Swaddled

                                                     

Some people might call me manic.  I am constantly moving, usually from the time I wake up in the morning to the moments when I (can't) fall asleep at night.  I am always busy and moving around, even when I'm just chatting on the phone.  I've found that I usually can't leave well enough alone in my home, so if I'm home, I'm straightening or cleaning or pretending to do those things so I feel productive.  More often than not, rather than actually be productive in my home, I go out and take LONG walks.  Sitting still isn't something I do well.

I've tried to get better about relaxing, and since he moved out, there have been a few weekends where I just laid around the house.  Sometimes this is great.  Sometimes, it makes me fussy.

Let me share a scene from our living room on Sunday afternoon.  It's clearly about 5:00pm, and I am clearly still in my pajama pants.  It is also frigid in our living room.  (No, this is not ice queen like tendencies inherited from my mother.  We just have poor heating systems in our otherwise lovely apartment.)  I am wrapped in a blanket, whining and complaining.  I may or may not be making awkward squawking noises.  At this point, I could have theoretically gotten dressed and left the house so I would be less fussy, but I was committed to not leaving my home.  So, I continued to make unearthly noises until finally my ever patient roommate came up with a solution.

He swaddled me.  In the manner of a baby.  I was freezing, so he wrapped not one, not two, but three fleecy blankets around my full sized adult self, so I could not move my arms, my legs, or at all, for that matter.  I was cocooned in Target brand fleece.  While he attempted to swaddle me, I obviously fussed and flailed.  

Until I was swaddled.  I stopped fussing immediately and got warm and cozy, and was able to turn my attention fully to the eighth episode of "How I Met Your Mother" that was clearly of epic importance.

His response to why he swaddled me:  "You were fussy.  Sometimes, swaddling helps a fussy baby."

Clearly, despite the fact that I am a grown adult woman, wrapping me in blankets is the way to get me to calm down.

Think this will work with all people?