Slooooow down Mama!

5 month (or thereabouts) pregnancy check-up today with my ObGyn.

After 4 visits, I think I've finally come to an opinion about her: She doesn't have much of a sense of humor and she's been doing this so long she's now just going through the motions. As someone who is having a "normal" pregnancy, I pose no interest or challenge to her beyond the routine measurements and checks. Weight gain? Blood pressure? Belly measurement? Doppler the heartbeat. Ask perfunctory questions: "How are you feeling?", "Do you have any questions?". Hand-over slip of paper for follow-up visit. Disappear to next appointment. Repeat in 4 weeks.

Don't get me wrong, everything I've heard and read about her medical competence is glowing but her bedside manner isn't exactly... shall we say... inspiring? I guess I'm spoiled by my PCP who I could seriously see myself on a girls night out with. I can't reasonably expect to want to be best friends with every doctor that attends me. BUT, given that this is supposedly a fairly exciting time for me and Hubby, a little more than perfunctory interest (even if feigned) would help me to feel like I had some kind of relationship with this woman who is going to be there on one of the most important and stressful days of my life.

The one thing that makes up for it is the fact that her nurses are all the complete opposite - friendly, enthusiastic, and inquisitive. So you don't come away feeling entirely as though you're just another name in the computer.

That said, the important things to report are:

• Genetic screening test came back negative on all counts. Breathe a sigh of relief - I'm so glad I don't have to think about doing that amnio!
• Baby's heartbeat is good - although it did take some agonizing minutes to find the little squirt as it dodged the doppler.
• My blood pressure is good - nothing new there. I have really low blood pressure typically.
• Weight gain... weeell... not so good. 6 lbs over 4 weeks, so about 2lbs more than they wanted. Mama needs to slow down on the "eating whatever she wants" game, unfortunately, and pick back up the exercising. Honestly, there's no reason why I can't or shouldn't - I feel good and have the energy, I've just been lazy and self indulgent. But enough now. Time to buckle back down to eating more sensibly and working out more consistently. PLUS, Hubby weighed himself and he's now 11lbs lighter than me. I know I'm pregnant but seriously, he needs to pack on some pounds and I need to slooow down.

Task for the next 4 weeks (aside from upping the exercise and lowering the calorie intake) is to find a pediatrician for the baby. I had no idea we had to do this so early on but do it we must.

This is a bit of a daunting task because I seriously don't know where to start. Most of my friends live in completely different areas and are not member of the Mercy Medical Group, which I belong to. MM Group has a fairly restrictive network of doctors that I can choose from and they're not doctors that accept patients from other medical groups and visa versa - its sort of like a mini Kaiser (if you're in the U.S. and know what that means). To the best of my knowledge, none of my mama friends are MM Group patients. In short, a referral seems unlikely.

The ObGyn mentioned two doctors in the same building that we could choose from but it sounded more like a convenience referral than one of glowing praise based upon extensive experience working with them. I'm going to try calling my PCP to see if she has any recommendations, since I trust her a little more to understand me and what I would be looking for in a doctor. Beyond that, it's going to be good old fashioned spin the bottle - pretty much how I found my PCP. Look on the website, read the profile (if they bothered to fill out anything beyond name and professional accreditations), look at the picture for a long time, and take a chance. I know, great.

Anyway, that's it from pregnancy land right now. Monday is the big ultrasound. More then, unless something new crops up before.

TTFN.