I thought Preeclampsia would be the end of it........

But there was more in store for me. On Thursday, I noticed my eye was watering constantly. I thought I might be getting pink eye or something and I made sure to avoid touching my face and kissing my daughter (that second one was extremely difficult) until I could get to the doctor. Friday morning I woke up expecting to find my eye matted shut and full of gunk (unfortunately I've experienced pink eye before). That was not the case however. I noticed it was harder for me to talk. My mouth didn't feel right and my eye wouldn't even blink anymore. I called the doctor and made an appointment for that afternoon. My mom said "It looks like Bell's Palsy". By the time I made it to the doctor, it had gotten worse. I was slurring and my mouth was even more numb. The doctor did a bunch of reflex type tests and told me that he was 90% sure it was Bell's Palsy BUT he wanted to consult with a nurosurgeon to see if it was necessary to go to the ER to have a CT Scan of my head and make sure that I hadn't had a stroke. I looked at my mom and then my daughter (who were both in the room with me) and broke down in tears. WHY?! Why can't things just got back to normal? Why can't I just spend time with my new baby girl and take care of her?

I told the doctor that my daughter was only 4 days old and I was breastfeeding. She needed to be nursed every 2-3 hours. I wasn't comfortable going to the ER and having to sit there for hours on end and I sure as heck wasn't about to take my newborn into an ER full of sick people (RSV is going around here REALLY bad. There are a ton of sick kids right now). He said he would make a phone call and see if they could accomadate me. I was grateful, but still concerned.

We drove home, I fed Hunter real quick and put her in her swing and Josh and I left for the ER. When we got there, it was packed! Standing room only! I almost just turned and walked back to the car. I was so frustrated and just wanted to go home to my daughter and make sure she was able to eat when she needed to. But I trudged on anyway, no matter how hard it was.

We walked in and I went to the registration window and explained my situation. I let the lady know that my primary doctor and sent me and had already arranged a CT Scan with Dr. Angie in the ER. As soon as I finished explaining everything to her she turns around and yells:

"Possible Stroke!"

Uhhhhh okay, now everyone is staring at me and my crazy pirate eye.

She tells me to wait and the nurse will be out to get me. I was taken back immediately for which I was extremely relieved. Maybe it wouldn't take long after all. To make a long story short, I had a CT Scan which was completely normal. I was diagnosed with Bell's Palsy and given a prescription for Prednisone (a steroid) that I have to take for a week. And yes, I can still breastfeed with it. 2 hours later we were on our way home. Since the hospital was full of sick kids with RSV, Josh and I stripped down outside our bedroom and ran and jumped in the shower. You can never be too cautious with a newborn in the house and I wasn't about to get my baby girl sick. Just thinking about her being in ANY pain makes me want to cry.

So yeah, I have a lopsided face now, which you don't really notice (other than the one eye blinking) until I start laughing or smiling. Whatev's........I'm a mommy and that makes it all better!

Here's some new pics of my baby girl!

She always covers her face with her hands when she sleeps! So precious! She even did it during her 3D ultrasound.

Today, after her bath wearing her headband from Halle Jean