Thursday, March 25, 2010

Daycare

Aiden is back in daycare. After being home with me for 8 months I have put him in a home facility three days a week. The woman is absolutely wonderful but things aren't going well. He's suffering from the worst case of separation anxiety ever. It's really hard, because each morning (that he goes) is a struggle. He begins crying when he realizes that he's getting dressed to go somewhere that early in the morning. And then if I manage to get him settled in the car on the way there (a big 5 min drive) the instant we pull into the driveway the tears begin again. Usually I have pretty thick skin, but this morning was very rough for some reason.

Apparently he's having good and bad days. Some days she says he only cries for a half hour...but I still feel that it's way too long for him to be crying. Yesterday she said he had a really rough day and that whenever she couldn't give him her undivided attention, he began to cry. I can't help but feel guilty that I'm the reason he's acting this way. It's so hard to go from being with mommy or Nanna all the time to being with some stranger who has to share her time among four children. UGG...what's a mommy to do?

I don't want to pull him, I feel like he's going to act like this where ever he goes. He needs this structure and now that I'm back to work, we have no other choice. If there was only something that could soothe his anxieties (besides time).

I know that eventually he'll get over this, but it's so hard to see him like this every day. I know he likes it there. If he knows he isn't going, he talks about the place all day long. But as soon as you tell him he's going he has a melt down.

Usually I don't want the time to pass, but in this case, it wouldn't hurt to speed up a bit :)

It will get better....it will!!

1 comment:

katie k-h said...

Hang in there, Noelle. You are smart to make this change before the new baby comes. For us, that brought a whole new set of separation anxiety issues. Daycare will be good for him, especially so that you can have some time to bond with the baby and so that Aiden can have his time away from the house as a big boy without a baby around. It's really, really hard, though. We still have bouts of this with Michael, especially if there is one little thing that is different in the morning routine. ♥ Stay strong. ; )