i'm frustrated and want to know if there is anything i can/should do... or if this is just an age thing.
dd is 15 mo. i work part-time out of the house (20-25 hrs a week), but it's spread out over 6-7 days a week. my schedule is pretty inconsistent: some days I'm only gone 2 hours, others 9, though on the long days i always have at least a couple hours with her in the middle. I gradually built up to this, and have only been working this much the past two months or so. up until dd was 11 months, i never left her for any significant amount of time. we are very attached. my mom watches her most of the time and is the only person she doesn't mind being left with. but lately she's been having a really tough time — she's been very sensitive and clingy. when i'm around her she is pretty irritable, throwing tantrums and needing to be held by me constantly. i feel a tremendous amount of guilt for being gone so often (and sometimes a tremendous amount of guilt the days that i'm glad i'm working). she's always been pretty high needs but it seems like she's getting more needy and demanding. like yesterday, she would just scream for several minutes at a time, then be okay for a few minutes and then start screaming again. all. day. long. my mom says she doesn't do it when i'm not around, but as soon as i'm there she's constantly amping out. i'm worried that the hectic schedule is getting to her. or am i just projecting?
dd is 15 mo. i work part-time out of the house (20-25 hrs a week), but it's spread out over 6-7 days a week. my schedule is pretty inconsistent: some days I'm only gone 2 hours, others 9, though on the long days i always have at least a couple hours with her in the middle. I gradually built up to this, and have only been working this much the past two months or so. up until dd was 11 months, i never left her for any significant amount of time. we are very attached. my mom watches her most of the time and is the only person she doesn't mind being left with. but lately she's been having a really tough time — she's been very sensitive and clingy. when i'm around her she is pretty irritable, throwing tantrums and needing to be held by me constantly. i feel a tremendous amount of guilt for being gone so often (and sometimes a tremendous amount of guilt the days that i'm glad i'm working). she's always been pretty high needs but it seems like she's getting more needy and demanding. like yesterday, she would just scream for several minutes at a time, then be okay for a few minutes and then start screaming again. all. day. long. my mom says she doesn't do it when i'm not around, but as soon as i'm there she's constantly amping out. i'm worried that the hectic schedule is getting to her. or am i just projecting?
)
Don't feel guilty about enjoying the "break" of working! But I also found that the more I could go ahead and hold DD, nurse her, and let her be clingy, the quicker she got over those stages. So I would say just sit down with your DD, focus totally on her, and hold her constantly when you are home as much as you can stand to do that. That whole half-year age (from around 15 to 20 months) was just really rough for us. Age 2 is actually a lot easier than 1, IMO! (But I hear that 3 is a doozy...)
