 |
nearly time to say good bye to winter bear suits?
|
Can’t believe it’s nearly April! Time flies! Still cold up here in North Yorkshire but spring is just around the corner, which makes my heart sing.
April was originally planned for returning to my work, but I had to extend my maternity leave to the maximum as Sabrina was not quite ready to go to a nursery physically and emotionally. Firstly, she does not take a bottle at all. Secondly she has huge stranger & strange place anxiety and screams the place down endlessly or makes herself sick.
Currently we are going through with this transition period, but it is seriously hard! I stupidly imagined that it will take a few days… absolutely no way. We have been training her for months and only just recently started to show the progress. She can now take milk from a bottle sometimes and cries less when strangers are around and visited different places. Still hard work and stressful though… Will she be ready in June???
Like I mentioned here, she is behind the curve, so her motor skills are not quite up to normal 8 month old. No sign of crawling yet, but we have made some transitions within the house too. Built a guard around the fire place (not for fire but the marble floor with sharp corners) and covered ‘fluffy’ carpet with handmade activity mat (so that fluff does not end up in her mouth and it can be washed). She does also Skype with her grand parents regularly who are coming to visit her in May. How exciting! Hope she won’t cry too much?
If you are a mother and have some advice on how to tackle baby’s stranger, strange place and separation anxiety, I’m all ears. xm
...seriously, how can you leave this sweet, adorable bundle of joy and love. Such a cutie! xoxo
ReplyDeleteDay by day, one step at a time, she will get more used to being around others. It is difficult, for both you and baby. I know, I've been there years ago. It does get better, really it does.
ReplyDeleteI send you best wishes in this new stage of parenting.
Mary
I know of two friends who haven't been able to take their children to daycare simply because their babies (up to 9 months!) couldn't take a bottle. One tried a cup - that worked - the other is still breast feeding and decided not to return to work as long as bottle feeding isn't in sight. All I'm saying is, these children had a 'normal start' and still drive their mums nuts :-)
ReplyDeleteAs for the anxiety: I think practice, practice, practice. Perhaps a favorite toy or blanket to take with her every time (sure you thought of that already..)? I stayed at home with my boys for the first two years and never had a babysitter. So by the time I had to let them go, I had trained preschool teachers who lovingly dealt with my crying babies: I had to learn to walk away! That took a lot of practice too...
In Hungary there is a lady called Anna Dévény and she has a special method. She says that many problems can be solved at the first year by using a special manual technique. In fact I met this method a bit late, but both my cousines had this kind of "therapy" at their first years. Maybe this could be interesting for you as well: http://www.dsgm.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=20&Itemid=2&lang=en Best wishes, Zsófi
ReplyDeleteIt's a really tricky one and there are no easy answers. You need to be able to trust the pre-school practitioners and have faith in their ability to handle situations with babies and small children. It's really as much about you as Sabrina. Many nurseries have mother and toddler groups though, which I think are a great way to help little ones get used to having other children and adults around and you will be there to monitor her progress. Lots of love, Pam x
ReplyDeleteHi Makiko; I'll tell you what I think after reading this: I think your child has gone through some pretty hefty stuff in her pretty short life, my impression is that that makes her "different" from the average child. I think she needs time to feel and learn that the world is safe for her.
ReplyDeleteWhat I did with our youngest (who I breastfed as well) was to give her the t-shirt I had worn the day prior to her going to daycare to take with her to daycare (perferably without perfume, this contains all sorts of stuff that has a hormonal effect). This because children are very sensitive to smell. The carers there would put it in her bed when she went to sleep for instance.
At a certain point my softest t-shirt became her favourite cuddle and it still is to this day (completely in tatters) when she was younger if someone had hurt themselves, she would run to fetch it and put it on the place that hurt. You could also take a nice piece of cloth and just stuff it in your bra for a day.
Personally I would take time to let her get used to the transition. Bring her over to the nursery and sit there, try to be not super-active with her but be there for her sense of safety. See if you can walk out to fetch some coffee or go to the loo and how she reacts to that. Babysteps.
Good luck with that, kind regards;
Simone
Hi! Do you know waldorf school? kisses Patricia
ReplyDelete