2 swims and 3 seizures

Monday 5th and down to the pool to cool off on this hot day. Asher got Brendon in very quickly. We forgot the floating things this time - so I had to quickly get in to hold Hezekiah.
Once we were out I put Asher down in the sun with a towel wrapped around her while I got her clothes out.
When I got back to her I thought she was watching the boys in the pool. I quickly realized she was however, having a vacant seizure.
Her lips went purple but it thankfully did not last long and she pinked up quickly once it was over and had a sleep.
Rachel ended up working quite a bit more this week (totally just short of 30 hours). She will be away for 3 weeks, so was very pleased to be able to get the extra hours in. She still had enough time to get her things sorted and packed for her time away.
It was just a week of playing and fun for the others. I didn't get any photos through the week. One of those times when the camera is just forgotten.
Friday 9th - I thought of my camera this morning though as I saw Rachel polishing up her riding boots for her trip. The first week of her time away will be at a horse camp. She is so very excited about it.
It was lovely to have some of hte Fawcettes come and visit in the afternoon. The children always have such a fun time together. Fletcher and Hezekiah were having so much fun playing "catch" in the lounge that I though of trying to get a photo. They were too fast though - at least I got one of the girls. Our girls introduced them to Bang. They played two games and then headed outside to have a game that included a Sheriff and a Deputy.

Unfortunately at 6pm Asher had a long 10 minute Tonic seizure. I had made this graph of the seizures from last year (99 of them) and so I could quickly see that the last time she had a seizure this long was last year January. It may sound silly, but when you are watching your child having such a violent seizure, the difference between 8, 9 and 10 minutes is incredibly long.
Unfortunately the seizure seemed to really hurt her. She fell asleep quickly afterwards but soon started crying in her sleep. She seemed in so much pain. Brendon tried taking her outside (encase she was just really hot) but nothing seemed to help. Eventually she fell asleep and was back to her happy self when she woke. Another "side effect" on a late afternoon seizure (and the sleep that follows) is that she is not ready for bed time when that comes around. So we have had her getting to bed at 9pm a couple of times this week.

Saturday morning saw Ruth, Rachel and I up at 5am so that we could head off to the airport. This was quite a big thing for Ruth as she does like her sleep. She will miss Rachel so much though, and was really pleased to get this extra bit of time with her today.
We arrived with plenty of time to spare. So a good opportunity to take a "selfie". Our parent-child outings have not been predictable over the last couple of months - but it's special times like this that we are wanting to create. And it was such a good time. Rachel and I ended up chatting about a few things on the way there.

On the way home, Ruth and I got to have a lovely deep conversation. Special times with these girls.
Rachel was not thrilled with me refusing to stand with her for check in. I wanted her to do it on her own. When she comes home she will be arriving at the airport in Wellington by bus. So she will be totally on her own then and needs to know how to check in. What I expected happened, and as soon as one of the staff saw Rachel on her own, she came over and asked if she needed help. So she told Rachel what she needed to do and she was fine.
We sat and chatted to her for a while and then left her waiting for her flight. The flight ended up being half an hour late.
She only had 45 minutes to get to the bus, so with the delay she did get a little stressed about being late. She did however arrive at the bus terminal with time to spare.
It was another scorching hot day again, getting up to 34 (and still being 31 at 7:30 in the evening). So we headed down to the pool at 3pm for a swim. With the pool only 25, the temperature difference to outside was rather large - so I was taking a while to get in. Asher was playing happily with Brendon in the small pool and I was trying to get down the stairs into the big pool, Hezekiah waiting for me to take him in.
Asher had not even had 10 minutes of play when she slipped and went under. She found her footing and got herself up again, but seconds later went stiff.
A 2 minute Tonic seizure followed. I was thankfully close by, so could quickly get her over to our towels and into recovery position. She slept in my arms for about 15 minutes (during which time I took the photo above - Hezekiah being so clever and going in without the tortoise ring - just wings and a board).
Asher had needed more sleep though and after being awake and crying inconsolably, she eventually did get to sleep and when she woke was feeling better. Another late night for her though.


Hezekiah finished dinner early and joined Hannah watching a Tobi movie on my computer. Brendon pointed out where he was sitting.
And seeing me he put on a show (left). I am slowly getting to the point of seeing there is perhaps no point in asking him to not play on the furniture. :-) Boys will be boys. ;-)
Sunday 11th saw Ruth teaching me to make loom band crosses. She decided yesterday afternoon that she wanted to make crosses to take and give out at church. She didn't have enough time to get them ready for last night - but has the goal of getting a whole lot made for next week. It was fun coming up with different colour combinations with her. It was lovely time spent together too.