When did you call OB?

ball.and.chain · November 2013

At what point in your pregnancy did you call to scheduled your first OB appointment? We have one picked out, and since she is very highly-rated, I am concerned it might be difficult to make an appointment. My wife's work schedule is also complicated and inflexible, which makes scheduling appointments even harder. Ideally I'd wait until my first u/s with the RE, but she doesn't do them until around 7w, and an OB usually wants you to come in between 8-10. I don't want to call too soon and risk having to call back to cancel on account of miscarriage. I'm not superstitious enough to believe that booking an appointment will affect anything, but it would just be one more sad thing to do.

How did you handle this?

ATXmommas · November 2013

It was a little different with my two pregnancies. I think my RE graduated us after two u/s with a heartbeat. That was a week earlier with the second pregnancy. So, I missed the 8 week window with the first and our first appt with OB was 11w5d. Since we saw/heard HB at our 6 and 8 week appt with RE with second, I was able to get in with OB in my 8th week - but my OB's office has multiple OBs/midwives, so it wasnt tricky to get an appt right away. Perhaps just give the OB's office a call and see what the wait would be like. Maybe that would help you decide.

KH826 · November 2013

My RE told us at our first u/s that we would have one more u/s to measure/count HB (we saw the heartbeat at the first u/s @ 6 weeks but they did not count bpm) and then we would graduate to OB if all was going well at that point. So after my 6 week u/s with my RE I called to schedule with an OB for 3-4 weeks out. I am glad I didn't wait b/c I had a hard time getting an appointment. I knew what hospital I wanted to deliver at as well as 2 practices affiliated with that hospital that I really liked, but I was open as to the specific doctor. That was a good thing b/c at that point (a month ago) many OBs didn't have any availability until December. I found one at the second pratice I called who could see me on October 30 or November 29, so I snatched up the October 30 appointment as fast as I could!

I had my last visit with my RE at 8wks and we saw and measured the HB, and then my first OB visit was 1 week later at 9wks. It's funny b/c I now have another OB appointment scheduled for November 18th (and that wasn't an option when I first called for an initial appointment) -- I got the sense that for whatever reason they only leave a small block of appointment open every month for new patients and when they fill up, they fill up. I think they reserve the rest of their availability for existing patients. Now that I am in and have been seen, I find that they are much more accomodating and flexible.

At any rate, with all of that said, if you have a specific OB in mind and you will be upset if you can't get into that specific Dr, then I would call now to schedule your first visit for somewhere around 8-10 weeks. If it ends up overlapping with your last RE visit, oh well! At least this way you will know you have the appointment.

karah0011 · November 2013

Our fertility saw us until 10 weeks then we were passed on to our OB/Midwife. We had our first appt with them at 12 weeks.

mwagner25 · November 2013

Our betas were sent to our OB, so after the second beta our OB called to schedule our appt. But we used a nurse run fertility clinic not an RE, which changes things a bit.

kristynlee710 · November 2013

My RE had us come in to confirm the pregnancy as soon as I got a positive HPT (about 7 weeks). My OB saw me at 9. I think it's doctor preference

Sending positive vibes your way!

2MamazInSeattle · November 2013

Mine was a 6 week u/s with a hb of 111, an 8 week u/s with a hb of 186 - then I went to a midwife around 10 weeks and had the appt. for our nuchal fold and Mat21 test around 11 weeks. So - my 2 cents is you could all that done at once - make an appt. for 10.5 weeks, tell them you want to do the nuchal fold and Mat 21 blood draw that day. If you need a reassurance u/s (which I totally understand) maybe your RE could be on standby (mine said "we don't like to do u/s' for mental health but we will). Just perhaps something you can do all at once so S can be there easily! Otherwise they do the initial appointment and then have you come right back to do those things...which sound like it might be hard with schedules and stuff.

Another one is to set it up for 8 weeks, and give your sister (or someone) the OB's # and in the case of a loss, have a pre-agreement that she calls to cancel for you without you having to ask or remind her to. I was figuring on taking this approach if I get pregnant.

songbird31 · November 2013

I went at 11 weeks. I would suggest maybe 10 weeks just to have time to schedule the NT scan if you are Doing that. With my appt it was a bit of a whirlwind trying to fit all of that in since there is a point where it's too late to do the NT test.

ball.and.chain · November 2013

Thanks, everyone. I am going to talk to my wife and see what she thinks. I think the bottom line is that I either have to risk cancelling due to m/c or I have to risk having a potential scheduling problem. I should probably put my big girl pants on, schedule it now, and cancel if I have to cancel.

ball.and.chain · November 2013

I have an OB appointment! Woo! It's December 4th.

FTR I am glad I called now because the OB I wanted didn't have any availability until January! @-)

We did end up with someone on the Best of Boston list, though, so I have no complaints.

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