I'm changing pediatricians!

We went in for our 9 month check up a week an a half ago. Anyone care to check my math on that? How old were the girls? If you said less than a week away from 10 months you'd be right!

So am I a slacker mom that doesn't call and make my girls well baby check ups in a decent amount of time to be seen at that actual milestone? HA! Not at all. We call a minimum of 8-12 weeks in advance to try and get in for a well baby check up with my pedi as close to their actual month birthdate as possible. This is the second time it has been nearly a month off. Seriously, who is THAT busy that they can't see their patients on time if they call 2+ months in advance? I don't think I should have to book my appointments out multiple months in advance. Am I being unrealistic?

So that is one reason I am looking at switching pediatiricians. The other? Well, you saw my posts over the last two weeks about momma knowing best and the nurse blowing me off? I'm not a fan of the office staff. The front desk staff are fine, but the nurses are awful! I made the appointment to have Bri seen two weeks ago for a sick visit and we went in - the pediatrician checked for an ear infection - negative. Then she thought maybe she had a UTI so they took a urine sample. Well, we never got a call back with the results from the lab so the nurse told us no news was good news, meaning that apparently Bri didn't have a UTI. Okay, fine. During that visit we also decided to switch Bri's med for her acid reflux again as she's been spitting up and burpy for the last several weeks (boo!), so that was an ongoing issue again.

Following our sick visit Tuesday night/Wednesday morning Bri was up from 1 AM-6AM every 10 MINUTES, screaming blood murder. Nothing would calm her down. I gave her tylenol/advil, fed her, rocked her, changed her, bounced her, sang to her, put her in bed with us, but to no avail.

I called the doctor's office first thing Wednesday morning to ask what I should do - this was not normal and something was obviously going on (even though her physical exam was "perfect" on Tuesday). 6 PM (10 HOURS LATER) the nurse calls me back and tells me that since she has an ear infection (WTF???) that her ear hurts and that is normal, but it should get better over the next 24-48 hours if I just keep giving her the antibiotics.

UM, WHAT?

She was checked for an ear infection, but the pediatrician said she didn't have one. So that wasn't the problem, and she wasn't taking antibiotics. Seriously??? LOOK AT MY CHILD'S CHART BEFORE YOU CALL ME BACK! So she says sorry and says she will call the pediatrician back then call me again. When she calls me back she has nothing new to offer - try giving tylenol and advil and see if that helps. Yeah, my issue though lady is that we have NO IDEA what is wrong with my child and why we are having to medicate her! Whatever.

So, I decide to problem solve on my own. I figure maybe it is her acid reflux and she is having issues with that. I call the pharmacy, and they say they have the script ready to go, we just need to come and pick it up. So we head to Walgreens, only to find out that the pediatrician's office AGAIN dropped the ball and didn't call in the pre-auth so that the insurance would cover the medication. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I was standing right there when the pediatrician put in the note for the nurse to call in the pre auth because she was showing a new physician in the clinic how to do it. So I know it was put into the system. One of her office staff once again forgot to do it. So irritating.

Then last Thursday we had our nearly a month late well baby check up. I talk to the pediatrician very specifically about these issues. She defended her office staff on the medication and said that it can take 6-8 hours for a pre-auth to go through. I stated back that it had been 36 hours and it still hadn't been done. She continued to defend her office staff and said that Walgreens hadn't requested it from them. I personally talked to the insurance company, and they were the ones waiting on the doctor's office. They had what they needed from the pharmacy.
Strike one.

Then I expressed my concerns about Tuesday night/Wednesday morning when Bri was up all night. My pedi told me that she was up and crying because she has developed object permanence and has learned that if she cries that I will come and get her. Further, I should just let her cry it out. Okay lady, strike freaking two. She was SCREAMING BLOODY MURDER. Like not whining, not whimpering, like straight out screaming. For 5 HOURS. And she didn't stop when I was holding her, so she wasn't crying because she wanted her mommy to pick her up.

Then I expressed my concerns that the girls are starting to refuse my milk (or formula, either way) and some days I have a hard time forcing them to drink 12 oz. The absolute minimum that a baby should be drinking at this age is 18 oz. So this looks like a problem right? Apparently not to her. She told me that the girls were fine on weight so unless they started to lose weight that I didn't need to force them to drink the milk.

Um, and I would know if they were losing weight how? I don't have a scale at home to weigh them on. . .and wait, once babies become mobile don't they lose some of their baby weight? So how would I know the difference between healthy and unhealthy weight loss untill it was too late? I wouldn't.

