p2. Blame it on the baby swing...
Let's face it; we are a society where blame is important and someone/thing must be held accountable. Since I am the mother, and the study of psychology has been based on the interaction of child with mother - I have decided to blame it on the baby swing.
It was 19 years ago, we are not talking about the wonderful battery or remote controlled swings with the Bose speakers and video consoles. This swing had a wind-up crank and a seat for an infant; this seat was my bipolar Childs, crib, playpen and our saving grace. Amanda did not sleep.
Each evening we would attempt to lull her into bed, but without luck she would end up in the swing and one of us on the couch, to be the crank - not to say we weren't a tad cranky the next day. I know that we all have heard of the startle effect in infants, Da spent her evenings reaching out to the unknown as the crank was not the quiet mechanism one would wish for. Each time the soothing sway of the swing stopped - so did her slumber.
Once she became mobile, the swing went into storage.
Before Da was two, we moved into a house in an older "yuppie" part of our city. The small house was a former two family so her bedroom was a kitchen in a past life. The only signs of its history were a porcelain sink that had the slant with drainage lines running to the tub area. The water did not work. Excited about a new home, yet living on a budget - I carefully picked a sweet balloon theme paper and had a friend teach me to hang wallpaper. I also painted her crib and other collected furniture so her "nursery" was as lovely as Pottery Barn's catalog offerings, OK, maybe not as nice, but it would do.
As she aged it was an apparent plus in her personality that she could keep herself entertained for hours. Our house was much like Sesame Street; her only neighbors would be George the dry cleaner, Bryan the grocery guy and Carl in the hardware store. There was also an older "beauty salon", very pink and owned by a lady named Verba May, but she closed just a bit after we moved in. This was the house where my husband grew up, not a blatant decision to isolate our child.
For entertainment in the evening bedtime hours, Da would lie in her crib and recite all the names she had learned. She was a very smart toddler, as one advertising pro said, "what are you going to do, she is so smart", what an understatement. When she really became mobile it was no longer satisfying for her to do her evening litany and she started to work on the wallpaper. After tearing a good portion of it down, she found this task to be too easy and went to work on her crib, and changing table. She was too young for a Rector set, nor a good container of Lincoln logs.
Each morning it was as if the Easter Bunny had visited, we had to go find where she would be sleeping... in a cabinet, on the rocking chair, curled in the sink, hiding in the closet, it was when we found her out on the roof I rang and made an appointment for my first meeting with a Psychologist, this was surely a problem with my parenting skills. All first bourns are perfect you know.
Bipolar people who are experiancing manic episodes do not sleep; it is not necessary for them. I have come to learn this is one of the "benefits" of mania. Some people use this time for great endeavors, such as studying or creating masterpieces, others for getting into trouble with the wrong crowd and yet with others, it starts to spin them into a complete psychotic state, which can be detrimental for all involved.
Sleep is a wonder gift, a time to renew the body and mind, and a form of true relaxation. Mania is a high that has no time for such trivial gifts. Should bipolar adults be required to have hammocks in their homes? Medication you say - ahhhh this will come much later. The sleep never did.
It was 19 years ago, we are not talking about the wonderful battery or remote controlled swings with the Bose speakers and video consoles. This swing had a wind-up crank and a seat for an infant; this seat was my bipolar Childs, crib, playpen and our saving grace. Amanda did not sleep.
Each evening we would attempt to lull her into bed, but without luck she would end up in the swing and one of us on the couch, to be the crank - not to say we weren't a tad cranky the next day. I know that we all have heard of the startle effect in infants, Da spent her evenings reaching out to the unknown as the crank was not the quiet mechanism one would wish for. Each time the soothing sway of the swing stopped - so did her slumber.
Once she became mobile, the swing went into storage.
Before Da was two, we moved into a house in an older "yuppie" part of our city. The small house was a former two family so her bedroom was a kitchen in a past life. The only signs of its history were a porcelain sink that had the slant with drainage lines running to the tub area. The water did not work. Excited about a new home, yet living on a budget - I carefully picked a sweet balloon theme paper and had a friend teach me to hang wallpaper. I also painted her crib and other collected furniture so her "nursery" was as lovely as Pottery Barn's catalog offerings, OK, maybe not as nice, but it would do.
As she aged it was an apparent plus in her personality that she could keep herself entertained for hours. Our house was much like Sesame Street; her only neighbors would be George the dry cleaner, Bryan the grocery guy and Carl in the hardware store. There was also an older "beauty salon", very pink and owned by a lady named Verba May, but she closed just a bit after we moved in. This was the house where my husband grew up, not a blatant decision to isolate our child.
For entertainment in the evening bedtime hours, Da would lie in her crib and recite all the names she had learned. She was a very smart toddler, as one advertising pro said, "what are you going to do, she is so smart", what an understatement. When she really became mobile it was no longer satisfying for her to do her evening litany and she started to work on the wallpaper. After tearing a good portion of it down, she found this task to be too easy and went to work on her crib, and changing table. She was too young for a Rector set, nor a good container of Lincoln logs.
Each morning it was as if the Easter Bunny had visited, we had to go find where she would be sleeping... in a cabinet, on the rocking chair, curled in the sink, hiding in the closet, it was when we found her out on the roof I rang and made an appointment for my first meeting with a Psychologist, this was surely a problem with my parenting skills. All first bourns are perfect you know.
Bipolar people who are experiancing manic episodes do not sleep; it is not necessary for them. I have come to learn this is one of the "benefits" of mania. Some people use this time for great endeavors, such as studying or creating masterpieces, others for getting into trouble with the wrong crowd and yet with others, it starts to spin them into a complete psychotic state, which can be detrimental for all involved.
Sleep is a wonder gift, a time to renew the body and mind, and a form of true relaxation. Mania is a high that has no time for such trivial gifts. Should bipolar adults be required to have hammocks in their homes? Medication you say - ahhhh this will come much later. The sleep never did.
posted by ewschott at Tuesday, September 14, 2004
2 Comments:
Oh my gosh, this is frightening to read, and so similar to my experiences....
Hehe..this sounds my daughter, but I didn't realize it was related to the mania. When I obught my daughter her first bed she found a screw driver and took it apart. So we took her bed away and got a new kind of bed that she couldn't take apart. So instead she would rearange her furniture every night. Hehe...thank god for medication.
Post a Comment
<< Home