She's got glasses!

Rosemary got her first pair of glasses a couple of weeks ago! Babies in glasses run in our family. I got my first pair of glasses before I was a year. My brother Darren got his at 18 months, like Rosemary. This is why I took her to get her eyes checked.
Rosemary has Amblyopia (just like Darren and I and countless other family members)- which means that she has a lazy eye, or the potential for her eye to become lazy. Which means that one of her eyes is doing all the work and the other one is not engaging. It is SUPER important that she start wearing glasses all the time so that both her eyes are communicating with her brain. If the eye does not communicate with the brain after a while the brain stops sending signals to the eye and then she would be blind in one eye.

Here are a few links about that:

Simple explanation

http://littlefoureyes.com/category/babies-with-glasses/

Amblyopia

http://www.amblyopiakids.com/

And now for a few answers to commonly asked questions:
How does she keep them on?
Well, sometimes she does and sometimes she doesn't. It has been very apparent that the glasses help her! She is actually looking at pictures in books rather than flipping through them. And fortunately she loves to wear hats, so she is more disposed to keeping things on her head and face. I had her wear sunglasses most of last summer so that was good training!
When she is tired she will not leave her glasses on. During the day she will take them off at random and hide them. Although if I ask her where they are she can usually go get them.
These glasses do have a strap behind to hug them to her head. However, they are not on tight so she can easily remove them. She will often take off running or hide her face when I am trying to get them back on her.
The only time she is allowed to have them off is when she is sleeping. When she starts taking them off repeatedly we put her in her bed. (Unless it is bed time, then we just get her ready and put her to bed for the night....it's hard to rub your eyes with glasses on.)


How did the doctor discover her prescription?
We took her to a Pediatric Opthamologist, Dr. Chen in Silverdale.

Most people do not understand that a skilled Pediatric Opthamologist can actually determine a baby's eyesight. It is amazing to watch, and so different from adult exams. Here is a link about an eye exam is done with babies--

http://www.brighteyesnews.com/2007/12/24/an-ounce-of-prevention-is-worth-17-pounds-of-cuteness/

Cecily wore her favorite pair of fake glasses for the occasion! The glasses that Rosemary has are called Miraflex. They very sturdy and made of bendable plastic. I have stepped on them twice...she hides them in interesting places. So far so good. All I have to do is warm them up under some hot water and bend them back in place. I do wish they weren't so loud, they kind of take over her little face! Oh well, I do think they are very cute!

One thing that I am very glad for is that we were able to get transition lenses for her. That means that these same glasses turn into sunglasses for her when she is outside. As a kid I always hated not being able to wear sunglasses, that can be a very uncomfortable situation. Plus we want to keep her eyes as healthy as possible!

Relaxing with Uncle D. She loves to wear that hoodie and always has to have the hood up. It matches her glasses perfectly!