Clingy 10mth old...& a 'no-kids' wedding to attend.

[cwsmum]

My 10mth old DD is going thru a very clingy stage...she is fine with me and DH but if I leave the room she crawls after me unless he's with her. If I leave her in a room with someone like my mum/dad/sisters she screams until I come back or until she crawls to where I have gone (never very far, usually just to the toilet/kitchen).

My problem is, I have a good friends wedding to attend next weekend and I can't take her with me. It's an afternoon wedding so she is definatly going to be awake when we leave her...and asleep when we come home so we probably wont pick her up til the next morning sometime.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can make it easier for her? I don't want to leave her and have her scream the whole time I'm gone. She is either staying at my mums or my sisters house, she sees both of them a couple of times a week.

[holly]

I guess there comes a time, as hard as it is, when we have to bite the bullet and say, she's with people who love her, she's fed, clean and warm and you know no harm will come to her. Maybe this will be a good thing for her, she will learn that nothing bad will happen to her when you leave her and that you'll be back for her.

Can you start leaving her for short periods and making them longer before the wedding?

[draught]

Maybe try leaving her for an hour or two one afternoon during the week, and then repeat it - my DDs have both been through a phase of being incredibly distressed when I leave, but when I ring 5 minutes later from the car (in some distress myself) I can hear them laughing and playing in the background. If this is the case for you it might make leaving her for the wedding a lot easier. It will also show her that you come back when you leave her with family who she knows.

[MummyCharmzy]

As Theresa suggested do some trial runs. It will make it easier on both of you. My DS is almost 4 and when I take him to kinder he cries everytime (when DP takes him hes fine however...) he is almost hysterical until I'm back at the front desk when I make them call to check hes okay and sure enough in those 5 seconds hes calmed down and is happily playing now. I'm sure your daughter would be much the same, of course they can take longer than 5 seconds to calm down but usually its only a matter of minutes to distract them and they're happy again

Goodluck :)

[bec79]

This is a difficult situation to be in. I was feeling the same way the first time I left Porsha with someone other than myself or DF.
Like the other mums have suggested its probably best to have a few 'test runs' this week.
Have a wondeful, babyless time at the wedding. Although, knowing you, you'll most likely sit there fretting the whole time about little S. She'll be fine.

[Crazy Monkey]

As the others have said, I would have a few test runs before the wedding... I would have these test runs at the house she will be spending the night at...You will probably find that she will be fine...

My DS went through a similiar thing when he was a bit younger... When I returned to work, I found it was better for DS to see me leave... As I was leaving we would play peek-a-boo games through the door and he would wave bye through the window... Mum said he was fine and there was no crying or screaming...