I was so nervous, and it all happened so fast. This is gonna be long. She was born with AFA, she had pieces of skin connecting her eyelids because they never came fully undone in my belly. It's super rare, more common in preemies and babies with other conditions such as trisomy 18. My babygirl is completely healthy with no known conditions, but she couldn't open her eyes all the way, which I was scared would cause her vision problems. I kept telling the nurses in the hospital it was skin and they kept saying, "it's just eye crusties it'll go away!" No. Wrong. Her pediatrician sent us to an ophthalmologist in town, and he sent us to a specialist out of state. I fought her insurance company like hell for them to cover her appointment because it was a referral/continuation of care from our home state. Her appointment for her consultation was A MONTH away. I called every day, even twice a day and finally got her appointment moved up by 2 weeks. Today. So we take her in, they take pictures, doctor comes in and says, "so let's fix this today!" I was so shocked, I looked at her dad and said what did she just say? Like she wasn't right there lol. It was supposed to just be a consultation, but it was such an easy fix she just wanted to go ahead and do it. Also if she had been scheduled for the OR she would have had to wait until she was 6 months old. Way too long. Her doctors had never seen this in real life, that's how rare it is, but she knew everything she possibly could about it. Her doctor had me swaddle her and talk to her while her and her partner worked on her eyes, and I just rubbed her belly and legs. They gave her some numbing drops, used the world's tiniest scissors and just snipped the skin away. My baby was so good! She didn't fuss or cry, she just listened to her mama. The doctor also sang to her the whole time, genuinely the sweetest thing. She had a speck of blood at each snip but no more than that. Her dad stayed outside because he was so scared for her to cry and him lose it. He cannot handle her shots, no way he could do this. So it was just baby and mama facing tiny scissors all up in her eyes, but her doctors were incredible and MY BABY CAN SEE MY FACE! My baby can see the world, she can see her daddy.

Her doctor asked for pictures of her after as well so that she could use them to teach her students about the condition at the university she works at, because she had never actually seen it and there is so little on the internet about it. My little warrior is a tough girl.

So here is her before and after, and in her after she has antibiotic ointment on her eyes.

She had a string down the middle of one eye and the whole corner of the other.

Here is right after, she has big blue eyes like her daddy. As soon as I saw her I knew I was robbed of that moment when she was born, because it just pulled every last one of my heart strings to see her open her eyes how she should. I can't wait to get all the pretty pictures of her once she wakes up from her eventful trip.

Oh my