Yeah, Yeah I know.. Slacker comes to mind. I was doing really well with keeping up with the blog, then the holidays came AND WENT.. and now, well no excuse. So, I promise to keep this updated.. But I can't always promise anything exciting so hopefully you will still stick with me to find out.
So first and foremost.. the reason for this blog.. Jake!
So far we are off to a good start for the year and sometime while I wasn't looking apparently, my little boy grew up! Oh my! In less than 2 years, he'll be a teenager but after dealing with the behaviors and actions he's exhibited over the years, the teen years should be a breeze right?? No, Seriously, I want someone to answer that for me!! I have spent so many years with the rose colored glasses and kid gloves on, I guess I missed a few things.. and it may be time to take them off.. (but still keeping them both within reach of course). No I am not ready to ship him off yet and he's still a kid but he's grown up so much in the past 6 months. So many things I protected him from in the past, I don't think I need to anymore. I have always been the reluctant mom of the bipolar kid, so I went to birthday parties with him, kept him close in certain situations, worried about things that most mom's never have to worry about. He has shown me lately that I may not need to worry as much as I used to. I need to loosen the rope a bit and see what he does with it. He stays home by himself in the afternoons after school and is really enjoying the responsibility. He has a school field trip coming up in Feb and at first instinct, I contacted his teacher to talk to him about it, telling him I would go so that J could attend. The teacher said I could go but I wouldn't be with Jake during the day so it wasn't really necessary and of course I thought that if I did go and couldn't be with him, it would upset him. We talked about it and he already knew that if I went he couldn't be with me and was ok with it. Um?? Really!! Ok.. He still wants me to go though.. but will be ok with it either way if I do or don't and I won't be nervous nelly at work all day if I don't, waiting on the phone to ring.
(ok well maybe will a little bit, but old habits are hard to break right??)He's not showing as much of the immature tendencies as he used to either. Yeah!!! I took him off one of his meds last week due to some weight gain issues and so far so good without it. But still watching for any major changes in mood, behavior and whatever else.. He's doing well with the new doctors at Aspire but not so keen on the group therapy yet but I keep trying to push it and get him to go. He did soooo well at the group therapy sessions at St.V's while he was in that program and although I am glad he is done with it, I know there are days I really wish he still had it. He's talking to me more about his feelings and problems and this is huge for him to open up like that. I am soo proud of him and hope that he continues on this path towards success.
This weekend, I need to do a little reorganization on all other things bipolar in the house, I need to update some binders and start some new ones. The big red binder now has company. There's the Med Hx binder, the resource binder and the everything else binder. Well ok there is a Med Hx binder but the last 2 are conceptual at this point with full intent of being created soon. I have the info, just haven't had the time to organize and put them all together. So much information, so many resources. Once I get a better handle on everything, I will also get back to sharing them in the future blogs.
For now, however I can share a few pieces that every parent of a bipolar child should have..
For your Med Hx binder-
http://www.nami.org/namiland09/BASICSrecordkeepingsystem.pdf
Another good one to have on hand, especially if you are first starting out is the treatment guidelines:
http://www.bpkids.org/sites/default/files/treatment_guidelines.pdf
and the medication guide:
http://www.aacap.org/galleries/default-file/aacap_bipolar_medication_guide.pdf
Good Luck out there, and know that you are not alone. Reach out to local organizations for resources (ASK, in IN, or CABF and NAMI for national resources which will lead you to local resources in your area).
www.aboutspecialkids.org
www.bpkids.org
www.nami.org
Join a support group, become a parent volunteer with one of these organizations, do whatever you need to do for yourself to be the best parent to your bipolar child. Be educated, be informed and BE AWESOME!
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