In Preparation For Separation Anxiety

All the books I've read have told me that the two week episode of separation anxiety 2.0 had when he was about eight months old is going to repeat for us in about two months or so.  Personally I think the books are wrong because I'm seeing signs of it starting now.

Up to this point I've been the one with the separation anxiety.  Is my child okay?  Is he being loved and cared for like I would care for him?  Does he miss me?  Does he need me?  Will someone let me know as quickly as possible if something bad happens to him?  Does he understand that I'll be right back for him as soon as I possibly can?  Those were the questions that plagued me and ultimately led me to be a stay at home mom.

Now that 2.0 is older, I'm getting more comfortable leaving him with other caregivers while I'm gone.  I don't have as hard a time of leaving him in the nursery when I'm at church and if I need someone to watch him for an hour or two while I run an errand or go to an appointment, I'm okay.  My mom watched him last week for a whole day while my husband and I were in Iowa City and he was great.

Then today I left him with his dad to help a friend and wouldn't you know that little boy became a leg cling-on? I almost took him with me.  When he walks up to me and grabs my jeans, looking up at my face with that panicked expression that asks 'are you really going somewhere without me?' makes it really hard to leave him behind.

I was in the shower with the bathroom door closed and 2.0 stood outside almost the entire time banging on the door, sobbing, even though his father was home and calling his name.  Nate even picked 2.0 up, carried him away from the door to play on the floor and that little boy got up, walked over to the bathroom door again, and started the whole process over.  It is definitely getting hard to leave him again.

I'm reminding myself that this too shall pass and he's going to be fine without me.  This is important for both of us because he needs to understand that I am a separate person from him and I need to learn to let him go or I'm going to hover over him on his first date as a teenager and how productive will that be?

Still, sometimes it's nice to know that he loves me so much that he doesn't want me to leave him.  It's very nice to be so vital to someone else.