our little man

3.16.2006

first appointment is scheduled!

i called the other day to schedule my first appointment. it took a lot of thinking, but we actually decided to switch doctors. it isn't that we weren't happy with dr. wilkis, the doctor who delivered sophie, but there were a lot of different factors that made finding a new doctor make sense. first, having an office that is closer to home would be nice - we had been going to scarborough before, and that was convenient because adam and i were both working within 10-15 minutes of that office. however, now that i'm staying home and adam is working in poland, it would be much more convenient to have our appointments closer to home. second, we wanted to find a doctor who would deliver at southern maine medical center. again, we'd be closer to home, rather than having to drive to maine medical in portland. but more than the distance, we were attracted to smmc for several reasons... our pediatrician has priveleges there (we didn't actually see dr. brooks when sophie was born - we had to see one of the random hospital pediatricians.) it will be nice to see a familiar face and have continuity in the treatment and care of the baby. also, the birthing suite at smmc is smaller and more personal that at maine med. the rooms are all private and adam will definitely be able to stay with me. this is honestly one of the most important reasons... when sophie was born, a lot of the rooms were doubled up and we got the last private room. if one more person had come in and needed a room, adam would have been sent home (even though sophie was born well after midnight - he would still have had to leave). it is really important to both adam and i that he is able to stay in the hospital with me and the baby for the entire time we're there. and, as an added bonus for choosing smmc, they have recently remodled their birthing suite and its really incredible... very cozy and comfortable, not institutional at all.

so... we talked to two different friends who have delivered at smmc and asked their opinions about the hospital and asked about their doctors. they both had great things to say about the hospital and the care they recieved, and they actually both had used the same practice for their prenatal care. i did a little bit of research online, and decided that was the practice we would choose. it is a group of 5 doctors, which is a bit smaller than the practice we were with before. however, rather than seeing one main doctor, you see them all. that way you get to know each one and will be familiar with whomever happens to be on-call when it comes time to deliver your baby. i actually like this idea, because even though we did end up seeing a couple of the other doctors, just out of chance, when we were pregnant with sophie, we by no means saw them all, and we certainly never saw one more than once. we were lucky that dr. wilkis was the doctor who delivered sophie, because it would have been very strange to be with a doctor we'd never met before. so at this new practice, we will be familiar with everyone. one of the friends i talked with is our neighbor, who had her second daughter just three weeks ago. she had great things to say about every doctor there, so that makes me feel good.

anyhow, i called two days ago and made my first two appointments. i will go in on april 11th to meet with a nurse. that appointment is about an hour, and we'll go over all of my history, fill out some paperwork, and then do bloodwork. then, on april 24th, i'll go and have my first appointment with a doctor. i'll already by 12 weeks by then! i can't believe we have to wait so long. its normal for doctors to wait this long to see their patients, but since we were going through fertility treatment to have sophie, we were seen right from the beginning... in fact, by twelve weeks i'd already had three ultrasounds! the waiting is a little hard, but sophie is a great distraction. i don't have as much time to think about everything, and she certainly helps the time to pass more quickly.

we haven't decided on when we're going to tell our families yet. we had thought that we would wait until after the first appointment, but now i doubt we'll be able to wait that long. maybe we can wait until after the appointment with the nurse. i'm hoping that i can persuade her to sneak a listen with a doppler real quick so we can listen for a heartbeat. once i hear that, i'll be feeling great and definitely ready to share our news!

posted at 8:11 PM by aimee // 0 comments