[littlelentils]

I need advice. DH went out of town for 2 days and my almost 10 month old baby didn't respond well to it at all! She was clingy, fussy, and just seemed sad. She is such a happy baby normally. She literally kept saying "dada" all day for those 2 days and crawled around with a picture of him in her hand. I'm not kidding! And then when he came back she refused to make eye contact with him for a day!

So now he is going out of town again for 4-5 days and we aren't going with him b/c he can stay with a friend of his. If we went with him, we would have to get a hotel room since we wouldn't want to impose on his friend. We are in the middle of moving to the town he is traveling to but our house won't be ready till next weekend. It just breaks my heart to have my dd go through that again. I know it is not the end of the world and she'll be okay, but still, it is just sad. Has anyone else experience this with their dh and baby? How did you handle it with your baby? I am wondering if it is worth staying getting a hotel just so they don't have to be apart..?

 

[marrymeflyfree]

Awww...I know that had to be hard to see, but how sweet that your kid is so attached to dad!

:

I've been thinking about this as my partner travels often for work, and I will as well when I go back to work. One idea that I like is making a video. My brother made several for his young daughter when he was deployed with the air force...my SIL played one nearly every day that he was gone, and said that she didn't seem as detached when he returned compared to other kids they knew in the same situation. Maybe having something like that for your babe to see and hear him could help?

 

[ChetMC]

I don't really have any advice. It breaks my heart as well. My niece used to carry around a picture of her parents when she stayed at my inlaws, and she would wait at the door for them, obviously hoping that every car that turned the corner would be theirs.

It might not be so bad where it's four or five days. Possibly she'll be out of sorts for the first two and be okay after that. There has also been situations with our kids that were total one offs. Something freaked them out one time, and never again.

I probably would consider making it a family trip. We've travelled a lot with our kids and they really enjoyed it.

 

[keeptryst]

DH was away on work for 8 days and the only outward sign DS showed was that he wouldn't goto sleep (his dad puts him to sleep every night). He stayed up until midnight most of those nights and fell asleep out of sheer exhaustion.

The minute he saw DH at the front door his face split into the widest smile I've ever seen and he kept hugging his dad and then pulling back to look at his face, as if to make sure he was really back, and then straight away started to play with him

And that night he was asleep by 10 pm and slept 3.5 hours the next day at naptime. He was probably making up for all the time he stayed up missing his dad.

Kids cope, don't worry, though it is heart-breaking to see them miss their dad so obviously...

 

[rockportmama]

Any chance of getting webcams?

 

[wannabe]

ichat?

 

[AutumnAir]

skype really helped us - we were apart from DH for nearly a month but DD got used to seeing him and talking to him on the computer. Now we use it to keep in regular contact with her grannies!

 

[littlelentils]

thanks guys... we do have ichat and webcams on our mac but he isnt staying at a place with a working internet! i am thinking he can go to starbucks or something and use their wifi.