I found my new OB (long, TTC mentioned)

I met with her today for a "pre-conception" visit; she was recommended by the midwife I saw during my last pregnancy. This is the first OB I've seen at Kaiser that actually decorated her exam room, a nice touch compared to the sterile rooms I've seen in the past.

A few things she did right: She looked at my chart and familiarized herself w/ my case before coming into the room (seems like a no-brainer, right? You'd be surprised how few Dr.'s actually do this). She said she remembered seeing me in the hospital (What? A Dr. that remembers patients that aren't even her own?) I suppose maybe I was big news in L&D that day though

The first thing she did was ask about Nathaniel. She asked if we had a boy or girl and what his name was. That meant so much to me! Then she sat down and asked me how I was doing, how DH is doing, what we are doing to cope, etc. She looked me in the eye and listened to everything I said. Then we moved on to the medical stuff. She turned the computer towards me and we looked at my chart together. We discussed everything in my history, from both my pregnancies. She told me the key thing is making sure we have a plan in place- she took the words right out of my mouth!

So here's the plan:
Before I get pg again, she recommended a few blood tests- a CBC (I had a pp hemorrhage) & a thyroid check (to make sure my thyroid was not affected by the hemorrhage). She also suggested a hysteroscopy to look inside my uterus to ease my fears that any scar tissue has formed from the d&c I had pp. She also suggested I use OPK's to verify that I'm ovulating.

Once I get pg I will be monitored closely by both her & the perinatologist. When I hit 12-14 weeks I will have a McDonald cerclage placed. After that I will likely get progesterone shots. The way she explained it, they will treat me for both incompetent cervix and preterm labor simultaneously, so that one doesn't trigger the other (since we don't know which came first when we lost Nathaniel).

It was a long visit, I'd say 1/2 an hour or more. I didn't feel rushed at all. She allowed time at the end for me to ask even more questions. The only bad part of the visit was the nurse who checked me in- when she first looked at my chart she commented that I'd lost a lot of weight, and then said "Were you pregnant? Your chart says 33 weeks." Ugh. Obviously I'm not 33 weeks pregnant, lady. Then when I was waiting for the Dr. in the exam room, I could hear the doppler on a baby's heartbeat next door- I had to plug my ears and breathe deeply.

I'm a little nervous about the hysteroscopy and disappointed that it will mean TTC will have to wait another month, but it's probably the right thing to do to just make sure everything is ok before we go ahead. I feel relieved though to have found a Dr. that I like and that seems to have a vested interest in making sure everything goes smoothly next time.