Our little sleeping beauty woke up and had been replaced by a 100mph energiser bunny

Charlotte Parkes was born in June 2006, a very normal, healthy little girl.
Her mother Sheryl Rush and dad Andrew Parkes say the first six months of her life were uneventful.
But this was Sheryl's second child and she knew that from age 3-months her little girl was sleeping too much.
"She seemed far too placid. My friends would laugh at me and tell me to stop creating a problem, that I was lucky to have such a placid little girl. I even rang Plunket asking about how much sleep a young baby required," she said.
But the parents felt something was not quite right with Charlotte and visits to the doctor became more regular because their daughter wasn't meeting her expected milestones.
"We were always reassured that children develop at their own speed. I always felt relieved each time the same diagnosis came back," Sheryl said.
But when Charlotte was about 15 months old she could not hold her head up or hold a bottle, eat any kind of solids and seemed excessively tired. And those symptoms were accompanied by some jerking movements.
Another local doctor, who knew Andrew, was asked to have a look at Charlotte and he made a referral to the paediatricians at Wanganui Hospital.
But their little girl never made that paediatricians' appointment because about a fortnight later she had a massive seizure at a creche and was taken to hospital.
For the Parkes family that's when their real journey began, in October 2007.
Charlotte was seen by Dr Prema Subrainaman and she was immediately concerned by the toddler's developmental delay, appearance and those seizures.
Tests in Palmerston North indicated the seizure activity was "grossly abnormal" and Charlotte was diagnosed with a very rare form of epilepsy called Wests Syndrome, more commonly known as infantile spasms (it is now called idiopathic epilepsy).
"The biggest concern was the age at which Charlotte was diagnosed. The onset was probably between 6 weeks and 4 months old and she was now almost 16 months old," Sheryl said.
Charlotte began a two-week drug treatment which required painful daily injections with constant monitoring, blood tests and urine tests.
"It was the longest two weeks of mine and Andrew's life. The injections made Charlotte irritable and miserable and she never slept.
"But, after her treatment ceased, the miracle began and within a week Charlotte could hold her own bottle, tolerate solids. She began crawling and then walking at 19 months old.
"Our little sleeping beauty woke up and had been replaced by an energiser bunny that goes 100mph," Andrew said.
The next 12 months were challenging for the Parkes. It was not unusual to be woken six or seven times a night. During bad times Charlotte would sleep a few hours a night and go through every emotion under the sun. But a lot of this behaviour has settled down now.
In February last year Charlotte got access to funding for a speech therapist and a teacher's aide.
"I recall sitting with her and trying to get her to make the noises of animals and thinking this was a mountain too hard to climb. But we've made progress and you can't stop her talking now, even if she is a little hard to understand," Sheryl said.
Now, with medication, Charlotte's episodes of epilepsy are more controlled.
She is one of four children with an older sister, Hollie, and younger sister Izzy and brother, Riva.
Andrew said Hollie had been instrumental in Charlotte's development, working hard to get her to walk and talk, Izzy was her best mate and Riva played his part as well.
Charlotte still has a lot of challenges ahead of her but her parents were sure that with her personality and the love and support she received, she would succeed and be happy.
The Parkes said many had played their part in their daughter's progress but singled out two in particular - her creche (Kiddiecare in Harrison St) and the paediatric ward at Wanganui Hospital.
"The real challenges are the constant feelings of extra guilt, the over-protective instinct you get when you're at the park and you see your child not included and those awful 'why my child?' feelings that come out when you attend a mothers' group.
"But Charlotte brings gifts of another sort and constantly reminds us of what is really important in this world. The little things like hearing her say 'No' so assertively when you ask her to do something, and celebrating her stubbornness," she said. And she said she wanted to challenge people who were walking behind the parents of the Charlottes of this world in the local supermarket to take a fresh look.
"I'm not bothered that she's noisy or running down the aisles at full speed just about, and tossing packets of nappies into the trolley. I'm silently celebrating that she is telling me 'Nappies for Ruru, mum'," Sheryl said.
It's been a hard road and there's a way to go but the Parkes say that scans of Charlotte's brain show that it's normal.
Andrew said it took three years before his daughter could speak one word. That first one was "more".
Charlotte still has random seizures and the specialists have no idea how long they will continue. "Everything will be a challenge for her," he said.