The Eyes Have It

 *Part one of what led us to glasses.

We had Lily's follow up eye appointment this week.  The glasses have been great and she has no issue wearing them at all! Patching is still a struggle some days and realistically we haven't patched every single day.  I'd say we average 4 days a week for 2 hours those days. I'm currently working on an incentive chart for her that will hopefully help her not struggle with it and for me to be more consistent.  We were originally to go back for a check up 6 months from her initial visit, which should have been March, but when I had finally called June 3, was the first we could get in.

George and I were again nervous because we had noticed some additional things happening with her eyes recently.  Her left eye was still crossing when she'd have her glasses off, more significantly still when she was tired.  We had both separately noticed that her right eye started doing the same.  My heart sank.

Yesterday morning when Lily was getting dressed and she didn't have her glasses on, I was walking toward her and she said laughing, "There's two of you!" Her eyes were crossed.  Again, heart sinking.

All this time, my suspicion growing that she'll need surgery.

We met up with Stef and her little ones for lunch and to play beforehand which turned out to be the best distraction for both of us, as her 14 year old cat died that morning and I was pretty anxious about this eye follow up. Yay for the best of friends!

When we walked into the new office --they were in a temporary office during our first visit-- Lily was thrilled to see Cars 2 playing on the tv!  She immediately made her way over to the toys and played with her familiar trucks and blocks.  The kid has an incredible memory and before we'd even gotten there she asked me about those toys!  Hanging on the wall was a Little Mermaid print which she immediately spotted and exclaimed joyfully about.  She was in heaven! One of her fave movies playing and Ariel on the wall.

We made our way to the exam room where she had her eyes checked again telling what pictures were on the cards shown to her.

After she did the initial exam, she had her eyes dilated and we had to wait 20 minutes for that to do its job, so we headed back out to the waiting area aka the trucks, blocks and movie.  Well, Cars 2 had ended, so a new movie was put on. Again, a dream come true for Lily...Frozen!  We moved back into an exam room after the dilation period was up and she was still able to watch her movie.

Nursing cover turned Elsa cape...

 Frozen was a great way for Dr. Cheng to have her focus on something far away.

Checking out her eyes when she's looking and focusing closer.

Because her eyes were dilated, she was having difficulty seeing and kept trying to adjust her eyes and saying, "Mommy, my eyes can't see right." 

I love this picture!

I expressed our observations about her other eye turning and Lily saying just that morning she could see two of me and Dr. Cheng was wonderfully reassuring that all of that were actually good things!  The other eye turning shows that her brain is still using both eyes to see and not just one. And the blurriness she experienced without her glasses on is the same thing--both of her eyes are working. I asked about swimming and how to handle that and he said she was perfectly fine to swim without glasses and just wear them if she were out of the pool playing, but in the water, she's fine to go without.

He said she's still far sighted and her eyes are perfectly straight wearing her glasses when she's looking far away, but wants to bump up her prescription a little because she's still turning on that original eye when she's focusing closer.  He also said this is all very normal and she's doing exactly as he'd hoped.

So we'll continue patching just 5 days a week 1 to 2 hours a day, get her some new glasses and see him again in about 4 months!

Lily was so good through this whole appointment! Polite, moved from waiting room to exam room to waiting room to exam room without issue, answered questions directly. I could not have been prouder of her!

I Can See Clearly Now

Last summer, shortly after Lily's 3 year old well visit to the pediatrician, we started noticing Lily's left eye turning in a  bit when she was tired, so we headed back to the doctor where I mentioned what we had seen. { love her!}  She checked her eyes and saw what we were talking about and recommended we see a pediatric opthalmologist reassuring us that it doesn't have to mean worst case scenario.  We immediately called to make the appointment, but still were unable to get in for a few weeks.  Of course between the pediatrician visit and the opthalmologist visit, I broke my ankle, Andrew broke his wrist, and of course I was still in my 31+ weeks of pregnancy.

Lily's eye actually began turning more frequently and more significantly, but again, mostly when she was tired. The thing is, it's tricky to tell really because kids do weird things with their eyes and when it's slight, you're not entirely sure you actually see it or if it's just a quick focusing thing. 

This picture (2 days before her appointment), she had just woken up. Her left, your right.

The day of her appointment, George and I were both pretty nervous. The possibility of having something wrong with our baby's vision was pretty scary.   There were a lot of trucks and blocks to play with in the waiting area and when it came time to go back to an examination room, Lily didn't want to give up the truck, so the truck came too.   In the first part of the exam, Lily had to cover each eye and name the black and white object on a card as they moved further and further away.

