Cats and Babies, volume 4

Once again, our cat has proved to be another effective preparation tool for pending parenthood. Now that I'm in the last leg of pregnancy, we have to pick a pediatrician that will come see our little guy in the hospital and continue to take care of him during his early months. In a perfect world, I would love to find someone that could continue to be our son's doctor until he's an adult. This is easier said than done. I googled "pediatrician" in our immediate area, and came up with hundreds of results. I narrowed it down by doctors that were covered by our insurance and had privileges at the hospitals in the area we prefer. With still a significant number of results, I started weeding through them based on where the doctors went to medical school and their history. I finally got the number down to what I thought was a manageable amount, I started perusing websites only to find I still had a lot of work to do.

Did you know that nearly all pediatricians "strongly suggest" you come in for an open house to talk to them, learn about their theories of pediatric medicine, and that some even require applications so they can choose their patients? At first glance, this doesn't sound like a bad idea--but I still had about 20 offices I was interested in. In addition to that, I realized that there were other things I didn't know enough about--like vaccine options and methods--to choose a doctor. So I started researching, and hopefully when husband and I decide how we feel about the specific type of care we want our son to receive, there will be a doctor on our list that matches those things. I feel sort of silly: all the time I've spent poring over paint samples, I should have been thinking about how I feel about vaccines and the methodology of how I want our doctor to approach the care of our baby. Don't worry, little guy: mommy is totally on it now. Stay tuned.

At the very least, we hope our experiences taking our little man to the doctor go better than our cat's most recent visit to the vet and groomer.

Of course, we won't have to force our kid, hissing and spitting, into a carrier that looks like a tote bag. And hopefully our kid won't attack other patients in the waiting room, scratching the doctor on his mission. And most of all, I hope when we take our child to the doctor it won't involve a two part, five hour session that requires a tether, a neon green head cone, and purple medical tape on all legs and arms. I know our cat is a little hard to handle, but seriously?

I don't know who was more stressed out after kitty's adventures at PetSmart--me, or the cat. A friend of ours, who is expecting her third boy a month before me, said, "try translating that to suctioning out a one-year-olds nose and trying to get him to take Tylenol at 2 AM for a 102 fever." While that scenario is less violent, I can completely see nose suctioning to be even more stressful than two of us holding the cat down and zipping him into his tote bag.

While I could have done without the drama that came with taking the cat to the vet and groomer, I did learn some things that I think will apply to early doctor visits with our kid. When I was calm, so was the cat. Even when I could tell the cat was MAD at me, he still got as close to me as he could (attempting to hide under my shirt at one point). When I felt like things weren't going as they should, I spoke up. And when I got a follow up phone call from the vet, I was not hesitant in telling them that I would not be returning and why. I learned that a well timed cat treat can do wonders to soothe a ruffled kitty soul. And probably the most important lesson I learned: when Mom is at the end of her rope, it's time to call in the big guns: Dad. My husband is the alpha male in kitty's world, and I'm sure it won't be much different with our son. When my husband is around, the cat sat still longer, didn't hide in the back of the closet at the first sight of his carrier, and it took far less treats to assuage him. Moral of the story? For at least the first few visits, until this new mom gets her pediatrician sea legs, going to the doctor will be a family event.