A Change in Appearance

We had a new milestone yesterday: Judith's first pair of glasses arrived!  We made the trip to the ophthalmologist after speech therapy so she could get them fitted.  In retrospect, I kind of wish I had someone with me so I could get a video of her reaction when we put them on.  The optometrist gave her the case to hold, and the look of wonder as she explored the case that she could see much more clearly was priceless!  I was pretty proud of her: she didn't fuss with them a lot, and left them on her face for the ride home and for the rest of the evening.

Our little scholar

Today was a good day as well.  She did fuss with them a few times, and figured out how to get them off once during dinner, but otherwise she's been leaving them alone.  We'll see how long it lasts, especially after the novelty wears off.  However, I'm optimistic that she will wear them regularly because she'll realize she can see much better with them on.

Annual Eye Exam

Judith's annual eye exam was this morning, and what a fun visit it was (I use "fun" loosely).  The appointment overall went well: they dilated her eyes, and the opthamologist saw that the farsightedness progressed to +4 in her right eye and +4.5 in her left eye.  That's still borderline, but is at the point where they'll start to prescribe glasses to help correct things.  The opthomologist was kind of leaving it up to us about whether we wanted to do it right now or wait a few months, but I told her that Judith's still having issues with color contrast (if things are too similar in color, she doesn't always see where it is) and she said we should go ahead and do this now.  Judith was fit for some cute frames, and will be getting her new glasses in about a week.  I have to say she does look cute in them!  I promise to post a picture or 2 once she has them.

Judith treated her opthamologist just like any other doctor: she was a hot mess from the moment the doc walked into the exam room, and didn't stop until we were at the checkout desk.  I swear you would think we were ripping out her toenails based off of her screams!  I'm glad my mom was there to help.  I really can't wait for the day that she doesn't scream bloody murder at every appointment.  I know the doctors are used to this kind of behavior, but now it's getting embarrassing.  Minnie only worked as a distraction for so long, and I'm starting to be at a loss about what to do with her.  Frequent doctor visits aren't going to ease up, and I'm hoping she'll start adapting to things soon.

Halloween Eye Exam

It's Judith's first Halloween today, so how do we celebrate?  With a follow-up appointment to the opthamologist!

In a previous post, I mentioned that we were monitoring Judith for strabismus.  Much to our relief, it turns out she has pseudostrabismus: it may look like her eyes are crossing, but they really aren't.  It has a lot to do with her facial structure, and as she grows it should go away.

We also learned that we can hold off on getting her glasses for at least another 3 months.  The doctor doesn't think it's necessary to give her glasses right now, but we are closely monitoring how Judith does with the farsightedness.  It's inevitable that she'll end up with glasses in the near future, but I'm hoping to hold off as long as possible in the hopes that it'll be a bit easier to teach her not to rip them off her face when she's older.


Judith didn't go Trick or Treating this year - I thought it would be a bit silly to take her around, and there would only be 2 places we'd go to anyway (our neighbors on either side).  Plus I feel bad getting candy for her when she can't eat it.  That probably sounds completely silly.  Anyway, we did dress her up in her costume for her appointment, and managed to snap a picture of her with the dogs in their costumes:

L to R: Buster (cow, or "Boo Cow"), Judith (pumpkin), Lady (unicorn)

Happy Halloween!

Eye Appointment and A General Blog Announcement

Today we saw a pediatric ophthalmologist to see what's up with Judith's eyes.  Our exam was a bit more comprehensive than the previous one this summer, and I definitely had much better vibes from the staff and doctor at this office!

Basically what we're monitoring her for is something called strabismus.  In a nutshell, strabismus is a condition where the eyes are misaligned, and they can drift inward, outward, upward, or downward.  This is potentially what I have been seeing over the last few months, and what the OT wanted us to have checked.  If this is the case, it could be contributing to Judith's fine motor delays (per the OT).

Judith had her eyes dilated again, and I do feel bad for her; I hate having my eyes dilated, and I know it sucks, but in some ways I'm glad we had an evening appointment because she can hang out in the dark tonight (and sleep of course!).  We know a little more about her farsightedness.  My hunch is more than likely correct: the doctor said that many preemies who have vision problems (especially due to ROP) are nearsighted, so Judith's farsightedness is more than likely genetic, coming from my mom's side of the family.  If she follows our genetic tendencies, she'll probably have an astigmatism (like my mom and I do) and be nearsighted once she gets older.

Anyway.  She's not showing any signs of regression or lingering problems from the ROP.  The little stinker also decided not to let her eyes shift like they were just a few hours before her appointment - they were straight throughout the exam, so the doctor gave me a brochure with some pictures explaining what strabismus and pseudostrabismus look like.  I will have to look at some of her pictures again and see if I can figure out what's up; I'll also have to remember to load some of her recent pictures to my iPod so I can show them to the doctor at our next visit.

