In Which I Play With Power Tools And Connor Has Some Seizures, But Thankfully Not At The Same Time

Well today was sort of a mixed bag.

Connor stayed up until 3:30 in the morning last night, which I did not particularly appreciate.  I let him sleep in until the last possible minute before waking him up for school, and believe me when I say that this was not entirely for his benefit.  After I gave him his morning medication (through his g-tube, so he could sleep through it) I went back to bed and I got up about five minutes before he did. 

He kept his eyes squeezed shut in protest and pretended like he was asleep (only asleep sitting up, clapping his hands and singing to himself, of course) from the time we pulled into the school parking lot, where he immediately perked up and was his normal, happy self.  He apparently thoroughly enjoyed himself at school, and had a great day. 

I considered going back to bed after I dropped Connor off, but I really had a lot of things I wanted to get done outside while he was at school.  So I went and found myself some caffeine, after which I came back home and spent some time out in the backyard with a measuring tape.  Then I sat down at the kitchen and drew up plans for an arbor.  We've decided to put one in the backyard over the wheelchair ramp to separate the side yard from the backyard and make the area more attractive, and I think I'm going to try and tackle the project on my own!  If I can manage to build this thing without really screwing up or losing any major body parts, it'll be the first thing I'll have made using power tools all on my own.  Luckily it doesn't have to be terribly sturdy because we're putting a plant called akebia vine on it, which is really light and pretty self-supporting.  Akebia vine is a shade tolerant, fast grower with interesting foliage.  It's also highly invasive in the southeastern states, (so don't plant it if you live there) but is nicely behaved here.  So if I end up with a rickety mess, at least the plant will be forgiving. 

Anyway, I drove down to the hardware store and picked up the supplies I needed for the basic framework of the arbor.  I ran into bit of a snag when I discovered that instead of the ten foot cedar posts I needed and knew would fit in Rowbert The Wheelchair Van (I measured!) all they had were the eight foot and twelve foot posts.  The eight foot wouldn't work because this is going over a wheelchair ramp, which is raised a couple of feet off the ground.  If I sink the posts a foot and a half into the ground than there would only be four and a half feet of clearance to walk under the arbor, which would mean that Connor (and possibly Ellen) would be the only ones in this family not having to bend over to walk under the thing.  So I had to go home with the twelve foot posts instead.  They were about a foot too long to fit in the van, and so I ended up driving home really slowly with the warning lights on and the trunk open.  Fun times.

But anyway, I've got all the pieces cut out for the top of the arbor and the four main poles, and tomorrow while Connor's in school I'll go back for the lattice work and start drilling pilot holes so I can put the whole thing together.  Hopefully I'll be able to stain it on Thursday and then Jeremy and I can put it in the ground this weekend and I'll be able to complete my plantings in the side yard.  Then (other than the mulching) we'll have one part of the yard totally finished!

So I was feeling pretty good about what I'd accomplished so far today when I went to pick Connor up from school.  He and I both took a much-needed nap and slept for a couple hours, which was pretty fantastic.  Then the day started going downhill.  Between three in the afternoon and seven at night, Connor had four seizures.  Also he threw up on my shoes. 

This comes totally out of the blue; I don't know if they were triggered by him not having enough sleep, or if he's getting sick or what.  At any rate, despite sleeping after each seizure he was exhausted by the end of the day and went down quietly and quickly.  It looks like he's probably going to sleep through the night.

So we'll see what he looks like tomorrow morning; I'm hoping that he'll be feeling better.  Otherwise my grandiose arbor-building plans might need to be put on hold for a while until we figure out what's going on with the little guy.  He likes to keep me on my toes!

~Jess