Eye report

On Monday Sue and I packed Payton in the car and trekked north up to OHSU in Portland for Payton's eye appointment. She's had an eye appointment every 2-6 months since she was 3 months old, so we're pretty much veterans at this by now! Sue took the day off to come with me and be an extra set of hands, which I was so appreciative of. It's not that Payton is a big handful or anything, but it is wonderful to have the help, not to mention the company. They only dilate the eyes once a year to check her prescription, so I'm always anxious as to what he's going to say. I'm not sure why, because the report is usually about the same!

I told Payton when she woke up where we were going, and she was not too thrilled, to say the least (don't you just love hearing "I don't WANT to go!"). We tried to make it a special day; we all got Dutch Brothers for the car ride up (Payton LOVES getting a hot chocolate!), and she picked Red Robin to go out to lunch afterwards. She was fine once we got there, the only part she really didn't like was the eye drops, but I didn't think that she would. I don't like those either! I was so relieved that she sat nicely in my lap and cooperated, it makes the appointment go so much smoother. Plus, I wanted to make sure that they got an accurate look at her eyes!

After Dr. Karr examined her he said that her vision is pretty stable, maybe a quarter of a power worse, but within the margin of error so he wouldn't change the prescription on her glasses. I probably haven't explained this very well before, so just skip to the next paragraph if you don't care to hear all the technical jargon :) People who are far sighted have a plus sign in front of their prescription, people who are near sighted have a negative sign. They refer to the prescription in "powers", the higher the number the worse the eye sight, usually going up in increments of .25. For example, when I went to the eye doctor last year, my prescription was +0.75 (slightly far sighted, not bad enough for correction). Dr. Karr said that an average child Payton's age is usually around +1.5 in their eyes. Payton's eye prescription, on the other hand, is +5.25 (definitely in need of correction). So what Dr. Karr does is writes her an order for glasses but only +3.5 power; that way, she can see the same as an average child, and her eyes are still trying to work to get better. If he just corrected her to perfect vision, then her eyes wouldn't work at all to improve, which makes sense.

So he kept her distance prescription the same, but said that the astigmatism that he has noticed the last few appointments has gotten progressively worse, and that it now needs to be corrected too. He said it's in the range where it could now affect her vision, so that will be included in her glasses this time. He couldn't say for sure why her eyes are developing the astigmatism; she had it as an infant, but it was the hemangioma pushing on her eye that caused it. Who knows! I'm just so thankful we live in a day and age where they can figure this stuff out and we can take care of it!

I also asked him while we there if he had any recommendations for when to check the eyes of a sibling, because I said we were having another baby this summer. I wasn't sure if we only checked him if we noticed something wrong, or maybe before he starts school, or maybe just along with everyone else. He said that he actually recommends that siblings be screened for vision problems at the age of one year. He said they do the same exam, dilate their eyes and check the prescription. I'm glad I asked, because I didn't realize they would want to see him so young. I guess it runs in families so strongly that they are just proactive and always check.

Anyway Payton did great, she was so cute. She pointed to the doctor's lab coat and asked what it was, and when I told her she said "oh, well I have a rain coat!" We thought that was pretty adorable! He said he wanted to see her again in 6 months for a check-up. It was weird, while I was scheduling the appointment I got out my phone to check my schedule for 6 months away and then I realized... I'll be on maternity leave! Pretty freshly on maternity leave actually, so no plans. It was nice though to just make the appointment for whatever day and whatever time, knowing that I won't have to worry about missing work or even Kyle coming with me (since it will be in the summer). Made me excited for the times ahead! :)

Afterwards we had lunch at Red Robin, then did some quick shopping before heading back home. It was a long day, but we made it fun and had a good time!

I am 17 weeks now, and one of the fun milestones of pregnancy happened yesterday: I officially felt him move! I've been wondering if I've felt it for a couple days now, but last night while I was laying in bed I know for sure I felt him. It is such a neat and wondrous feeling being able to feel that for the first time! This week his skeleton is changing from soft cartilage to bone, and the umbilical cord is growing thicker and stronger. Baby is about the size of an onion or a turnip this week, about 6" long and 7 or so ounces. He can now move all of his joints, and sweat glands are starting to develop (nice!).

I had a doctor appointment this morning, and everything went very well. I gained a couple pounds since my last appointment, bringing my total weight gain to about 5.7 pounds for the whole pregnancy so far. Definitely a lot less than last time! I'm being much more conscious of what I'm eating this time, so it's nice to know that it's helping (although those super bowl snacks this weekend probably didn't help at all!). She said the results of my quad screen (a blood test I did last week) were normal, which is awesome. One less worry on my list! She asked me if I had scheduled my VBAC appointment yet, and I said that I did, it was just a few weeks away. We talked a little bit about what they allow during c-sections, which has been one of my big questions. I feel like if I were to have a c-section I would be missing out on certain things, such as skin to skin contact after birth and being able to try to breastfeed right away. She said that they actually have no problem with that and do allow that with c-sections, the baby would just have to have a quick exam with the pediatrician first after they take him out. She said if I want that I just have to make sure to have everyone know and make my birth plan public to everyone attending me, because she said it's not part of their normal c-section routine, so they don't do it automatically. As long as baby is fine, he'll be placed directly with me after birth, and can stay there while they're stitching me up. I explained to her how I would feel guilty signing up for an elective c-section because I would feel like I didn't even try, and she said she doesn't see it like that. She said she sees it as me making a conscious decision to have a better experience than last time, being much less stressed and exhausted, and being more prepared, which is beneficial in the end for not only me, but the baby as well. She said if I were to try a VBAC and not be able to do it, that would be stressful on everyone, including the baby. I appreciated her helping me see a different perspective on that, because it's something I'm really struggling with. She said typically when a person has had a prior c-section due to not dilating (which was definitely not my problem), or because of "failure to descend", their percentile chances of a successful VBAC were somewhere in the 60's. She said on the flip side of that, someone who has had a c-section due to a breech baby usually has about a 90% chance of success. She said to just keep that in mind. I'm still undecided.... hopefully when Kyle goes to this appointment with me we'll be able to come up with a plan together!

When I went to get Payton out of bed this morning, she asked "do you see the baby in my belly?" I looked at her laying in her bed and she was on her side with a baby doll stuffed up under her shirt, cuddling it. I just about melted, it was so stinking cute!

Kyle has a baseball coaches retreat this weekend, so Payton and I will be hanging out and having some girl time. No plans, just relaxing, maybe do a little shopping or something (and some picture taking for my next blog). I finished this blog at work, so I don't have any pictures to post because I can't get them on this computer, but I promise I will next time. Have a great week everyone!