I am seeking some advice with respect to infidelity that has occurred in my marriage.
First some background:
My husband and I are in the agriculture business and own two properties which are about 300 miles apart. During the summer we are separated, each running one of the ranches.
Throughout our relationship there have been quite a few instances where I have found my now husband engaging in sexual text message exchanges with other women. I have confronted him many times, and even left him for a period of time.
At each episode he continually denied that anything was going on, attempted to convince me that the messages had been meant for me, or tried to play it off as a joke.
The messages were to many different female acquaintances of his, and were not only sexually explicit but indicated either previous 'private' meetings in person or intentions to meet up.
It got to the point that I was so paranoid that anytime his phone beeped, I pounced on the phone to see what it was.
Then last December I found out I was pregnant. We decided that we wanted to keep the baby and that we should move up our plans of getting married.
After finding out I was pregnant and subsequently getting married, he was very good and it seemed that the sexting had completely stopped.
Then, about a week before my baby was born, he came to stay with me at my parents house to await the baby. Being extraordinarily paranoid, I decided to check his phone. He had since upgraded to an iphone with has a tendancy to store erased messages.
To my chagrin I found that he has once again resumed sexting with 5 different women. The messages were very explicit and heartbreaking to me. The worst were some from a married woman living close to the ranch my husband runs, and whom we have to do business every year.
I also found messages from a woman my husband had hired without my knowledge to 'clean the house "for me"'. The messages also revealed that he had received oral sex from said 'employee'.
We had an enormous fight where he continued to act quite childish and try to convince me that I had made it up or it was all a joke etc etc.
We finally agreed that we would start fresh. He would stop all inappropriate communications and I would let go of my harbored anger and resentment over the past transgressions.
After the baby was born things seemed much better, he was truly a devoted father. Then he had to return to the ranch for a few weeks while I recovered from the birth.
When he came back to help me drive home I found that while he had been considerably good he had, the day before flying back out to his son and I, been sexting yet another woman.
His excuse for this was that she had started the conversation and he was just trying to figure out who it was because he hadnt been able to remember. Unfortunately, this was a lie as he had been the one who had started the conversation and led it into inappropriateness.
He has now been away again for a couple of weeks. I am losing sleep over the fear that he is continuing to cheat despite my telling him when he left that if he did it again I was divorcing him and leaving with his child.
I feel very foolish for having let things continue on this far and for sincerely believing him when he assured me it would stop.
Now there is a child in the mix and I absolutely cannot allow my child to grow up amongst such conflict.
What hurts me most is how he lies to me. I no longer believe him when he tells me he's being faithful and I always question what he's doing with that damned phone.
Had he been honest with me in the past when I confronted him I would have an easier time forgiving him. But he has always maintained his 'innocence' and tried to make me believe that it was nothing but a joke.
I still truly love my husband. I don't want to separate from him but I cannot put up with any more lies or cheating.
I am hoping to have some advice that is not so close to home to help me in deciding what to do from here. We will continue to have to be apart for long periods of time and I am going to continue to have doubts and insecurities whenever he is gone. Marriage counseling is probably a necessity but getting him to go would be like pulling elephant teeth.
My main concern is my child. On one hand I want him to grow up with a father, but I don't want him to grow up in conflict. Whatever I decide I don't want it to be a selfish decision that hurts my baby.
Please help!
