not listening to me sooner, for dismissing my concerns as paranoid new mother anxiety.

His voice broke when he said he should have protected us both from his family. I didn’t know what to say because part of me was still angry that it took something this extreme for him to finally believe me. But another part of me was just relieved that he finally saw what I’d been seeing for months. I told him we’d figure it out together, and he nodded, tears running down his face as he held our sleeping daughter.

Keith’s phone started going crazy around 1:00 in the morning, buzzing constantly with messages. He pulled it out and his face went pale as he scrolled through them. His mother sent multiple texts saying we were overreacting and that Bridget was devastated. His father sent messages accusing us of being cruel and saying families work through accidents together.

Bridget herself sent a long text about how much she loved Lily and how she’d never deliberately hurt her niece. There were messages from other family members too, people his parents must have called to get on their side. Keith’s aunt said we were tearing the family apart. His cousin asked why we were being so harsh over an accident. His mother sent another text saying I was being cruel to Bridget, who just loved Lily so much.

Keith stared at his phone for a long time and then did something I didn’t expect. He turned it completely off and put it in his pocket. He looked at me and said his family could wait, that the only people who mattered right now were me and Lily. It was the first time since this whole thing started that I felt like he was really choosing us over them.