First day out with baby...

I took my son for his 1 week checkup at his pediatrician. There is a hospital very close to my house, not the one I delivered at but one where I had all of my sonograms and non-stress tests. I thought it would be very convenient. I could walk there if I wanted.

So my husband and I set out for the appointment. It was freezing. It was rain/snowing and very windy. We bundled up the baby and covered his car seat with a blanket. We walked into the building, up the elevator and into the waiting room. I was horrified. It was the most dirty doctor's office I had ever seen. I would have expected to see toys and coloring books everywhere because this is where kids are waiting. But I wasn't expecting to see the dirt and grime. I checked in and filled out some paperwork. After a long wait we were called back.

First they weighed him and he had lost more weight. He was now only 6lbs, 2oz. The weighing station was a little table/scale covered in paper. I had to completely undress the baby, diaper and all. Of course he peed everywhere. But this was all right in full view of the waiting room. Maybe that was normal, I don't know.

After he was weighed, we had to wait in the patient's room forever. I was getting really anxious because I wanted to feed him. He was supposed to have eaten already. He wasn't crying so I knew he was probably fine but I felt like something bad would happen if I didn't feed him. Eventually the doctor came in. Well she wasn't the pediatrician, she was a resident or intern or something like that. She examined the baby and told us that he had an umbilical hernia. She said that it would eventually go away as the muscles of his stomach wall strengthened. But if they didn't, he would need surgery. My heart stopped at that point. She told me not to worry. How is a brand new mother not supposed to worry when they hear something like that? But then the doctor started to look in his ears with a scope. There were scope covers right next to it but she just stuck the scope in his ear and didn't use a cover. I was a little freaked out by that. Then she kept looking in his ears for a long time. I thought something was wrong. Turns out there was something wrong. She couldn't see anything. The scope wasn't plugged in so she didn't have any light. She moved the entire examining table with the baby on it so she could reach down and plug it in. I wanted to grab him off the table and run out of there.

Then the pediatrician came in and examined him again. His little wee wee looked good and she reiterated the hernia diagnosis. She also said that I needed to continue feeding him every 2-3 hours and try to increase his serving size. He needed to gain weight back. She wanted to see him in another week for a weight check. Then she said goodbye and left the room. We could hear a child screaming in another room and an adult yelling at her at the top of her lungs. I felt like I was in twighlight zone.

We bundled the baby up for our trek back out into the nasty weather. When I got home I immediately started looking up other pediatricians. I found one that sounded good and was part of the group that my mother's doctors belonged to. My mother liked the offices so I decided to call and see if they were accepting new patients. They were and I was relieved. I also felt guilty that I was going behind my pediatrician's back. But I had to be comfortable with my son's doctor. I just had to be. There was no compromising on this one.

So with a new doctor lined up for the following week, I fed my baby and he was content.