Meet the pedi

I had my first "meet the doctor" meeting with a pediatrician yesterday. I do believe it will be my last, since aside from a slightly off-putting habit of talking too fast, he seemed like a perfectly good choice and I have no burning desire to keep looking.

I didn't bring my questions with me and I wasn't exactly in the mood for the interview... I was rather cranky yesterday and had exacerbated my own bad mood by attempting to go shopping for various things at various stores in the freezing rain, learning the valuable lesson that I still, this late in pregnancy, should not leave the house for more than 30 minutes without packing a snack, or someone might get hurt.

Anyway, Dr. A has done plenty of "meet the mom" meetings, so he anticipated most of my questions and covered all the basics. In case anyone still has to do one of these, here are the topics and questions that we discussed:

- Office hours and after hours calls: M-F business hours plus Saturday mornings, nurses are available 24/7 and can answer questions or page the doctor for you.

- If doctor is out, who fills in? Dr. A has another full time pedi in the practice who can fill in for him. He introduced us. There are also three other part time pedis in the practice.

- Board certification: All pedis in the practice have to be board certified, including the part timers. Board cert lasts for 7 years and Dr. A renewed his last year.

- Subspecialists and ancillary services: all lab work and radiology can be done in house.

- When will you see baby? Dr. A or the other FT pedi (depending on who's on call at the time) will visit us in the hospital, either the day of birth or the day after if I give birth after hours. A nurse will follow up by phone the day we go home. And then we will bring baby to see Dr. A 2-3 days after the birth for a quick check up. He then gave me the basic well baby visit schedule which I don't remember.

- Circumcision? Dr. A said it is not recommended since it's not medically necessary, but lots of parents do it for cosmetic reasons and they would perform it in the hospital if we want it. He makes sure that both parents agree (ha!). (I was happy with his answer and told him we will not be circumcising.)

- Breastfeeding? He recommends it and was happy to hear I plan to do it. He said to be prepared for the first 3 days or so to be difficult, but once my milk comes in it should be easier. He said something about supplementing with formula if we're having trouble but I kinda spaced out for a minute there.

- Immunizations? I asked if he would be okay with a delayed vaccine schedule if we wanted to do that. He said that is fine, and he believes that parents who want alternative vax schedules have usually done a lot of research and are well informed and he respect that (yay) - he would be open to a simple delay up to two years, or a graduated schedule if we prefer.