This was reviewing the cards to see if she knew what the pictures were to start with.

I loved this! She was examining her baby doll's eyes the same way, but using a block to cover one eye.

Dr. Cheng is so good with kids!! We are thrilled to have found him!

The determination of the exam is that she is farsighted.  When she's focusing on something close, her left eye turns in/crosses because it is unable to focus clearly. The concern with that is without correction, eventually the brain stops using the eye and vision is lost in that eye.  So, we left with a prescription for glasses and instructions to patch her "good eye"  1-2 hours a day to strengthen the weaker one.  Dr. Cheng did say it's possible for her to outgrow her glasses as she grows.  Considering everyone in her family wears glasses, we were hopeful it would be an easy transition for her.  Luckily it was!

We picked up a temporary patch on the way home until we could find some more information about patching.  Patching has been the most difficult part of the whole thing. Some days she doesn't complain, some days it's like torture.  We also went that same afternoon to order glasses for her.  She picked them herself because we wanted her to be comfortable in them so she'd wear them!  I think she did perfectly!

Follow-up appointment coming up...

3 Year Visit to the Doc

Continuing our celebration of  threeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

Lily had her 3 year well visit this week with our favorite pediatrician!  I love well visits to the doctor! Love to see how much my kids have grown.  :)

Our sweet Lily was very serious throughout this appointment which is very different than her typical joyful, rambunctious self.  She was still kind and polite and very sweet every time she spoke to anyone. But yeah, serious. haha

 

Lily measured 38.5 inches tall which is the 90th percentile and weighed 33 pounds which is 75%.  It's consistent with how she's been growing the majority of her life.  As Dr. Kelly and I were talking about height, she looked up some info and Lily is the height of an average 4 1/2 year old!  I knew she was tall, but whoa.

 

Lily apparently was done listening to her doctor and I discuss potty training, height, eating habits etc. and said to Dr. Kelly, "Can you listen to my heartbeat, please?"    It made me laugh!  So, we moved onto the physical part of her visit. 

 

Lily asked for her eyes to be checked out again and then wanted to check out Blue's eyes too. She was very thorough. Thank you, Dr. Lily.

 

She is growing perfectly! Active, confident, verbal, intelligent, capable.  Lily told Dr. Kelly she loves Daniel Tiger, twirling, singing and her daddy.  She is healthy and that simply makes me happy. 

 

I'm so grateful to LOVE her pediatrician and she was exactly what even I needed in Lily's early weeks when we struggled with her gaining weight, with her jaundice.  We're so grateful to have found her!  Next time we see her {hopefully} will either be for a flu shot or for the new baby's early visit depending on when the baby arrives in October. :) 

 

Here's an early picture of them when Lily was just 2 months old...

 

...and 4 months old.

 





Our Early Friday

Happy Friday!  Seriously the weather right now is AWESOME!! I'm super excited about it since yesterday was miserably hot and humid. It's funny how once I moved away from Arizona the weather became such a prevalent topic. {random thought}

Sidenote: Andrew had a hockey game last night. George and Reagan went while Mama stayed home and put Lily to bed after a crankypants screamfest and I still managed almost two hours of time by myself. Heavenly! Andrew scored a goal ~ the first of the game actually, but they lost.  He always scores when I'm not there. hmmmm....

Reag was excited this morning when she woke up because it is not a typical Friday for her.  First thing, she gets to ride the bus home instead of going to BM's tonight, so she was excited about the bus riding. Secondly, and the reason she is coming home tonight...she is going to a slumber party for her best friend! Waaaahhhhhooooo! Yep, she's actually going!  We're excited for her to be home for the couple hours before the party too. She headed out the door to catch the bus on a Friday morning smiling for the first time all year.

Lily was really cute this morning when she woke up...chatting away talking about the "fa-woooot" on her dress and sitting down on the bottom step near Reagan, "Hi sisssss eeeee!"  Reag happened to be wearing her "Big Sisters Rock" shirt today. Fitting. :)

With the big kids gone, I headed up to get ready for the day.  Lily decided she'd keep me company and try something new to play with.  Yesterday it was a box of tampons spread all over the bathroom floor. Today: 

She's clearly in touch with her femininity.

Finally, Lily and I headed to the doc this morning for her ear recheck from her ear infection.  After the last two nights of screaming at bedtime, I was anticipating full-fledged ear infection.  I've since learned that although her ear is inflamed, but is not filled with pus {*gag me word* and DO NOT google to see how to spell it correctly ohmahgahd} that a lot of her bedtime stuff is, in fact, teeth and stubbornness.

