When our son was born, one of the decisions we made for him was to not have prophylactic eye drops placed into his eyes. The sole purpose of these eye drops is to prevent the newborn from contracting an STD from the mother's birth canal among other potential infections. If the mother does not have any STD's, then there is no need to worry. The drops themselves can cause blurred vision, clogged tear ducts, and minor swelling and redness. Seeing our son open his eyes for the first time, I am glad that we made the decision we did. Further, after seeing countless pictures of newborns with puffy eyes squeezed shut, it reinforced our decision to not have the drops administered. I know he won't remember specifically, but I just couldn't stand the thought of keeping sight from our son for any amount of time due to an external substance. As he didn't receive the drops, he had his eyes open soon after birth and quite frequently after that. But enough about what transpired 7.5 months ago and on to his brilliant blue eyes as they are today. I can't help but stare at our son when he stares at me. His gaze is filled with inquisition, curiosity, and love. I know he can't verbally express these things yet, but his personality has developed so much, one can intuit what he might be thinking just by gazing into his eyes and seeing him looking back at you.
One of my favorite things to do with our son is to lay on the floor with him and just stare at him. He might be crawling around, playing with toys, or just babbling, but every so often he will glance over at me either to check where I am or to make sure that I am still present. Sometimes when he glances over, I will roll on the floor so that my head is upside down as I am gazing back at him. He gets completely intrigued by this and crawls his way over, never taking his eyes off of mine. Depending on his mood he will either crawl over frantically or take his time. In either case, when he gets within arms distance of my face, he will pause and slowly reach his hand out towards me. Staring intently at me, partly with curiosity, partly with love and excitement, he will touch my face with his hand. To be fair, sometimes his touch is more of a grab and snatch, an attempt to take my nose, cheek, or lips with him when he moves on. Most of the time, however, he will simply gently explore the contours of my face with his hand, gliding it over my nose, eyes, cheeks, and forehead, all the while staring into my eyes. When he is done exploring and staring, he will giggle on occasion, almost always smile, and move on to whatever else has caught his attention. It is moments like these that I live for now, the simple act of staring into my son's eyes and having him stare intently back at me. If I could stare into my son's eyes all day and make money doing it, I would.
There is no part of me that wishes I could change my decision about the drops in his eyes. Looking at our son now only reinforces our decision to let our son develop without medical intervention from the outset. He still has not received any vaccinations nor will he. Behind those baby blue eyes is an intently curious person slowly growing. Just this past weekend he figured out how to pull himself up onto his knees while exploring our DVD player and stereo. Unfortunately the camera was not at the ready and we missed the opportunity to catch him in the act. We also have a feeling that he might just skip the whole hands and knees crawling and go right to either hands and feet crawling or just plain walking. Instead of persistently trying to crawl forward on his hands and knees, he likes to extend his arms and legs and walk his feet forward forcing his tiny little butt high into the air. He has gotten himself to the point where he can pretty much keep his feet flat while also keeping his hands on the ground. Walking is still a ways off and even now, his hands don't move forward with his feet, only his feet move forward. In a way it is helping him with his balance as he must keep that little butt of his balanced in the air. I have peeked in on him while he is in his crib before a nap and even there he gets on his hands and feet and goes through the motions. That would explain to us the sound of thunder coming from his room as he loses his balance and his butt goes crashing into the sides of the crib. In any case, he just never ceases to amaze us. Now we can see a little more how time will just fly right away and he will grow up quickly. But again, we are taking it one day at a time and cherishing every minute.
There is no part of me that wishes I could change my decision about the drops in his eyes. Looking at our son now only reinforces our decision to let our son develop without medical intervention from the outset. He still has not received any vaccinations nor will he. Behind those baby blue eyes is an intently curious person slowly growing. Just this past weekend he figured out how to pull himself up onto his knees while exploring our DVD player and stereo. Unfortunately the camera was not at the ready and we missed the opportunity to catch him in the act. We also have a feeling that he might just skip the whole hands and knees crawling and go right to either hands and feet crawling or just plain walking. Instead of persistently trying to crawl forward on his hands and knees, he likes to extend his arms and legs and walk his feet forward forcing his tiny little butt high into the air. He has gotten himself to the point where he can pretty much keep his feet flat while also keeping his hands on the ground. Walking is still a ways off and even now, his hands don't move forward with his feet, only his feet move forward. In a way it is helping him with his balance as he must keep that little butt of his balanced in the air. I have peeked in on him while he is in his crib before a nap and even there he gets on his hands and feet and goes through the motions. That would explain to us the sound of thunder coming from his room as he loses his balance and his butt goes crashing into the sides of the crib. In any case, he just never ceases to amaze us. Now we can see a little more how time will just fly right away and he will grow up quickly. But again, we are taking it one day at a time and cherishing every minute.
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