Matt and I really like my OB, Dr. G, so we wanted to find a pediatrician similar to him. Dr. G had supplied us with two names of doctors meeting this criteria with one slightly more recommended as he had been in practice longer. Last week I talked to the first doctor on the list, Dr. V, who was a great fit even over the phone. In just a few minutes I learned a lot about just how similar he and Dr. G were from having the same first name and training, to having similar views on many things to coincidentally buying homes in the same neighborhood. He invited us to come down near the end of the day on Monday where he would find 10-15 minutes to talk with us.
Dr. V works in a group practice with several other pediatricians. They share nurses and will fill in for one another as needed for situations like vacations. The office is part of a mall which could make running errands before or after a visit easier.
The waiting room was long and divided into two sections one for well patients and there parents and another for sick patients and their parents. When I told my mom about it she thought that was an especially good idea as it segregated parts of the room and even toys so a well child was much less likely to become sick from a visit.
Matt and I introduced ourselves and asked to wait on the well side. I made sure to get a selfie to commemorate our first prenatal well child pediatrician visit. Though we weren’t sure how long it would take to get to us, within a few minutes Dr. V himself came out looking for The Perri Family, which is as far as I can remember, the first time anyone has called us with baby in utero that. It had a great sound to it.
I wore the above shirt to my appointment as it reminded me of our honeymoon for which I had it made up. It doesn’t fit me like it did then, yet I still had fun wearing it.
Dr. V is an amiable doctor with a good sense of humor. It’s clear he enjoys his job a lot. As we’d established on the phone that I did want to breastfeed, he told us we could best use this time to talk mainly about breastfeeding. Though he did give me recommendations such as nurse 5-15 minutes each side at the beginning, and pump at the same time as I would be breastfeeding when it was needed for someone else to give baby a bottle with my milk in it, the key thing was to relax and not overthink breastfeeding as it was a natural process and most women who want to do so will be successful.
We also discussed vaccination schedules, how in general visits with him would go, and how our first visit with him at the hospital would go. He even mentioned it would be cool if our baby was born on October 20th as that is his birthday. When we discussed our baby’s gender, we asked if he wanted Matt to email him as I’m not finding out till the birth. He surprised and delighted me by saying he would pick Team Surprise then and find out when he first met our baby as well.
Then it was time to leave the way we came, passing into the waiting room with the Raising Readers Program tree, though there were no books on it at that time. I hope there will be books when we go for our first visits and would love to bring some for it as well.
In this short meeting we learned a lot. As we both like Dr. V we will be stopping our search for our baby’s pediatrician with one visit and he is the one we are choosing.
~ Danielle
Over 40 First Time Mom 