Choosing an OB

I have been going to my family doctor for GYN exams, so I didn't have an OB and now had to go about choosing one in order to be discharged there from the fertility clinic. Where to start?? I looked up places nearby before I was ever pregnant and had bookmarked the site of a practice with five female OBs called "Women for Women." I always like the idea of supporting women in "nontraditional" fields, and it has always come into play when choosing a doctor. When it came time to actually choose an OB, though, I looked up reviews for this practice and didn't really like what I saw. There were great reviews for two of the doctors, pretty unsettling reviews for another two, and radio silence on the fifth. Not great odds. But after reading reviews for other practices in the same area (a town extremely dense with hospitals and medical providers, all within ten to fifteen minutes from us), I didn't see anything better. They were all getting two or three stars out of five, with complaints about wait times, bedside manner, and rude and unprofessional receptionists.

I felt so defeated. I figured I'd better stick with my original choice and just hope that mostly unhappy people write reviews. I called them at 9:20 AM and was sent to a voicemail stating to call back between the business hours of 9 and 5. I called again at 9:40, same thing. I was immediately done. It was not a great first impression that no one was picking up the phone 40 minutes into the workday and I was having trouble just making a first appointment!

I started to look up OB/GYN practices near my town and found one in an affluent town about 18-20 minutes away that had wonderful reviews. People raved about both the doctors and the reception staff. I called and was immediately attended to by a friendly receptionist who helped me make an appointment that fit with my work schedule (availability at 6:30PM?? Yes, please!) and let me know where to go on their website to get anything I needed to prepare for the appointment. I had a good feeling right away! But because I was choosing my appointment based on who could work with my schedule and not based on a doctor I had any knowledge of, I was a little nervous about being randomly assigned to one.

Today put my fears at rest. The doctor had an emergency earlier in the day and was backed up, so I didn't see him til 7:30, but he still took his time with me and was very warm and professional. The woman who took me back to the room said to stay dressed because Dr. K had never met me before and would want to first before the exam. He came and introduced himself and asked me some basic questions. One of them was about spotting and bleeding, so I told him I'd had some bleeding right before my sonogram last week, and then the following night. He said, "You're on progesterone, right? How much longer did they say you need to take it?" And that was all he said. His lack of concern was very comforting. The nurse at the clinic had told me progesterone suppositories can be very hard on the cervix, so it made sense that that was his next question.

He then left so I could undress and came back and did a full gynecological exam. He was so quick and thorough, not quite as gentle and explanatory as I'm used to my female doctors being, but so damn efficient that I wasn't even self-conscious and just completely trusted him. He poked all around my abdomen and said, "Oh yeah, it's definitely there." What?? What did you feel? Can you tell my uterus has doubled in size, because I can't! I came home and poked myself all over hoping to feel what he felt but couldn't.

Then he smiled and said we were doing a sonogram. We weren't sure if they would so I was SO excited! Dr. K turned to my wife and asked if she had seen the last two sonograms. She said, "Yes, and they were so different in just two weeks!" Dr. K said, "Wait til you see what's changed in just one week." And there our baby was on the monitor, with actual SHAPE to it! Not the blob of last week, but an upright figure with a little head and a protruding chest with that sweet thumping heart. He said, "It's a little human now, right? That heartbeat is nice and strong." Oh I was soaring. I couldn't believe I could see a head and know what position my baby was in. It looked like a seahorse, just hanging out upright with a head and big chest and no limbs! Incredible.

It felt so surreal, like I froze and felt like, "This isn't really happening. I'm PREGNANT? How is there this little person in there, with a shape and a beating heart, and I barely feel affected by it and life feels normal?" It feels so disconnected to the idea that I'm going to be a MOTHER next year. God willing, there will be an actual baby crying in my arms and I will be somebody's mom so soon. I will be completely responsible for and enslaved by this sweet, helpless creature. And it's just in there growing and preparing to change my life forever, while I walk around and go to work and kick my feet up like nothing's happening, with just occasional mild queasiness and super sore, firm breasts to clue me in at all. Insane. Surreal.

He took us to his office afterward to talk (and had a mezuzah in the doorway!! I'm a happy girl!) and gave us photos that did not show the shape nearly as clearly as the actual live sonogram did, and we were told what to expect over the course of my pregnancy and what appointments I will have. I won't get nearly as many sonograms as I've been getting, and I'm going to miss that! Then I was given a flu shot and a bag full of goodies: eleven different prenatal vitamin samples and a ton of pregnancy and parenting magazines.

Oh also? My blood pressure is NORMAL for the first time in years! I've read that it can drop a little early in the pregnancy because blood is being diverted to so many new places, so I'm not assuming that it's just magically fixed. But any time with blood pressure of 120/78 instead of 138/86 is time I appreciate having.

My little seahorse! It's in profile facing left. The head is very small and then you can see the big chest. Whatcha doin' in there, little bug??