Five Weeks to Go! – by Lisa Kelly
I just got home from my bi-weekly doctor appointment where my doctor burst through the exam room door and shouted “Five weeks to go!!” I told her I was crabby, bloated, hot, tired, in pain from the alien kicking me and before I could finish she said “…and feeling like you are going to be pregnant forever? Welcome to FIVE WEEKS TO GO!!”
It seems like forever until I think of what I have left to do. Turn in the pre-admission forms for the hospital, confirm my leave of absence from school, fill out the short term disability paperwork, find a pediatrician and a babysitter, and the list goes on. I have only five weeks to do this! Still, five weeks seems like a lifetime away. I look at my friend’s daughter who is now 7 months old and wonder where all that time went and still, five weeks is so far. I will likely write here four more times as a pregnant mom. By the 5th week, I should be brain dead from attending to a newborn. It’s all so crazy to think about and I believe that’s why it seems so far away. Ignorance is bliss!
Speaking of pediatricians, I never had one with my son. I grew up in a very small town and the doctor was everyone’s doctor. He saw me through my pregnancy, delivered my child and is still my 19 year old son’s doctor. Choosing a doctor who specializes in children is a foreign concept to me. What is the criteria for picking the best one? I think this is the most overwhelming decision to be made in the next five weeks so I’d appreciate any suggestions.
One Response to “Five Weeks to Go! – by Lisa Kelly”
My 2 cents on pediatricians: get referrals, if possible; try to meet each one, even briefly, and go with your gut. We chose the “best of the best” pediatric practice based on referral, but my gut was telling me “no.” Four years later, while my son was practically comatose from lack of oxygen, I had the head of the pediatric practice on the phone giving me a dissertation on wheezing. We ended up going to the emergency room where we found my son’s oxygen level so low, he was almost going to become unconscious. I wasted 10 minutes on the phone with this idiot doctor when my son could have already been treated in our hospital 10 minutes away. We found an excellent doctor we love very soon after. He makes our son laugh all the time. We know we found the best pediatrician for US!
By Cara Potapshyn Meyers on Aug 7, 2012