The World Through Bella's Eyes

So it is not a very widely known fact that both Sean and I have very bad eyes.  I am extremely far-sighted and Sean nearly has lost all of the vision in one of his eyes; we both have a variation of a group of eye conditions collectively referred to as "lazy eye."  I started wearing glasses as a toddler and wore a patch for many years as a child.  Sean started wearing glasses at a very young age as well; although his overall vision is nowhere near the mess mine is.  So with that in mind, the two of us agreed to be very proactive when it came to monitoring Bella's eyes; we promised each other to do everything we could to ensure that we protect Bella's vision and eye health.

 

This promise meant that we would have a constant dialogue with Bella's pediatrician and be diligent about following whatever direction she gave us.  So this meant we took Bella to a pediatric ophthalmologist shortly after her 1st birthday.  The doc confirmed what we knew was inevitable, but we hoped and prayed wouldn't be the case.  Bella has her Mommy's eyes.  At 12 months old, her vision was still developing rapidly and could have improved, so we were told to pay close attention and come back in six months unless we noticed any measurable shift in her eyes (in which case we would go back sooner). 

 

Nothing changed and she seemed to be able to see well.  She could find the tiniest thing on the carpet, but last month we were scheduled to go in for her 18 month check-up.  The doctors confirmed that her vision had gotten worse and it was time to help her out and get her in some glasses.  Her vision should eventually even out, but as infants and toddlers their ocular development is very dynamic.

 

In keeping our promise to ourselves and our little girl, we immediately walked into the optical department and selected Bella's first pair of glasses.  She wasn't entirely sure how she felt about the process and didn't really show any interest in keeping any of them on her face until she found this pair.

 

She kept these on, so this was the pair we selected.  Ever since the day we picked them up with her lenses in place, she has not fought having them for more than a couple minutes total over the past two weeks.  My Mom said I acted the same way when I got my glasses.  I mean why would you want to fight it when you can finally see how beautiful the world is ... that and they are very stylish!