Contact Lenses, Baby

About a week-and-a-half ago my nine-week-old daughter got contact lenses and could see for the first time. Getting the right prescription was difficult as her eyes, searching for something to see other than a bright blur, were quickly ranging back and forth. The doctors did what they could to figure it out and ordered her lenses. With the lenses in, her eyes stopped bouncing around like pinballs and the doctors were able to get a more accurate measurement of her prescription, and to order new lenses that would over-correct it, making her able to see things up-close, like her mommy's smiling face as I hold her.

Even the optometrist, who specializes in pediatric optometry, had a bit of a time getting the tiny lenses into my daughter's even tinier eyes. I was having a hard enough time getting drops in her eyes, and the thought of putting contacts in while she scrunched them shut tight, crying, was a daunting one. Carlos gave it a whirl ending with poor baby Story screaming hysterically, like nothing I have ever seen before. It took everything in my brain to overcome my instinct to take my baby, who sounded like she was having her skin peeled off, and run far, far away with her. I was still shaking a bit from whatever mommy-endorphins were released, hours later.

Today, a few days after that screaming fit, I held down my baby, set my jaw, and determined I would get these damn lenses in her eyes. No more monkey business. No having the optometrist rescue both me and the baby from each other.

It was difficult, and I am still not sure how I did it, but I got those lenses in. We had to calm down the poor kid between eyes--she was quite worked up--but I did it.

The role of 'mother' is a strange one: torturer and savior wrapped up into one. *Sigh*

The most amazing thing is that the optometrist said that even two years ago lenses the power that little Story needs were not available. The lenses are available just when she needs them, one of the best pediatric opthamologists was just one express stop away on the subway... I am grateful for the glimpses of the divine in these seeming 'coincidences.'