We didn't plan for this to happen

The Eyes Don't Have It

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Here's Miss Cadence tipping the scale at over nine pounds in the arms of her daddy, Chris.


The day after our power was restored we drove to Springfield to take Cadence to her eye appointment. We’ve been worried about the condition she has, called ROP, which can cause her retina to detach and will cause blindness. This can happen quickly so it’s important for her to be examined at least once a week.

The exam is quick but it’s hard to deal with because she screams her head off. The doc puts these medieval looking metal prong things on her eyes to force her lids open, and it scares her. It isn’t painful, but it’s uncomfortable and it freaks her out. After the doc removes the prongs she has these indentions around her eyes for a while. She’s had fifteen of these exams since her birth and it’s still hard to deal with.

The doc told us that her eyes have corrected themselves and that she might not even have nearsightedness or farsightedness! We don’t even have to go back until she’s a year old. I’m so happy about this because her eyes were the last things I was worried about. I had these nightmarish visions of Cadence going blind. But that’s not going to happen. Thank God!

About a month ago these social workers from a program called Birth to Three Years visited our house and examined Cadence. They were sent to determine whether she is developmentally challenged. If she was, the state would help us get her the help she needs. They tested her hearing, her reactions to sounds, stuff like that to verify if she has any problems. Yesterday I received their findings and they concluded that she has no developmental problems at all! This is great news since some preemies can be “slow”. Apparently Cadence (so far) is keeping up with her peers, kids that weren’t born premature. I worried about this because when I went into the seizures I stopped breathing for a while and I worried that Cadence was deprived of oxygen in the womb and it might have affected her brain. (The Eclampsia also deprived her of oxygen for several weeks!)