A New Look For Nolan

About a week and a half ago I noticed Nolan’s eyes crossing a couple of times. In fact, one time at dinner he did it and I kind of tapped his head (like you used to tap the TV if the picture wasn’t clear) to try to ‘snap him out of it.' It was really kind of silly thing to do, but I guess it was my instinct haha. The crossing only lasted for a few seconds so I didn’t think too much of it. But then the next day Jeanni texted me and asked if I had noticed his eyes going cross, which reminded me that I wanted to look it up and see if I should be worried at all. After googling (which I do realize is sometimes the worst idea ever) it became pretty clear that I needed to at least give the pediatrician a call. So I called Dr. Witt’s office and the nurse agreed that we should get him in sooner rather than later. Unfortunately Dr. Witt was out of town so we saw another doctor at the office who gave us the impression that it wasn’t a big deal and would probably correct itself, but still referred us to an ophthalmologist. Justin was able to get us an appointment for the morning after we got back into town from Las Vegas. I don’t think I noticed his eyes crossing once while we were out of town, but I also wasn’t looking at him as closely I guess. However I did notice it happening in the car on the drive home several times as well as lots of times the morning we took him to the doctor so I definitely knew it was something.

Nolan was SO good at the ophthalmologists office! Of course he didn't like getting the drops in his eyes to make them dilate, but during the actual examination he was perfect. Even the doctor seemed impressed. I was so proud of him!

Playing at the doctors office

It turns out that Nolan has something called accomodative esotropia which is caused by extreme far-sightedness. Basically everyone has a focusing mechanism in their eyes which allows them to focus on objects, but because of his extreme far-sightedness, for Nolan to be able to see clearly he has to use extra focusing power (or accommodation), which causes his eyes to cross. Really most of the time it was just one eye that kind of came in to the center a bit. Anyway, the doctor recommended we get glasses for him as soon as possible, not so much to help him see or correct any vision problem, but to make it so that he doesn't have to work so hard to focus and to keep his eyes straight. It's possible it may correct itself after several years of glasses, or it might not correct and he'll always need to wear the glasses, but one thing we're so glad of is that we caught it early!

I'm a little embarrassed to admit it, but I was really upset when I learned that my little 2 year old would need glasses and I know Justin struggled a bit as well. What possibly made it more difficult is that neither of us wear glasses. Well, I have a pair that I use for work when I'm staring at a computer all day, or for reading, but several different eye doctors have told me that I don't really need them, and definitely don't need to wear them all the time. Justin actually has amblyopia, meaning he basically doesn't see out of one of his eyes, yet the strange thing is that he can see better (farther) out of that one eye than I can with two 'good' eyes that don't require glasses. Weird. Anyway, I talked to a couple of ladies in my ward and another friend who all had small children in glasses and realized that I'm definitely not the only person to be upset by the news, that I'm not just a terrible person for having a hard time with it at first. But they also reminded me that it works out just fine, and little ones are always so cute in glasses! 

Trying on glasses

Well, we picked up the glasses on Monday and now that I see them on him I agree -- he is absolutely ADORABLE in them! And I hope he is noticing a difference in his vision which will make things easier for him. He's had them for a week and, just like always, he has surprised us by how well he's done with the transition. Some days he'll try to take them off maybe once or twice a day, but that's really it. And he usually asks us before he tries to take them off anyway haha. He chose mommy's nightstand as his "special spot" where he puts the glasses each night before going to bed. It's cute how he gets excited to put them there and usually asks us to put them on again in the morning.

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First night with glasses!