Sammy’s Glasses

Many friends we haven’t seen in a while have run into us recently and are surprised to see Samantha with glasses! The scoop is that earlier this year, at her preschool’s annual eye checkup, the ophthalmologist who came to test all the kids sent a note home saying Samantha was testing far-sighted in her left eye. We brought her in for a follow-up appointment with Dr. Rakov to get re-tested and sure enough, she was obviously having a hard time seeing far away in her left eye.

Interestingly, her left eye is the same one that is a tiny bit smaller than her right, and has always been that way since she was a baby, due to the torticollis she had (she can blame Amelia in the womb for squishing her!) Even after neck stretching exercises and physical therapy as a baby, her head still tilts slightly and the thinking is that this may have something to do with her vision issues in that eye. Interesting how everything is so connected!

We had a few mommy daughter dates getting fitted for her new glasses– the right lens is normal since she sees 20/20 out of that eye, and her left lens has the corrected prescription. The hope is that by strengthening her left eye early on, she may not need glasses or contacts in the future.

Samantha enjoyed choosing her new glasses and took her time with all the options. After much deliberation, she chose pink and purple Lilly Pulitzer ones with butterflies on the sides. We think she looks very intellectual with them on!

The first few days Samantha started wearing glasses was mostly rough on Amelia. “I WANT GLASSES TOO!!!” was the constant refrain/sob around our house for the first week. It was impossible to explain to her that her eyes were working just fine and that glasses aren’t usually something you WANT to have… in her view, glasses were a special privilege! I thought about getting her fake glasses for about two seconds before deciding that sooner or later, they were going to have to get used to the fact that even though they are twins, they are separate people and won’t always have the same things! The earlier they get used to this, the better!

A bonus for people who aren’t able to tell the twins apart is that now they have an easy way out!

It was Spring Break during the first full week Samantha started wearing her glasses, and she did a great job keeping them on and placing them carefully in their case at bedtime. She’s been fine wearing them at the park, yoga/ballet and gymnastics so far, although I feel like I’m now in charge of an extra kid because I’m so paranoid about something happening to such an expensive accessory. Samantha has felt really proud of herself learning to put them on correctly and echoing the words of her optometrist, she always tells us,”When I wake up, my glasses wake up; when I go to sleep, my glasses go to sleep.”

The hardest day for Samantha so far was when we returned to preschool after Spring Break. Even before we got out of the car, she was obviously self conscious about the glasses and started crying that she didn’t want to wear them. Amelia and I coaxed her into coming out to the playground where we fortuitously found a girl in another class who wore glasses too! We asked Cassidy if she liked her glasses and she gave us the whole run-down on how she takes care of them and how much she likes them. Bless her sweet little soul!

Samantha was visibly relieved and excited to show them off to her friends after that. She received many compliments from the other kids and Miss Holly said she was eager to share about them during circle time. After the first day, I haven’t heard any more complaints from her, with the exception of one morning when Amelia apparently went around telling all their friends that Samantha’s eyes were “broken” and that’s why she needed glasses. That didn’t go over well with Samantha!

We had another follow-up this week and after some testing, Samantha’s eyes are already working together better and she can see perfectly in her left eye with the glasses on. Even Samantha has remarked about how well she can see far away now. We are grateful for the routine eye check a few months ago, as we never would have known there was an issue otherwise! To be continued…

Lots of love,