Husband in Korea 5 year old having trouble sleeping

Katie - posted on 01/30/2012

i was having trouble getting my daughter to sleep as well and her daddy is away at Army AIT. Her loves to watch the show Yo Gabba Gabba and i happened to find the characters in cuddle pillows and got them for her. Now she goes to bed at night fairley easley with "Brobee" and "Fufa." I dont know what your son is attached to, but my Dad is retired navy and he had gotten me a navy bar and it became important to me to have. You could check into getting him his own Daddy bear in whatever branch of the miltary he is in and see if it helps to let him sleep with it.

Bridget - posted on 01/01/2012

Linda-that is a really great idea! I am going to have him do that :) thanks for the advice

Linda - posted on 01/01/2012

Have Daddy wear a t-shirt, seal it in a zipper bag and mail it to her. My husband did three tours of Korea in seven years and the shirt was a big help with my son (he was 2 months old when Daddy left for the first one). We never had any problem with him accepting Daddy and he always loved getting a 'fresh' Daddy shirt in the mail. Each time a new shirt arrived he would hold it to his face and inhale deeply. When it comes to memories nothing triggers like scent...

Bridget - posted on 12/24/2011

I sent you a friend request on facebook :)

Jenivive - posted on 12/24/2011

It's ok I miss the conveniences we have in the states like full sized ovens central air not smelly air lol glad my kids get to experience this and same for myself but I'd rather be stateside husband included lol hey I'm on facebook if you are add me I get those notifications easier :-) jracinev823@yahoo.com

Bridget - posted on 12/23/2011

My husband is at Osan Air Base. I wish we could have gone with him but we have been stationed here at Shaw Air Force Base for almost 7 years and the kids are really used to it and have friends. plus with the medical issues we couldn't have gone anyway. So what is it like over there? I have heard some good things and some bad things.

Jenivive - posted on 12/23/2011

Oh my gosh that follow on is pretty amazing! My situation with my daughter was the exact same way she was too young to get it but now at 6 she was more than aware. We are here at camp red cloud in south Korea...its no fun the only thing your missing here is your husband other than that nothing is great here.

Bridget - posted on 12/23/2011

he went to Iraq from September of 2009-Febuary of 2010 So it was a much shorter seperation and it was a long time ago. They were younger back then too. My oldest was 3 and she turned four while he was gone, my middle was two, and my youngest was 8 months and he turned one while he was gone. Now they are 5 about to be six, two about to be three, and four. So i think they are more aware of the changes that are happening around them. We were looking into getting sponsership to go to Korea but we have some medical issues that prevented us from going so we had to stay here. But we have a pretty awesome follow on it's England and i have always wanted to go there so thats something to look forward to. :)

Jenivive - posted on 12/23/2011

It is really hard because I'm sure you're sad too and you can't let yourself be sad and get past that 'hump' because you have to focus on the kids. It gets better I'm sure for your kids its still fresh and new. Before Korea when was the last time he was away? Do you plan on getting sponsorship to come over to Korea?

Bridget - posted on 12/23/2011

Jenvive-We are doing Skype and they love it :) She was actually crying in school one day too about him being gone its so heart breaking to see her go through this but this is his job and i try to be as strong as i possibly can be for her and my other two. It's just at the end of the day i am so ready for them just to go to sleep. We have a Skype time set up everyday at about 3:30 because he is at work when she is going to bed so she gets to see him but it's not right before bed. I'm just thankful we have the communication that we do though and that she can see him it seems to help her somewhat.

Jenivive - posted on 12/23/2011

My daughter (6) did this too or would at the drop of a hat burst into tears crying for her daddy nothing we did helped until she was able to see him on Skype. I know I'm not too helpful but Skype is the best. The kids need face to face time with the parent who is gone to make it feel 'normal' we'd set it up at bedtime so she would look forward to seeing him and saying goodnight :-)