Picking a Pediatrician

Well we have met with three wonderful pediatricians in the area and we have heard good and bad things about all of them! I will say the bad things weren't that bad but you know everyone has opposing opinions. We had actually pretty much made up our minds on pediatrician #2 and almost canceled our last appointment but a coworker of mine really like the 3rd one so we had to go check her out. I was really hoping to hate the 3rd one just because it would make it an easy decision...well in fact we LOVED her. Crap. On our way to lunch we both felt the exact same way!

Before meeting with them you should be prepared to ask questions because most of the time they give you the floor first. Naturally it's hard to think of these when you are there so I did some research on what to ask and here is what we came up with:

Questions	Doctor 1	Doctor 2	Doctor 3
Are you open to doing an alternative vaccine schedule?	Yes but reluctant	Yes no problem	Yes. She only likes to give 2 vaccines at at time anyways
Do you have hospital privileges- do you see the baby at the hospital?	Has hospital privileges but does not see the baby at the hospital feels the neonatal specialists are more qualified	Yes, she will see the baby at the hospital	No but she feels the neonatal specialists are more qualified to examine the baby.
Office Hours?	Monday-Friday Babies should be seen in the mornings on certain days only.	8-5 They have three offices that rotate late office hours. Open on Saturdays.	Monday-Friday. Babies can come anytime and will be taken straight to the nursery that is only for babies. You do not sit in the waiting room.
How do you handle last minute sick appointments? After hour appointments? Answering phone calls?	You can email any questions you have and make weekend appointments	There is a Doctor always on call to answer questions.	She (the doctor) is always on call.
Will other physicians in the practice see my baby?	No	Yes, there are three doctors who rotate all offices.	No
Additional information	Really support breastfeeding, small office, close to Danielle’s work	You can go to any office, your information is online (safe website), locations are great- close to Jamie’s work and the house, really nice	Small office more personalized approach. She likes to spend more time speaking with her patients about the why/how she does things versus just giving prescriptions out. She believes that the parent should feel comfortable asking questions. Great location for us right now and across from Jamie’s office. Really cute office. Staff was extremely nice. CLEAN- they focus on germ control.

You can see why it is such a hard decision between 2 and 3. But we picked #3! Jamie immediately said this is the best office for me. I like the fact that I only have to see one doctor who is willing to explain why and have a discussion with me. She wasn't intimidating at all and I felt fine discussing my opinions about vaccines with her. She even said I know exactly how you feel (about being a little jaded because of my job) because she has her own kids too. I really liked that they had a nursery just for babies and I wouldn't be sitting in the waiting room. Plus when I call her at 2am she knows who I am and it's not a random person that I'm talking to (which I experienced with Jamie's surgery and I felt like they weren't helpful at all because they didn't know him from Adam).  There are cons of course to only have one physician you are seeing but we will see how it goes. And we decided if we do move later we can always switch to Dr #2.