Separation Anxiety

Hailey started her new school on Wednesday. As I expected, drop offs in the morning have been extremely difficult and often require the teacher to pry her out of my arms while she cries and screams. I know that after we are gone, she settles down and seems to enjoy the rest of her day. Yesterday, she got a little sad when other Mommies started picking up her classmates. Luckily, I arrived just after she burst into tears and was able to spend a long time with her in the classroom.

I expected this difficulty during drop-off in the morning, but I didn’t expect the separation anxiety to carry over so strongly at home. For the past few nights, beginning when she was sick, she’s woken up multiple times during the night and cried for Mommy. For the first few nights, one of us would go in and comfort her, give her water, or whatever she wanted. Unfortunately, I have a really hard time going back to sleep after each outburst because I just can’t get comfortable. So, I was quickly becoming really sleep deprived. Last night we finally decided that we had to just let her cry it out. If we continued to go in there, then she would continue to cry out for us even though she didn’t really need anything. If I moved her into our bed, which was our first instinct, then where do we draw the line and when do we move her back to her bed? I guess I am trying to justify our actions because I feel like a bad Mommy, but I really believe that sticking as closely to her routine as possible is the best remedy over the long haul.