http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2016463/Sleepless-nights-dwindling-libido-ruined-social-life-Children-wreck-marriage.html
A friend going through a divorce just pointed me to this article. I wondered what people thought. I have to say I don't think it has with us at all (although I guess things might change when we go back to work). We'd been married for almost 6 years when Jamie was born and were prepared for things to change and for it to be hard work. Admittedly some things are harder than we expected (we did expect him to sleep occasionally) and it felt like we played pass the baby for the first couple of months but now he'll sit and play we can spend more time together again. If anything I think its the opposite because we quite often wonder over the miracle we created (sorry very soppy). I admit it was nice when we got more sleep (and sex). Just wondered how many of you found it to be true and how many didn't.

Rob and I had only been together for 11 months before I fell pregnant with Harry, before I found out I was pregnant we split up and we were apart for 6 weeks before we got back together. We moved in together when I was 25 weeks pregnant, but since Harry was born we had been very close. Yes we have had our rows and sometimes lost in front of the baby, but its very rare and we love eachother very much... we had to grow up very quickly and it made us better people and a stronger couple having a child! xx

Me and hubby had been together 4 years when I got pg with Stephen and we had already waited a while for hubby to be ready so I think we were prepared (as much as you can be!). I was very poorly after having him and I have to say hubby was absolutely amazing and we've been a lot closer since then. We're very lucky though that Stephen is such a content and happy little boy and has always slept well so we get 'us time' every evening. We make an effort now as well to go out just the two of us every so often, we're lucky that family are always willing to babysit too. I think sleep deprivation can have a massive impact on relationships and I know some couple's who have suffered just from not having a decent sleep in a very long time! xx

i think it's interesting, having babies is something you could never ever completely prepare for - in particular for us (like with jamie) lack of sleep and time away from the baby is very hard...our evenings are taken up with putting elijah back to sleep and trying to catch up on all we didn't manage in the day. our marriage has had some very hard times over the past year (and by no means is perfect at the moment!) but i do put it down to not sleeping for more than 2 hours unless elijah is in bed with me...but of course that means hubby is in the other room. its difficult

Hmmm i am one of those that did loose track of things in the first year, me and oh got to a point where we just hated each other! as well as other things i think having charlie did add to the stresses we had. We stopped living together when charlie was about 7 months old. We are back together properly now but it really did take alot of work to get to a happy place for us. Now we are very happy and i feel pretty strong (altho not prefect by any means!)
I think when we have more kid's i will be able to be on top of things a bit better, and i hope the same can be said for oh!

Kids def strain a relationship and it can be to breaking point. I admit Neil and I went through a patch esp with Awen in the frst four months where we bickered A LOT and it was a 'whos more tired competition most days. Its not exactly easy now I still think he does my head in with never hearing the girls at night or noticing a thing I do round the house much less pitching in as much as I would like but Im not perfect either, Im short tempered and easily irritated, by the evening Im so tired I tend to surf the net for a bit of head space when I should probably pay him more attention. But we are working on improving our communication and its def made a difference. We probably wont ever go back to the pre baby days or sex whenever we fancy or long lazy days together but we are in a better place now than we were with things and the trade off is our two wonderful children who make life a much happier place. I think that articles a bit of a sweeping generalisation

for us, it hasn't affected us

yeh we don't have sex as much, but we spend just as much time together...just with the kids there too...we're a total team and work so well together...so for us, it definitely didn't ruin our relationship