DD cries and screams for Daddy every morning

[laurac5]

DD is 32 months old.  For the first 30 months of her life she had LOTS of Daddy time -- dh was in school and was gone probably 20 hours a week or less.  Two months ago, dh  started working while I stayed at home.  DD did fine with this at first, but in the last week she has started waking up frantic to find Daddy to the point of putting on shoes or opening doors so she can go outside to find him. 

We have latches at the very top of the door, so I'm not really worried about her actually getting out.  My concern is more (a) whenever this happens, my son is still upstairs sleeping in our bed, and I don't feel comfortable leaving him there alone... and yet I feel like I need to be downstairs with dd helping her calm down; and (b) I want to help dd feel at peace with Daddy being away for work.  I know this will be a rocky transition, but I want to make it smoother for her if I can.

I don't really know what I'm asking... have any of you been through something similar?  Do you think it makes things worse for her to have a late nap so that she is asleep when dh returns from work?  Maybe it's time to start planning "Daddy dates"?

[lovepickles]

Similar situation here. DD was unemployed then I quit and he found a job, then was unemployed for another short time until earlier this month. So we have transitioned a couple times.

I think it is a good thing to plan daddy dates. Maybe they should build some time together in the morning. My husband makes one handed coffee with her on his hip every morning. It just takes a couple minutes but she loves it and screams "COFFEE!!!" first thing in the morning. He narrates the whole thing ... grinding the beans, changing the filter, etc.

We also have daddy call on a break or lunch just for a few minutes. I also keep his picture on her play table and point at it when she talks to him. Sometimes she tries to read her books to him on the phone and I just interpret. When she cries for him I tell her that he is at work and that he will be home later and tell her how happy I am that he has a job so we can pay the bills. Later this month we are going to go visit him at work and maybe take a few pictures so she can know where he is at. 

One thing I would advise against is having her dad go to work without saying goodbye. DD gets really upset when that happens and I remember my mom sneaking off to work as a child and I hated it.