I will be starting my 3rd trimester tomorrow. This is so crazy to me. When I read my weekly updates about what's going on with the baby and what to be thinking about, they are starting to focus more and more on labor and delivery and preparing to have the baby. At my last OB appointment, the nurse asked if I'd picked a pediatrician yet and sent in my paperwork to the hospital. My response was, "It's time to do that already??". She said yes. Joel is moving like crazy these days. My doctor told me I needed to start doing kick counts this week (monitoring how long it takes to feel him move 10 times). She said to call if I don't feel him move 10 times in 4 hours. Well this morning, I counted 10 movements in about 2 minutes. I haven't slept well at all the last several nights and I'm afraid this may become more and more the norm as I get more uncomfortable and have more things on my mind. I seem to feel extremely sleepy at very inappropriate times, such as 5 in the evening and then not so sleepy at times like 1, 2 and 4 am. I'm hoping this bizarre schedule will pay off when Joel is born and I'm awake at all those wonderful middle of the night hours anyway.
I'm feeling frustrated and somewhat unsure of what to do about choosing a pediatrician. My Dr. told me that I can't take my baby home without a pediatrician, so I called Tricare today to figure out how it works to choose one. She told me that I can use anyone within the network for the first 60 days and then once I enroll Joel in Tricare Prime, they will assign me one, probably at a military facility. I have been super spoiled so far in my Tricare experience, in that I have never had to go to a military doctor for anything. Even my OB is civilian and I love it. I was really hoping to have a civilian with Joel as well. I've had enough experience dealing with military medicine through Sam and heard enough stories to know that I want a civilian if at all possible. The part that mostly frustrates me though is that I will probably have to change doctor's from when Joel is born to when he is fully enrolled in Tricare. I worked at a pediatrician's office for a year and a half and set up many new baby appointments, so I know how this works in the civilian world. I had visions of meeting with the pediatrician beforehand and checking out the office to make sure that I like the Dr. and the atmosphere. I'm not so excited about seeing one person for the first few visits and then having to start all over somewhere else. I would love some advice from other military mom's who have gone through this. Is it better to use Tricare standard? How did it work for you when your baby was first born? I'd love any advice any of you have to offer!
We have been military medicine the whole way, on tri-care prime. We have loved our military health care. Now we don't get to keep the same doctor that much, but we have had no complaints about our care. This has been since 1972 and on. For many of those years our primary provider has been Naval Health Clinic Annapolis.
ReplyDeleteI can let you know more info in about a week but here's what I know so far. Baby will automatically be Tricare Standard after he is born for about 90 days. Then it's up to you to make the switch to either Tricare Prime or continue on Tricare Standard. If you live further than 30 minutes from your military provider, you can go to a civilian dr and still be on Tricare Prime. You will need to confirm this with Tricare. (I received a letter in the mail but my neighbors didn't get a letter and they had to call). This applies to us so we are sticking with Tricare Prime and able to see our civilian provider. However, I have not been happy with our on-base medical experience so if we had to go to base, I would choose Tricare Standard just for the flexibility and choice. Let me know if you need any more info.
ReplyDeleteAlso, here is another little piece of info I found out that you ay also want to check on. You have a OB referral but that doesn't automatically come with a hospital referral for having the baby. Be sure that your dr puts the referral into the system and follow up with Tricare to be sure it's there. It's not like they are going to refuse you service at the hospital but you could get a huge bill that could be a hassel to take care. I just assumed it was taken care of and this was not the case. Let me know if you need any other info. Glad things are going well!