"boo! mama!"

We headed to pick up her antibiotic then stopped to get her lunch at McD's...something we rarely do, so she wasn't even sure what to do. But, she kept saying, "Hi fry!" so I'm guessing she was happy. :)

Glad it wasn't worse and hopefully this time we'll kick it completely out so it doesn't return. The weather hasn't been helpful with kicking her cold, so hopefully that'll even out soon too!

Checking Out 18 Months

18 months.

One and a half years.

More than half way to two.

Wednesday, we headed to the doctor for Lily's 18 month well visit.

I always love well visits to see how much she weighs, how tall she is, and to hear her pediatrician gush all over and about her. 

She weighs in at 24 pounds, she's 32.5 inches tall, and she has a head circumference of 48cm. That translates to 50% for weight, 75% for height and 90% for head. :)  She got two shots, which, of course she doesn't love.

She showed off lots of her skills to Dr. Kelly to prove she's developmentally appropriate. Everything else looks great too as far as her health. She's perfect. ;)   We discussed potty training and how we're going to approach that. To be introduced soon based on Lily's actions.

Lily is a milk drinker. I mean a MILK drinker. She wants more milk ALL.DAY.LONG. I wanted to be sure we're not giving her too much.  Turns out  she drinks slightly more than what's recommended, but we're doing the right thing to counter the potential constipation that could result, so it balances out and she's doing great! Her growth curve is right on track for her.

Our visit was short and sweet.

Lily is growing and doing very well. Barring no sick visits, we're not back to the doctor until she is two for a well child check up. Two?  slow down baby girl!

Busy Week & New Glasses

Yesterday my computer had some crazy stuff going on. I think it was a virus or something. My husband was able to get it fixed up and squared away, thankfully.  I had emails I needed and wanted to reply to, some blog posts to write and some research to do, but it all had to wait.  I'm still having trouble with a photo program and it's driving me crazy, but he says he can fix it, however he said "Do not mess with it. I stress...do not mess with it." ha  He knows my impatience with it.

Anyway....

This week flew by since it was busy and thus starts hectic life for the next few weeks all over again. 

Andrew and Reagan  were off school on Monday and Tuesday.  When there's no school on Mondays and Fridays, Reag is at BM's house, so we were all happy she was here Tuesday since we have only a couple non-school days that are not Mondays or Fridays.  We had parent-teacher conferences on Monday for both of them.

I LOVE Andrew's teachers! 6th grade is tougher than previous years i.e. he actually has to work harder and the As don't come as easily for him.  There are three 6th grade classes and they split all the kids into high, middle, low groups and rotate to all 3 teachers for different subjects.  They did it in 5th grade too, so he's used to it and it seems to work for all the students for their needs to be met.  We're happy with it and it's been good for Andrew, they all think he's a good kid--they just wish he'd volunteer to participate more.  Plus, it's a good practice for when he goes to junior high next year. OHMYGOODNESSSSSSS junior high! Too fast.

Reagan is doing well in school also and her teacher said she has transitioned to her new school fabulously! We hope she continues doing as well the rest of the school year and fully expect that to be the case.  Her teacher has shared with us many times that she thinks Reag could run the class. :)

On Tuesday after we picked Reagan up at BM's, we headed to the Holiday Shop at school for the olders to do their Christmas shopping.  I cracked up that both Andrew and Reagan independently picked out the same thing for George.  

We also did some raking of the billions of leaves in our yard. We knew we were in for only a couple more really good fall days before the weather turned cold...again, so we wanted to make sure we got them cleaned up and just did it all together. Lily just practiced walking back and forth and had zero interest in being held or helped. Yes, my girls are doing yard work in skirts. :) 

Having grown up in Arizona with no leaves, I don't mind raking them either. It was a nice afternoon with beautiful weather and fun for the 5 of us to hang out not trying to cram typical school day responsibilities into and still have some leftover family time. We had an enjoyable day finished off by supper and playing Uno before the kids went to bed.

Reagan also had an eye doctor appointment this week since we got notice she didn't pass the school vision screening.  I forgot my camera, so I only got cell phone pics of her visit. :(  She thought the sunglasses they gave her to wear since her eyes were dilated were fun and kept cracking up at herself in the mirror.  The funniest part while we waited was when she said, "I hope we make it back to school for lunch. We're having a really good chicken sandwich today."  ha!  We made it just in time. 

We found out she's near sighted and definitely needs glasses.  She was super excited to pick out glasses when she found out she needed them! We waited until the next day for her to pick out frames so she could see better after her eyes were dilated and because she wanted her dad to be there.  She can't wait for them to come in.  When she came home from school, she said she'd told her friends she needs glasses and couldn't wait to pick them out too!

