28 week U/S & Prenatal, Day Care and 1st Pediatrician Interview

The past 24 hours have been packed with appointments! Ok, so it's only four, but that is a whole lot more than normal, plus I had an all morning meeting at work yesterday. Anyway, here are the updates as promised!

28 Week Ultrasound

Wee Man G is looking cuter every time we see him! He's very active and looks completely healthy. I had the good ultrasound tech yesterday so she printed lots of pictures and looked at everything for us. I also asked her if, in her opinion, he looked big since I'm consistently measuring 1-2 weeks ahead of schedule with fundal height. She measured his foot, belly and head a few times and those measurements put him at 28w6d to 29w6d, but she said he wasn't abnormally large and at this stage it's normal to be off by a week or so. She also said, he may just be long for his age, but he's not overweight or anything. I was worried about his size because of the GD probability (more on that below in the prenatal section).

My cervix is holding steady at 3-4cm long depending on the angle. She didn't see any real evidence of funneling, so that eased my mind a ton. Though I'm somewhat sad that this was probably our last ultrasound, I know that just means that we will be meeting him soon - but not too soon!

A couple pictures:

Wee Man's Face

Wee Man's Profile

Prenatal

Dr. E was very happy with how everything is looking. She's not concerned about the fundal height, especially because I told her what the ultrasound tech said. She feels great about my cervix length and assured me that cervical length really doesn't predict anything in the 3rd trimester. My blood pressure was great and the nifedipine for those contractions has been working wonderfully. I got my progesterone shot. All in all it was fairly uneventful, unless you count the extreme joy of passing the 1 hour GTT with 117. I'm officially not gestationally diabetic! Woohoo!

Day Care

While I would love to not have to pay quite so much for Wee Man G's daycare, after having toured the center I can say it's well worth the money. There are so many fabulous things about the center. Honestly, I didn't find anything negative to say. Here are a few highlights:

1. Security. Not only do you have to buzz to get in, check in with a person and a computer (if someone other than Bryan or me picks him up, they have to be listed by us as authorized and show photo ID), but they also have closed circuit cameras watching each room and the playground that are monitored by the center's director. These things may be standard in some facilities, but I was just really impressed with it all. Also, the playgrounds have no gates - just high, thick metal fencing.
2. Diversity. I live in a fairly predominant African-American area. This is not a problem at all, but I was concerned that Wee Man would be the "odd man out" so to speak in terms of race. While it would not make or break our choosing a center, I do want him to be exposed to as many different races, ethnicities, cultures, etc, as possible. There were African-American, Caucasian and Indian children and teachers. This is a definite plus. They also are able to care for special needs kids and they have them in the regular age groups. They stress teaching children that we are all different and that's fine. We met a very cute little autistic boy who was building an elevator out of blocks. No kids were teasing him and they wanted to play with him and were his friend. This just showed me that it is a very loving and caring environment.
3. Curriculum. I know this doesn't matter too terribly much for an infant, but I love that they follow our state's guide to education - especially in kindergarten preparation. They feel that learning begins in infancy and really work to develop self esteem, knowledge, skills and sociability. They put together portfolios for each child showing their milestones, samples of their work, etc., so that when the child goes to kindergarten their teacher knows exactly where they are developmentally and can continue on the right track with them.
4. Fun.We got to meet one of the infant teachers. She was a lovely young Indian woman who we could tell genuinely enjoyed working with babies. She even did an art project with the infants yesterday - foot painting! I'm sure the little ones enjoyed the sensation of paint on their feet and the parents probably loved their babies' first artwork!
5. Communication. In addition to the daily communication between teachers, the director and parents, they also hold parent meetings every other month to keep everyone up to date on the happenings at the center, while also providing the opportunity for parents to meet each other and network.

There were many other reasons that we liked this center so much, but it's just too much to type out. We were overly impressed with every person and every policy there. We were even invited to Back to School Night in September so we could meet other parents. I will definitely be attending. Bryan may or may not depending on what grad school work he's in the midst of at that point.

1st Pediatrician Interview

Last, and to be perfectly honest, least, we met with the first pediatrician we decided to interview this morning. I won't get into the hassle it was to book this first appointment, but wow. So, after such a wonderful day yesterday, this was a huge let down. The building was hard to find and the complex it was in was not well marked. We went to the correct floor and it was all open with half walls separating different specialty areas. In one large waiting room with these sections, was Pediatrics, OB/GYN, Internal Medicine, and a central reception desk. It was all laid out in a very confusing way.

We went up to the central reception desk to make sure we were in the right place. There were two receptionists. We were ignored at first while they literally stared at each other. Then one turned towards us, but didn't even look up at us. I took that opportunity to ask if we were in the right place. She said yes, and checked us in. She was not friendly at all and honestly she seemed like she could have cared less to even be there. I know we all have days like that, but at least look me in the eye.

We checked in and sat down to wait in the designated pediatric area. They had a little table in the center and some wall mounted toys, as well as a tv playing kids shows (what in the world show has a big stuffed penguin who calls himself "Weiner"????). A nurse stepped out of a door around a corner in the OB/GYN area and called a last name that started like ours, but had an extra syllable on the end. Since our name is not difficult at all to pronounce and she was calling from the OB area, we figured it wasn't us, but we got up to go around and ask, and she had already disappeared. A minute later she came out and said the same last name, but added Bryan's first name to it...or at least her version of his name: Barry. Really? Ok, whatever. She was nice enough, just apparently couldn't read a simple name. I thought, "shrug it off, Kate. The doctor is what is most important here."

She was ok. Nice enough, but nothing spectacular. She almost didn't even know what to say to us. She's the ONLY pediatrician in the entire big building, but they are working on hiring another. After hours, if we have a question or problem there is a 24 hour nurse's line to call, but you don't get to talk to her. There is an urgent care center open until 1am during the week, but it's in a shady part of town especially at night.

Sorry, but no. There is very little I can say that is positive here, and I want only the best for my Wee Man.

This weekend: finishing cleaning the mancave out so it becomes a nursery labor day weekend. Exciting!