"A" needs glasses

Well it all started a few weeks ago when we noticed A was starting to cross one of her eyes out of the blue. After a week of worry and trying to get into see a pediatric ophthalmologist we are now wearing a patch for 6 hours a day and glasses full time. Apparently A's vision is terrible and she began crossing her right eye (the one with the worst vision) in an attempt to focus. This crossing if not treated could have caused her to completely lose vision in that eye. Scary stuff. We are now patching the "lazy" eye in a attempt to keep it from crossing on a more permanent basis. She has been a real trooper and never once complained about the patch or the glasses for that matter. We had no idea that things were as bad as they were and she is truly now seeing the world for the first time. The "lazy" or crazy eye as we call it is getting better each day and she is loving her glasses. I on the other hand don't really like seeing my sweet little girl wearing glasses, but know that is what's best for her. I think in part is they make her look so grown up and I am not ready to part with my "baby". I keep getting visions of her shipping off to Harvard at any moment :)

She has made the change with amazing grace and takes each day completely in stride. I wish I could say the same for me. I think I am coming around though as to see her without glasses only after 3 days she looks strange to me without them. They day she got them was like she was really seeing me for the first time. As I strapped her into her car seat she sat and stroked my face and tugged at my hair. She has done this a million times before, but this time it was different. We got home and she sat outside just staring at the trees and grass like she had never seen them before. The real biggy for me was that she began to pick up pebbles and sticks to put in her little car. Something we had seen G and C do a million times, but this was a first for A. Makes me wonder if this is the first time she had seen them. It was a bittersweet moment for me.

Each day continues to bring new challenges and joys. We will have both C and G screened in the next month since the poor vision A has can be hereditary and due to prematurity. So it makes the other two more at risk. We are hoping they will be free of any big vision issues. We know that G has astigmatism (where the eye isn't perfectly round) and he is more at risk for glasses later on. So guess we will find out soon. What is so strange to both Walter and I is that we literally had no idea about her vision. Kids have such an amazing ability to compensate in areas where they are lacking and we are so thankful we finally caught it when we did.