She's a lucky kid because quite honestly, she looked good in every pair of glasses she put on. Obviously some were better than others, but we told her to pick what she liked, what she felt comfortable wearing.  She tried them all on and then started narrowing down.

Her final choice:

After picking out glasses, last night we ended our week with a family movie night of Cars 2.  We're looking forward to a relaxing weekend.

*I've begun watermarking particular pictures as I have had several ip addresses downloading photographs of Reagan recently.

On the Mend

We headed back to the pediatrician yesterday after the rash breakout. 

I had stopped giving Lily the amoxicillin Sunday when we first saw her rash, so by the time we'd gone to the doctor, she had missed two doses and still had the rash.

The GREAT news we learned is that her ears had cleared up in just 3 days with the antibiotics!  She's a strong little sucker. :)

And because of that, we didn't need another antibiotic to try while we let this amoxicillin leave her system.  Her temperament is totally normal, she's just a little rashy and of course, it's more pronounced after her bath or when her skin is warmer, like in her footie jammies. 

The good thing is, it doesn't seem to be causing her discomfort for the most part. I noticed after I took her clothes off last night, she was rubbing around trying to scratch her back.  So, we gave her some benadryl before bed.  She slept great.  This morning her rash is minimal. We'll see after her bath tonight how it is.

Her daddy and I are both allergic to penicillin, so I'm not surprised by her reaction. :)

I'm happy she's blessed with a super strong immune system like Andrew and myself. The doctor was suprised how quickly her ears had cleared up.  While I'm pretty opinionated about strong versus weak immune systems, suffice to say environment is as important as genetics.

Yay for a babe on the mend!

1 Year Doctor Appointment

 

Today, Lily had her one year check up. As always, we love to see Dr. Kelly! I mean, come on, who doesn't love to see someone who tells you your baby is perfect???

Lily weighed in at 20.5 pounds and as you can see above, she was VERY excited about it! ;) That puts her weight in the 35%.  She's 30 inches long which is 75% and she has a head that measures 46.5cm. Her head circumference is 90% to house that big growing brain of hers, of course. ;)

I've mentioned before that Lily is working on A LOT of teeth at one time. It's now SEVEN! Dr. Kelly said that when the front teeth are delayed coming in it's because of strong gums, so that was good to learn. She was happy with her strength and development.

I learned the average age for walking is 13 1/2 months and I am A-ok with whenever it happens for Lily! We know it's soon because she is doing everything except actually taking the steps--standing, cruising, letting go, getting up without holding onto anything. It's going to be soon!

The one thing Dr. Kelly said that made me laugh because it was so on target for Lily's personality was, "It seems like she's a mix of easy going with a little bit of dramatic." That is EXACTLY right!

We talked about food, milk, bottle, carseats, shots, talking, walking, blood work, and teeth.

We stopped using bottles officially last week. She had a pretty easy transition to the sippy cup which we were thrilled with. Again, something I didn't push early and still met my goal of being done when she turned one. The paci will follow soon, but with the mouthful of teeth she's working on and an upcoming trip, it will be a few weeks. She usually uses it just for sleeping anyway, so I'm hoping it's pretty easy when we do it. *crossing fingers*

There were 3 vaccinations given today. And they were sad. :(  But, the pretzel she got afterwards cheered her up...not before I captured her big tears though.

She napped after we got home for 3 hours. Between her shots and her birthday party yesterday, she was one exhausted baby girl.  So was her mama. ;)

Birthday posts and party pics soon!

9 Month Doctor Visit

We headed to the doctor for Lily's 9 month well visit and to recheck her ear from her ear infection.  I love well visits! I love to see how much she weighs and how tall she is.  Bonus for 9 months is no shots! 

This was her first big time where Stranger Danger came in to full effect! Typically she has just cried with men, but no more.  She showed terror just getting her head measured. :)

Even for her weight check, she was still pretty apprehensive. :)

Finally, there was no holding back the screams!

We headed into the room to wait for Dr. Kelly and Lily found a way to completely occupy and entertain herself.  Paper!

She was pretty intense with the paper. :) It was fun to watch!

Dr. Kelly had nothing but great things to say about Lily and her growth!

Her ear was healed from the previous infection, she has two teeth starting to come in, and we talked about introducing her to more foods, but reminding me what to avoid.

The visit was short and sweet since we have a perfect little baby girl. ♥

9 month stats:

18lbs. 7 ounces (45%)

29 inches (90%)

45.7 cm (90%)