Random Mommy Ramblings…..

This post is going to be long and have absolutely nothing to do with books, just a heads up 🙂

Breaking up is hard to do ….. breaking up with your pediatrician, in this case. I have had it with my pediatrician and her office. I originally loved our pediatrician, she was so nice and attentive when we were in the hospital. She answered all my (silly, first time mom) questions with ease and enjoyment. I was glad I had a good recommendation for her, it made me feel good that he was going to be well taken care of. Then came his two-week appointment – she was out of the office that week and I would have to see one of the other doctors. Okay, I can deal with that – it was just one appointment after all. I went with my list of (still silly, first time mom) questions, Garrett and my mother in tow. And I felt absolutely dismissed by the doctor we saw. It was like she wanted nothing to do with me or Garrett, she just wanted to get in and out of there as quickly as she could. Because of this I let Garrett’s reflux go way too long (she did tell me that it was “completely normal” – how was I supposed to know any different??). Everything seemed to be going smoothly until about a month ago we noticed that Garrett was starting to have more trouble with his reflux again. We tried to make an appointment – we were told it would be a week before we could get in to see our doctor (but we could get in immediately to see the abovementioned doctor we saw at the 2 week appointment, um – no, thank you!). I was beyond irritated. A WEEK before you could get in to see your doctor? I could understand if she was the only one in the office – and this wasn’t necessarily a sick baby appointment anyway. We almost switched doctors, we argued back and forth about it. In the end we ended up not taking him to the doctor, but did switch his formula on our own and, while he still has reflux, things are much better – I’m almost completely positive that he was allergic to Similac or something along those lines.

So what does all this have to do with finally deciding to break up with our pediatrician? Well this week Garrett has developed a cough. I’m not really surprised, I had a cold two weeks ago and did everything I could to make sure I didn’t pass it to him. Plus the weather is turning – it’s just starting to become cold season. I didn’t think much about it until yesterday when he really started coughing. I definitely started to take notice at it a lot more closely. Then this morning he woke up terribly stopped up. I told Nathan we would have to have a doctor’s appointment today. So I called in to work and waited around for my doctor’s office to open (8:30am). I finally get through to make the appointment and I start in with my spiel about who I am and why I’m calling and immediately the woman who takes appointments transfers me over to the nurse desk (no, I did not ask to talk to the nurse, if she had let me finish what I was saying she would have realized I wanted to make an appointment to see the doctor). I start in on my spiel again and immediately the nurse asks me if he has a fever – no, he does not. She then proceeds to tell me that I should keep him elevated, get a humidifier, and a saline nose solution for him and not to call back unless he produces a fever … and she hangs up. That is not what I wanted. I wanted an appointment with my doctor. I don’t care if I spend the $200 to see my doctor for her to tell me the exact same thing – it’s what she’s there for and by golly I want to see her.

So I called Nathan and told him exactly what happened. He, like I am, was immediately ticked off. This is not the first time that this office has ignored our concerns. But it sure is going to be the last one. He calmed me down and said he would call me back, he had a meeting or something to go into. When he called me back he informed me that he had spoken to his co-workers (he works around 3 or 4 women who are mommies themselves and who know that we’ve had disagreements with our doctor in the past) and they all said the same thing – SWITCH DOCTORS. So that’s what we are doing. We are going to see another pediatrician today, we have an appointment at 3:30. They didn’t question him wanting to see a doctor when he called the other doctor’s office – they just made the appointment. Which is exactly what the other office should have done. But I am at the end of my rope with the doctor’s office we’ve been going to. And as much as I hate switching doctors, I just can’t deal with this anymore. I need a doctor who will listen to my concerns, answer all my (silly, first time mom) questions, and put me at ease. Plus I’m paranoid about colds – when I was 16 I let a cold go from bad to worse and ended up with pneumonia – so I know what colds can turn into if not taken care of. Hopefully we will be a lot better off in the long run. And I’m sure this cough is nothing but the common cold, but he’s only 3.5 months old and I want to know that he is okay – not to ignore something because I’ve written it off as “just a cold.”

Switching gears – I have determined that I have absolutely, 100% lost my entire mind. I have baby fever. WTH!? How can I have baby fever when my baby is still a baby? LOL!? Never in a million years did I ever think that I would want another child. I thought Garrett would be it for us. We would be a family of three. But the last few days I’ve realized how quickly Garrett is growing up and that my family doesn’t feel complete yet. Obviously I don’t want another baby right now. My goodness, if I was to get pregnant tomorrow they would only be 13 months apart! That’s insane. But I think it will happen before I originally intended for it to happen. I had originally said that I wanted to get Garrett out of diapers before I started thinking about another one. Now I’m thinking that I will try again after his 1st birthday. Nathan and his brother are 21 months apart, my dad and uncle are 25 months apart and my mom and aunt are 29 months apart. I’m honestly beginning to think that it would be the ideal time to start trying again. Everytime I think of this the first thing that runs through my head is “you’ve lost your f’in mind, Tara!” but I can’t help myself. I’ve even already got names circulating in my head – and yes, I think I will be one of those cheesy parents whose children’s first names all start with the same letter! Please, someone tell me how insane I am, lol! I don’t want to even think about how hard keeping track of two children will be … one is hard enough and he’s not even moving yet! But I think part of my problem is that I am slowly inching toward that next big age milestone – 30 – and I always said I didn’t want to be pregnant in my 30s (I don’t have a particular reason as to why, I just don’t want to be). Either way, it’s definitely something that I’ve been thinking about 🙂 And Nathan is so funny. We recently booked a trip to Hawaii in December. Just the two of us, my parents are going to watch Garrett. When I started talking about having another baby he looked at me and said “isn’t that why you wanted to go to Hawaii?” Haha. No, that’s not why – but it could be fun 😉