I lived in FL for more than 10 years so I've lived through some pretty powerful storms and more than my share of Hurricanes. This storm, a Derecho, had me a little nervous.
They predicted 80-90 mph winds and clocked one at Dulles Airport at 71 mph. About 10:30 I looked out the front door and you could see it coming over the bus parking lot and football field across the street. It was like a wall moving toward us and when it hit the power lines, booms and sparks and that's all she wrote. We lost power.
We've been having some ridiculous heat wave and 105 degree temps so this was not the time to lose AC. The heat was bearable overnight and the girls were able to sleep. Curt was up and down since without power his cpap machine is useless. Also, the battery backup for his computer kicked in and beeped for a few hours.
In the morning I got up and assessed the damage. We made out ok. Three of our neighbors had big tree issues. Two with giant limbs down and one where a tree went through a fence. Still, the temp was bearable. The girls and I hung out and ate in the TV room, which has the most doors and windows so we got a decent cross-breeze.
Then the battery backup for the Verizon Fios started beeping for a few hours. I put the girls in minimal clothes and back in their beds for morning naps.
In the meantime Curt went on the hunt for ice. He got a few bags and we broke them up into small bags and packed Cailyn's refrigerator and our regular fridge to try and save what we had. Cailyn's coconut and almond dairy is really expensive and I had just gone to the store the night before and stocked up on all this meat I was going to break into smaller packets and freeze. Now we were in danger of losing it all.
Of course as I was in the Kitchen figuring out the Food situation, the battery backup for the home alarm started going off. I couldn't escape BEEPING.
I invited some friends over for a BBQ and I cooked about 10lbs of chicken, 3 lbs of burgers, hot dogs, Italian sausage, a real carnivore feast. Of course as soon as I finished cooking the power came back on. I was able to freeze a few things and made a batch of Cailyn's food purees to freeze.
We were lucky, a little over 12 hours with no power. Our large stand alone freezer stayed frozen and I didn't lose the small supply of breast milk I've accumulated for Miranda. Also lucky that none of Cailyn's seizure medicine has to be compounded and kept cold anymore. If that had been the case I would have freaked out and maybe even rented a hotel.
While on the hunt for ice, Curt got a battery powered pump so we were able to blow up the little pool we got for the girls. We figured it would be a good way to cool down if the power loss went on too long. We ended up taking them in Saturday early evening.
The reports are saying some areas could be without power through late Friday. It's just insanity that it could take that long to get things up and running.
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| My poor Mummy baby. |
She can sleep ANYWHERE, ANYTIME and through ANYTHING. But she seems to only sleep like 4-6 hours and is wide awake. This makes it rough and she ends up sleeping at school. So we did the study last night. She feel asleep so easily, about 8 pm. I heard her stirring at midnight and then at 3 it was as if the Dance Party started and Cailyn was the only one with the invite. She was flapping her arms and wiggling up a storm and kept going full speed.
There was little chance I could go back to sleep, I think I dozed a few times but I'm exhausted. Good thing I took today off from work anyway. Not how I wanted to spend it, but I think a nap will be on my agenda.
At 5:45 I went in to the tech and asked if we could just unhook her. He said she had to stay hooked up until 6. So, of course, as I'm driving home bleery-eyed she passes out at 6:30.
In two weeks we'll have a followup and see if there is any physical reason she has these sleep patterns. She could have apnea. A few options are tonsil and adenoid removal or cpap machine. It could also be her seizures. Lots of kids with seizures and special needs in general have horrible sleep/wake patterns and in that case, there's not much to do.
Maybe find a therapist who can do a session with her at 4 am?
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