Maks has been growing and developing very well. In fact, at his eight month checkup, his pediatrician honestly just seemed in awe of how well he is doing. At eight months, Maks weighs 12 lbs 14 ounces and is 24 3/4 inches long. This puts him nowhere near the charts for his actual age, but he is in the third percentile for his corrected age. What really matters is his growth curve, and his is looking great! At this point, we have no concerns about how he is growing, and that is great news!
He is very smiley, happy, and easy-going. He is honestly the best baby in the world. He has been meeting milestones such as rolling over, smiling, cooing, and standing, but is lacking in a few areas sun as being able to reach for and grasp toys. At six months, Maks had his first appointment with the pediatric optometrist, Dr. Lisa Porter. We were pleased to learn that he appeared to see well and did not demonstrate the need for a prescription. I had some concerns about his vision at that time, but nothing really concrete to base them on. I just always have felt that when I look at other babies in person or even in pictures, they seem to actually SEE more than Maks. They look more intently at things and seem to focus better. If you see pictures of Maks, he is never looking at the camera or the photographer. To give you an idea, here are some pictures I took of him on his 8 month birthday. Notice him focusing on his hands and the monkey, which are all really close to him.
Over the past couple of months since we first saw the optometrist, Maks has developed a crazy interest in his hands. He thinks they are the coolest things in the world. He has no idea he has feet yet, but his hands are totally cool. He looks at them, turns them around, and studies them like most babies do. This fascination has been cute for a while; however, I started noticing that it was not going away. He didn't master that fascination and move onto exploring something else. He is ALWAYS looking at his hands. I began to get worried about this and all of the possibilities of what it could be. I also told myself several times that I was overreacting, and that it is just probably a delay due to his prematurity.
A couple days ago, he had a dilated exam with the retinal specialist to see how his retinopathy of prematurity was doing. I was very pleased to learn that the integrity of the structure of his eye remains sound. The macula and lense were preserved by the laser surgery, and they have continued to do well. I decided to ask Dr. Romriell about his thoughts regarding my concerns. He brushed it off and basically acted like I was overreacting. He said he remembers seeing his boy look at his hands and study them a few times when he was little, and the doctor thought it was cute. I thought to myself, "but he got over it. Maks can't get past them." The doctor also told me that if I wanted to schedule an appointment with the optometrist in a couple of months to get it checked, that would be reasonable.
Well, apparently that advice wasn't good enough for this momma. I decided this was a problem that I felt needed addressed, and I had pushed it aside for Long enough. I called and spoke with Dr. Porter that day and told her my concerns. We went ahead and scheduled an appointment for Friday (today) to have another exam.
At the appointment she asked me about everything I had been seeing with him and what exactly my concerns were. She asked questions to me like, "does he watch you and follow you from room to room." Of course I had to say no. He has never been able to see me that far. In fact, the other day, I was sitting next to Logan on the couch, and I yelled Maksim's name and began waving my hands. Maks immediately turned his head to the sound, but his eyes never found me. This was nothing new, as it has always been very difficult to get his attention.
Now, don't get too worried or overreact. I know Maksim can see. He smiles at me and coos at me, and he likes to look at himself in a mirror, as long as these things are about an arm's length away from his face. I am comforted in knowing that he has very useable vision and that what he lacks should be easily corrected with lenses
After the exam today, it was determined that his prescription is only about a -2.5, which is not too bad. I have definitely heard of much worse. Apparently prescribing glasses for infants can be slightly risky. I have not had time to do all of the reading on it yet, but I believe it has something to do with the fact that their eyes are still developing and growing, and you don't want to stunt any of that by prescribing too much or too soon. Because of this, the optometrist will give him lenses with a prescription of -2 to give his eyes some time and room to grow. We tried on some of the bendy, twisty, silicone glasses today, which are basically indestructible. I'm definitely nervous about him having them, especially so soon, but hopefully he will easily learn that he can see better with them on, which will encourage him to want to wear them. I also hope that correcting his vision and increasing his visual bubble will help him learn to explore the world better and have more motivation to reach for and play with toys, as this is something he currently does not do, most likely due to his inability to adequately see them.
Here are a few recent pictures!
These are the pair of frames we used to fit Maks for his glasses. His will be blue.
Working on rolling over! It's pretty exhausting sometimes! :)
At dinner sitting on daddy's lap.
7 month comparison picture.
6 month comparison compilation.
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