She then questioned me about the girls sleeping arrangements and promptly proceeded to tell me that Bri should not be sleeping in her pack and play in our room with us. And I needed to get her out of our room as soon as possible, like within the next couple of days. Look, I knew that Bri couldn't stay in our room forever, but there are plenty of mommas out there that co-sleep with their infants and would literally laugh at my pedi if she said that to them. And really, what the heck difference does it make to her?? If my child is in my room, that affects her how? It doesn't. I had every intention of moving Bri out of our room and had been waiting for the right time. When *I* was ready. (BTW - I moved her out 5 days ago and haven't looked back - but it wasn't because the pedi told me to - it was a long time coming and I had to be ready - which I finally was)

The pediatrician was very pointed with me on several issues while we were there, and I didn't like it. I also didn't like that she couldn't come up with a reason for Bri's fever for a week, or her crying for 5 hours straight. She has been a constipated baby for months, so I asked her about that and if that could be causing issues and she blew me off.
Done.

When she walked out the door at the end of the visit she said "see you at a year". . .I promptly stated back as the door closed "no you won't". . .
UGH.

Seriously. I'm so switching pedi's. I need one who actually listens to me. I've set up the girls 1 year visit with my old pediatrician (for October 17th - their birthday is October 13th - NICE). I didn't want to bring the girls to him to start with because I thought he would be retiring within the next 10 years and I didn't want to have to move the girls to a different pediatrician at that time. Bad idea! I should have just gone with him to start with because here I am, moving them at 10 months old. Pathetic.

Please be honest and tell me if I am over reacting. I really think that the doctor that I, Si, or the girls are seeing needs to listen to me and address my concerns. And it shouldn't take 2+ months to get a well baby appointment. Seriously! These girls are our life! We couldn't let anything happen to them!!

Hope you all had a most excellent weekend!
Until next time -
Megan

A whole post about poop?! Really?!

TMI Alert! If you don't want to hear about, think about, or read about poop, stop reading NOW! HA - there was my fair warning!!

I was reading a fellow blogger's post a couple of weeks ago and the topic of poop came up. I thought, geez, I could do an entire post about our poo adventures! I mean seriously now. Pre babies, poop was a topic that was not readily discussed. . .ever. But now, somehow poo has become a daily topic of discussion! How often are they going? How much are they going? What's the consistency (hard/soft/pasty)? Color? Smell? Blowout? No blowout? Clothes change needed? How many wipes did it take to clean her up (two wiper/three wiper/four wiper?!)? Funny how much things change when you have kids!

(But they are super cute and full of smiles, so you don't mind the changes one bit!)

So. . .my reason for bringing up the topic of poo is that I am sure some of you have some useful advice for me. Yup, I am soliciting advice again. Imagine that! BUT, you guys have a wealth of knowledge and experience, so I know that pretty much regardless of the topic (even poo), that you guys probably have some info that can help a momma out! So here goes!

I make all of the girls baby food. We do chicken breast (and now chicken thigh), pears, peaches, bananas, applesauce, sweet potatoes, squash, green beans, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, then yogurt (which I obviously don't make), oatmeal cereal, and prunes (on occasion, which the girls really don't like).

In a normal day they have cereal and pears, chicken and pears, sweet potatoes, peaches, broccoli or california blend, and yogurt. Some days we add in mac and cheese or mashed potatoes, or add a snack of bananas and applesauce mixed, but for the most part, the first sentence is what we eat for solids in a day. We drink breast milk too - 15-20 oz per day, and have one formula bottle at night.

We have a daily issue. Constipation. The pediatrician suggested that we try giving the girls juice - no more than 4 oz a day (we give them 2 oz juice mixed with 2 oz water)- to see if that would help them "go". While it does some of the time, there are plenty of times that it doesn't.

I was trying to figure out what was causing our problems in the first place to see if there was a way that we could correct it before it got to the constipation phase. When the girls had their ER mishap about 2 weeks ago, we had to go to giving them breast milk only for 24 hours. No juice, no formula, no food. Only breastmilk or pedialyte. While they were doing this "diet", they had no problems "going", and it was a normal, happy, poo consistency, color, etc.. We slowly started to add foods back in after the 24 hour period. When we added the chicken in, we got our issues back. We've reduced the amount of chicken that we give them a day to about 1 oz each, and I mix it with pears (as pears are a "p" so they are an anti-constipator), so I wouldn't think that it would cause too many issues. . .but it somehow still does.

Chicken is the only meat the girls are getting right now. I asked the pediatrician if it would make sense to switch out the meat to a red meat like steak, but she said that we would see the same problems regardless. So. . .I'm curious. Am I the only one in babyland with these issues? If not, what do you guys do to help your little ones "go"? Does it work?

If they are haivng these pooing issues now, are they just going to continue to have issues or even get worse as they get older? How strict do I need to be with their diets and avoid certain foods?

The suggestions I have heard so far to assist in the "going" process include adding apricots to their diet, avoiding the apples and bananas (which would be okay, but, I don't want the girls to never have apples or bananas simply because they could constipate them - I think that's silly!), and now leaving the skins on the fruits when I bake and puree them to add fiber. I've also heard that some moms give their babies miralax by sprinkling it on top of their food, which we could do if we got desperate. All good suggestions really. But what is tried and true for my readers? Throw it at me ladies! My ears are open! =)

As always, your advice and guidance is appreciated!!!

Until next time -
Megan