Separation anxiety is exhausting. Any tips on coping?!

[CaptainWarbeck]

DS is 8 months old and (what I think is) separation anxiety is kicking in. He cries when I leave the room/go to the toilet/put him down/try to eat/when he's held by DH etc. I have a sling and he's fairly content in that but my back, feet and shoulders are aching from carrying him round all the time.

On top of that he's cutting his bottom two teeth so is generally cross and sore about that too. His sleep has gone totally to pot which means mine has too as we cosleep (toddler bed up against ours, I end up BFing him in it during the night and sleeping in it too half the time). Last night he woke about ten times and I'm exhausted.

I feel sorry for him as his world is obviously a frustrating and sore place at the moment but omg it is hard work. I tried to escape to have a bath yesterday as some me time which lasted approx ten mins before DH brought DS in, screaming and angry and he ended up in the bath with me. Not very relaxing.

Please tell me this is a short phase and will pass? Please? Getting help from DH/family just doesn't seem to be much of an option as he only wants me at the moment. How did you cope if this sounds at all familiar to you?

Our DD has been going through separation anxiety but she was 3 when it started and it's just about calming down now (she's 5 in April) It is exhausting, and I'm not sure how I'm still standing.

We emigrated in July 2014, and she started Kindergarten with DS but it wasn't all plain sailing, I would get a phone call 45 mins after leaving her, saying she hadn't calmed down, she had stripped of naked and could I go collect her.

Sleeping has been a nightmare and is still the remaining battle we face. She simply wouldn't go to bed without me, would wake when I put her in her bed, she 'hates' Daddy and even now will not let him do anything for her. If I'm lucky I can get her in bed with a story and she will stay there, on an off day, I have to set her up on the sofa and let her fall asleep there, on a really bad day, I have to take her to my bed and DH is on the sofa. Tonight she is on the sofa.

It is all about Mummy all the time. She has had to learn to trust people, which has been difficult, and you kinda just have to go with it. She is now, mostly a sweetie at Kindergarten, just before Christmas she went for a visit to her old group where she was at her worst, and they were taken aback by how sweet, kind, and quiet she really is, it made me cry. I would take her to the toilet with me because it was the lesser of two evils, I would constantly give her the option, I'm going to make dinner in the kitchen are you coming with me, I'm going for a shower are you going to come and sit in the bathroom, and sort of 'played' her at her own game, I offered her everything and she would choose whether or not she would come.

You will get through it!