A Day, or two.

I didn't brush my teeth when I went to bed last night.

Cora got her immunizations on Monday and woke up with a fever yesterday morning. I got a message from Jake around noon letting me know that Mammy (his dad's mom) was being taken to Baptist Medical Center in OKC because they thought she had a stroke. Cora was sleeping, so I hopped in the shower, got ready, and we were on our way to meet Vaughn (Jake's dad) and Mammy at the hospital. She looked really good when I got there - she was still in the emergency room. Her left side had gone numb, the numbness worked its way from top to bottom in stages, when she got to Holdenville Hospital, the numbness was gone. They sent her to the city for some tests to make sure there weren't any other clots lingering around her heart or in her corroded arteries.

While we were at the hospital, Cora's temperature got to 101 under her arm (you add a degree to underarm temps to get the oral temp), so it was like 102. I gave her some Tylenol, and then checked it in 30 minutes and it was 101.7 (102.7). I called a nurse at our dr.'s office. She said that it took an hour for Tylenol to work, and she asked if any of the injection sites looked irritated. She had five of them! Four immunizations and the first round of her flu shot. Two sites on one leg looked a little irritated, so I put a warm rag on and waited. When we got home, I gave her more Tylenol, and her temperature kept creeping up. It got to 102.8 (103.8) and I called the dr.'s office, after hours, and they paged the doctor. That was at 9:20. The doctor called at 11:15. He more than doubled the amount of Tylenol and stretched it from every four hours to every six hours. I started that dose at midnight, and we went to bed. Cora woke up crying at 2:40. She cried and cried and cried. It was really for about 20 minutes, but she never cries, so it seemed like forever. Jake gave her a blessing, and she calmed down and slept until 8:30. Her temp was 99.2 (100.2) when she woke up this morning. I gave her some more Tylenol. She is sleeping right now, but was in much better spirits. I hope her fever is completely gone soon!

When I went into the bathroom for my ritual morning tinkle, I discovered my period had returned. My last one was in June 2007. A year and a half with no monthly visitor. I felt like I was 11 again, when I was certain I'd joined the upper echelon of womanhood. As if producing milk wasn't womanly enough. Cora still nurses about every three hours, no matter how much food she eats otherwise, so I'm bit surprised, even though I know she's eating a little less milk because of her solid intake. The presence of a period is either welcome or unwelcome during active family making time. In the year we spent trying for Cora, it was terribly disappointing to see it come again and again and again. Today, not so much. When I noticed it I can't remember if I said, "Oh, wow!" or "Oh, yay!" Jake and I have been pretty open with one another about ditching our "baby every two years" plan. We want a large family, and I day dream a lot about Cora having a little brother or sister around in the near future.

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