Hi Hailie, I happened upon your forum post and just wanted to congratulate you on your sensible thoughts about baby first. I am older grandmother in waiting and I accidentally came upon this site and wished so much I had been given this sought of advantage when I was younger and had just one child.You seem to have your head well in the right direction, so I'm not going to trteat you like you need an education, as you sound as if you are coping better than I did with a wonderful husband and a wonderful family.and marriage.

One thing I know is that there will be many guys out there who will love you for you, do you have some family? Because I see all the love for your baby and you forgetting about yourself.You have done one very brave thing ,leaving an abusive relationship for the sake of your baby , but you need you time.Just because you are a single mum does not mean that you need to wait ,in order to have a night off every now and then ,if you have a support system.I had two friends that we met through my neighbour and we have just celebrated 30 years of what we called our coffee mornings.A simple group that helped me through somevery emotional times both when I had two youngones and we have supported each other for all of this time, and have seen all of the kids grow up happy and healthy buit if anything ever went wrong we were there for each other night  or day..

Everyone deserves a life after baby , whether you are married or not., It just means you need to get home a bit earlier and have a trustworthy babysitter.Then you need a guy that respects you and I know it is not easy out there to find guys but two of the girls that were the children we watched growq up have met people online or through friends and they both are single mums after separating from their husbands. So goodluck and look after your selfesteem.

Statistuics say that you are at risk for an another abusive relationship but keep a positive on how good you are at what you do and keep up that selfesteem and never ever let a man disrespect you.