Separation Anxiety

It has now been a little over 2 months since Elise transitioned from Olivia's home to Angelica's home for her daycare.  She did not take the transition well and became extra clingy in all other areas of her life.  Within the last week or so, she has FINALLY stopped crying at drop-off, but she still cries whenever we leave her at the church nursery, life group nursery, or when she's with my mom and I leave them.  It's been stressful on all of us and it makes me sad to think that she was somewhat traumatized with the daycare setting change.

She is transitioning to preschool starting this August and I am REALLY stressed out about it!  I don't think Elise is going to handle it well and so I'm trying to think of ways to make the transition easier for her.  I've also driven myself crazy reading research that says that it's best for a baby to be home with their mom for the first 2 years of life, which is of course, impossible for us.  So I'm just going to start praying now that the transition is as seamless as it can be.  I do envy moms who can stay at home for those first critical years and I hope that by the time Elise is a mom that the workplace will allow for more flexibility for families.

Anyway, here are some of the things I'm going to do to prepare Elise for preschool:

• Buy her a backpack that she can start using with Angelica so that she associates it with school
• Visit the preschool a few times this summer so that she can become familiar with it
• Read books about kids going to school.  Thankfully, there are a lot out there since this is a common problem
• Try to get a photo of her teacher (learned this from Amy)
• Have playdates with Toby and Sarah, both of whom will be in her class