pre-natal visit with pediatrician

So I just made a pre-natal appointment with my babies future doctor for tomorrow afternoon. Is it goofy that I'm excited about this appointment? LOL! I guess it's because that means I'm that much closer to having a couple of babies to bring to the doctor! LOL.....so I was wondering if anyone else has already had their appointment with the pediatrician and what do you talk about? I'm guessing it's filling out paperwork but what else?

 

We didn't really fill out any paperwork at that first appt. it's more an interview of the dr than anything else - it gives you a chance to ask all your questions: office hours, emergency protocol, dr's vaccination and antibiotic beliefs, etc. Ask when to call them after you've had the babies too. And also talk to the doc about any concerns you may have - prematurity, will the doc see the babies in the hospital, etc. HTH!

 

I never did a pre-birth appointment with the peds office.......I found it a waste of time.......my doctors have all come with GREAT recommendations and I was comfortable going with it.

 

I met with our pediatrician at about 30 weeks, too. It was really just to get to know them, find out how the office runs, who else works there, what the visits will be like, who takes call when, etc. No paperwork to do. If your pediatrician has admitting privileges at your delivering hospital, they will come to see the babies at least once within 24-48 hours after birth. Or they may have a covering doc see them, instead. If they go to the NICU and get discharged from there, they may not see them before your first appointment. I think it is nice to meet the peditrician at least once before delivery, so it's not like a complete stranger coming to see you for the first time in the hospital. JMO....

 

I never did a pre-interview with my docs...I did wind up switching with my first dd b/c I totally felt the doc was incompetent and the place wasn't clean. So if you find you don't like them later on don't be afraid to switch...

things I would ask about.
1. vaccine schedule and how they feel about them..are they mercury free?
2. general guidelines on "what to call for"
3. if you are planning to bf what their philosophy is on that...how much weight can they lose before the peds push for supplementing?
4. freebies on formula if you are planning to do that..
5. doesn't apply to you but circumcision questions... do they do them frequently..making sure they know what they are doing and don't have residents doing them.
6. It might be helpful to get a dosing chart for plain tylenol (remember no cough and cold or benadryl this young....) but they might not want to give you a chart since babies weights won't be known...

Personally one thing I've always insisted is that my babies don't start their vaccines in the hospital..you want to know what their "norm" is before a vaccine is given...otherwise how will you know they are having a reaction? 2 months is a much better time to start them...but that's a whole other debate!!
oooh...another good one...when your babies are young will they get them into the room immediately without making you sit around in the waiting room. This is a definite good idea, and I've always appreciated the office for doing this for my babies. (in other words they don't make you sit around in the germ filled waiting room when your little ones come in for their appts at that very young age.) Oh and word to the wise...NEVER schedule appts on a monday morning...all the sickies from the weekend are there that day...the second worst time is friday....when all the potential sickies come in "just in case".... Find out if your office has hours on the weekends for emergencies...mine has a few hours on saturday and a few hours on sunday for emergencies only. okay...I think that's all I can think of.

 

All good questions, thank you all who responded, I am going to jot some of these down before I go tomorrow!