Mommy Separation Anxiety - Leaving Baby at Home

I confess –

“I want to go out but don’t want to leave baby behind”

“My eyes well up after being away from my baby for some minutes”

“I can’t concentrate when my baby is away from me”

Who wouldn’t right? Every mom has overflowing love for their babies and I do. You’d think only babies have separation anxiety but moms too. How do we feel more comfortable and at peace when leaving baby at home? Here are a few tips I’ve come up with:

1. Make sure you leave the baby with a trusted person like family. Leaving the baby with a new helper or nanny will just drive you insane and is extremely dangerous.

2. Prepare everything before you leave. I do not have a nanny so I make sure I leave enough breastmilk (frozen and thawed), sterilized bottles, and a clean breast pump to go home to.

It is super helpful too if you don’t have to panic and hasten yourself into pumping milk as soon as you arrive, or start cleaning bottles even before you take off your shoes. Do these before leaving home.

3. Feed your baby before you go, this will keep you at peace that the baby has recent feeding. Sometimes, other people don’t understand how to feed your baby or be sensitive to signals that he is hungry. When I feed Ashton, he finishes the entire bottle unlike when others feed him.

4. Change baby’s diaper before you go so that you know he is dry and comfy while you are gone and in case someone you left him with becomes lazy to do it.

5. Leave home with a fully charged mobile phone. I was at a fashion event just last night and I did not know what to do when my phone started flashing the low battery sign. At 9.30PM even before the meeting was over, I walked as fast as I could to the bus stop like a hyena. My sister texted me that Ashton won’t stop crying. The mobile phone is the only thing that connects you and your baby when you are away.

Last night, I arrived at 10.30PM and Ashton was so anxious about me leaving him for 4 hours that he slept at 4.30AM, and so did I.