As it stands right now, Judith's kind of at an in-between point: she will definitely need glasses in the near future, but right now she can get away without them.  We have another appointment in 6 weeks, and it's possible we could be talking about getting her some glasses to help her out.  Really, it's not a big deal; however, I'm trying to figure out how the heck we're going to keep glasses on her at this age.



I have a general blog announcement.  As you may have noticed, there is a new badge/banner at the very top of my side column.  We are now listed on the site Top Mommy Blogs under the Special Needs section!  It would be awesome if you would vote for us - simply click on the badge, and it will take you to the Top Mommy Blogs home page.  All you need to do is click, and the banner will track your vote.  Pretty simple, right?  I would love to see our blog near the top of the list so we can help raise awareness for prematurity and cystic fibrosis, and to accomplish that we need you to vote!  Thank you so much!

New 9 month Stats

Judith had her 9 month well-baby appointment today, and things are looking good!

Weight: 15 lbs
Length: 24 3/4" (I know that's less than what I posted in her 9 month post, but that's what they got today haha).

Her head is in the 10th percentile, her length still isn't on the charts, and her weight is in the 3rd percentile - all of these are based off of her actual age.  If we went by her adjusted age, her percentiles would've been 25-10-25 respectively.  Her pediatrician and I are happy with her growth, because it's been steady and consistent so far.

She got her last Hepatitis B vaccine, and got her flu shot.  She goes back in a month to get the 2nd dose - she must have 2 doses this year because it's the first time she received it.  She was flat out pissed about being stuck with needles today, but thankfully she got over it quickly and is now sleeping.

We discussed Judith's vision, and her pediatrician noticed right away that something's up.  I got a referral to 3 different opthamologists, so now I need to call and see if they take our insurance and can set up an appointment soon.

Her pediatrician has this year's round of Synagis ordered, and apparently Judith's at the top of their list this year.  Our insurance should cover it (she has to have it because of the CF), and I'm hoping that the MA will pick up any copays from the primary so our out-of-pocket costs will be minimal (if anything at all).

Unless she gets sick, and with the exception of the shots, we don't have to go back until her 1 year well-baby exam.  I'm happy and sad at the same time, because that means I won't have to drag her out in the cold as much, but I'll also have a toddler at that appointment.  She's growing up way too fast!

9 Month Pictures & an Update

As promised, here are some pictures from our 9 month shoot this afternoon, and as a bonus, a couple from this morning!

Judith at 9 months

She LOVES to play the organ! (pardon the blurriness from my moving child)

Proud Daddy!

We may have a future organist on our hands!

As you can see from the pictures, Judith started sticking her tongue out at everyone...again.  And now we have the added benefit of raspberries being blown at us constantly!  I know it's not a real milestone, but I find it humorous, and I'm glad she's mimicking us!

I also learned very quickly how difficult it may be to take pictures of Judith, especially if I would like her to sit still.  This is stemming from one of our newest milestones: Judith is very quickly becoming a mobile baby!  She is creeping all over the place, and is oh-so-close to crawling - she just needs to figure out how to coordinate the movement of her arms and legs, then she'll be off!  She's already taking a big interest in the dogs, and I can't wait to see what will happen once she can crawl after them.  Of course we're starting to teach her how to be gentle with them, and monitor all of them closely while they interact.  I am very grateful that our pups have been through the baby stages before - they had young children in their former home, so they are remembering what it's like.

Lady is very tolerant of Judith, and really loves her!  I am shocked, because Lady is so active and doesn't like to sit still to receive attention from most people.  She wants the attention, but is usually moving while receiving it.  I took this picture the other day when both Judith and Lady were interacting with each other:

Naturally, about a minute later, Lady decided Judith needed some kisses:

I can always tell when Judith's sweating and losing more salt, because the dogs lick her more.

We had our Occupational Therapy (OT) evaluation on Thursday, and overall things are looking good.  We are going to start OT services because Judith is a bit delayed with her fine motor skills, but the therapist didn't see anything overly significant or anything that's going to take a long time to correct.  Basically we're staying on top of things and nipping anything in the bud before it does become a serious problem.

We may have a bigger problem to deal with, though: during the evaluation, the OT confirmed my concern about Judith's eyes.  If you look closely at the first picture of Judith and Lady, you can kind of see what I'm concerned about.  She is crossing them more often, and has to constantly reposition them to focus on something.  If the muscles around the eye are functioning normally, the eyes will follow your movements and readjust themselves without us having to think about it.  What the therapist saw with Judith is her muscles aren't doing this properly, and there's a lag with their movement - she's working and thinking to refocus them herself.  I believe I posted before that we know she's far-sighted; however, since we're concerned and the therapist noticed something's up, we are not going to wait a year to have her checked.  I am going to talk to her pediatrician at her 9 month well-baby check and ask for a referral to a pediatric opthamologist to see (haha) what's up.  I wouldn't think this is caused by the ROP, but I could be wrong.  I'm not even sure if this is a normal preemie thing, or if this is caused by the crappy vision history in our family, and I'm hoping the eye doc can give us some answers.