Belen has always loved her daddy and found ways to show him just how much. Lately she as been exhibiting some real signs of separation anxiety with daddy that has become difficult for the whole family.
At night when it is time for bed, only daddy can put Belen to bed without some pretty incredible tantrums. We have adapted and now make sure we always take Belen to bed as a family with prayer, hugs and kisses, and waves bye-bye. Zak has even taken to special daddy-daughter relaxing time every evening before night-night time.
Last night nothing seemed to work. Sunday's are difficult for Belen anyway. We have church at 1 p.m. which just happens to be right in the middle of her nap time. We try to get her to take a nap a bit earlier so she at least gets an hour (as opposed to the 2-3 hrs. she normally requires) before we have to leave. Yesterday was no exception however, when we got home Belen refused to take a nap immediately after church (which she normally goes down for easily). Instead we ate together as a family then daddy and Belen sat together on a chair and after 20 minutes they were both snoozing away. Belen ended up sleeping for nearly 2 hours not waking up until after 7 p.m. as she sat snuggled up to daddy. We got her ready for bed, made sure she wasn't hungry, and went through our normal night-night routine. Belen happily waved bye-bye as we left her room albeit a bit later than normal due to her late nap otherwise, nothing was out of the ordinary.
Unlike normal, 20 minutes after leaving Belen in her bed she'd found her way to her bedroom door, slid a hand underneath the door and proceeded to holler, "DA-DEE".
3 more attempts at night-night brought us to 11p.m. and a hysterical toddler. Finally, daddy thought we might try laying her on the couch until we turned out our light (our bed is set up in the dining room adjacent to the living room...long story) but we'd also decided that it wasn't safe to let her sleep all night on the couch because we have to keep our sliding glass door open (it's the only 'window' in the room) for ventilation. We were afraid she may wake up in the middle of the night and wander outside. But, when the time came she was so tired she didn't protest being placed in her bed.
Bright and early as Zak is getting ready for work Belen began screaming hysterically as she woke up. All sorts of things went through our minds as we tried to figure out how to help her. What it came down to was that she didn't want daddy to go to work. She was fine when he was around but when he told her he had to leave she was inconsolable though several minutes after he'd left she was quiet and ended up sleeping until 11 a.m.
When Zak came home for lunch we went through the same scenario. Now that I think of it, this has been building for some time. Saturday Zak spent 5 hrs knocking doors for the Yes on 8 campaign here in California, when he got home he wanted to get the car cleaned up for Sunday and was in and out of the apartment for another couple hours doing so. Each time he was in and out Belen took it really hard. Poor girl. I've started telling her that he will be back because he loves her very much. I hope we are handling this okay. This is our first real encounter with any type of separation anxiety. Belen as always been very laid back in this area. She still seems to be doing well when we take her to the Nursery at church it's just at night and early in the morning as I'd described.
If anyone has any ideas or experiences themselves with separation anxiety please let me know what you've done to combat it or at least lessen it's severity. Or, is this just something we will have to wade through?
