Originally, based on her sales spiel, I was going to use my family Dr. as my ped. I'm glad I didn't. She was good while I was healthy, but left a lot to be desired when dh and I started having health problems. Bottom line, it seemed more convenient to use a family doc., but the ped is more of a specialist and their nurses are usually trained to be more child friendly. Also, hopefully, the germs picked up would be more the kids' germs. I found peds more responsive to emergencies, or what we moms would think would be emergencies.

so should i start looking for a ped like now or wait a few more weeks?? and what questions did you ask the ped if you had an interview

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Ashley

We did interview pediatricians before the birth of our first child. We pretty much knew we wanted the doctor we got because EVERYONE recommended him and he's always voted best pediatrician in the city, but we still interviewed a few. Plus it was nice to meet him and discuss what would happen with checkups etc before the baby was born. That way when dd was born and he came to check her out in the hospital, we already knew him. So at least have a consultation with the doc before your child is born. HTH

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Our ped. was actually my ped.

I trust her and she is super nice! She loads us up with samples! She's amazing!!! My brothers go to her too!

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I would say go for the ped. instead of a family doctor. Most ped. practices have services that you need. One that I am looking at has a free lactatation consultant. I go for an interview at my 34 week mark, which is a little late I would say so go ahead and start now. That way, in case you don't like the first place you go, you have plenty of time to schedule an interview somewhere else.

I would go ahead and interview now. I interviewed and they didn;t charge me anything for the visit. I didn't really know what to ask, but I knew I wanted to meet them before we showed up for that 1st appointment.

I would look for an office that has several Dr's and maybe even a few Nurse Practioners. Also, if you want to breastfeed, some offices have lac. specialists on site, that was wonderfull!!

How are sick child visits handled? Can you request your child's DR for that visit?
Are they open on the weekends? Who is on call? Do they have a service for on call?
DO they close for lunch? (I found that to be inconvenient.)
Do they have a call nurse for small questions?
Do they have privlages at the hospital you will be delivering at? IF not, who will see your baby in the hospital and do they take your insurance?
Do you have any formula samples? (ask even if you want to breastfeed because you never know if you'll have to supplement.)

I'm sure there are many more, but that's all I can think of now. Also, those little info sheets someone had mentioned are great, even for baby #2.

Go ahead and ask any care questions you have, because you'll have a ton of questions about 5 min after you come home and you'll be really tired and forget half of what you want to ask on that 1st visit.

I also took dh with me to the first shot visit to help me stay calm. Find out what visit that is so he can get off in advance (of course you won't know that until you deliver.)