Ugh, the only thing less fun than moving, is moving while pregnant. I had to leave behind my OB and the hospital where Noah was born, both of which were awesome!
As I scour the internet and facebook looking for recommendations and reviews in Atlanta I thought I would pay it forward and recommend/review the OB and hospital in Jacksonville. So if you are looking for a person and place to deliver your baby in Jacksonville check out Dr. Michelle McLanahan and St. Lukes Hospital. Both were awesome!
The only warnings I will offer are if you are scheduled to see Dr. McLanahan be prepared to wait. Since she is a single doctor practice she is one busy lady, but she is well worth the wait! I’ve found that if I know ahead of time that I will be waiting an hour then it’s not that bad. It’s when you expect to be seen in 15-20 minutes and it takes an hour that it’s horrible. Bring books, snacks you plan ahead and it won’t be that bad.
Also, St. Lukes was the perfect place to deliver and our nurse Diana was amazing! Request her if you can! The only warning for the hospital is that there is no nursery so be prepared to have the baby in your room. This was great because that meant Noah was with us the entire time (all of his tests were done in our room), but that also meant that Noah was with us the entire time. 🙂 When we were taking the tour one of the other couples expressed concern about this and the nurses response was “well your going to have to get used to taking care of your baby some time.” She said this very nicely, and since I was a first time mom then I didn’t speak up to disagree. Now, knowing what I know, I pitty the poor nurse who makes that statement to me. I now know that after going through a full day of labor and 3 hours of pushing I didn’t need a lesson in taking care of my baby, what I needed was rest and recovery.
Since hindsight is 20/20 I have a slightly different approach to searching for a person and place to deliver my second baby. I should actually correct myself, hindsight is gloriously not 20/20 when it comes to having a baby. Thankfully I learned a lot and the rest is really blurry. LOL But regardless my new approach to having this baby is to find the hospital first, and then the doctor. I realized that while it is extremely important to have a great OB, the hospital is almost as important. So rather than pick a great OB who might deliver at a good, but not great hospital. I will find the best hospital and then get to pick from their long list of more than likely great OBs.
So far it’s going good. I have pretty much decided on Piedmont Hospital in Buckhead. It appears to be a very nice and quiet hospital where I should get a pretty personal experience. The other highly recommended hospital was Northside. They are apparently one of the best hospitals in the country for delivering babies, but many have referred to it as a baby factory. They deliver like a billion babies a month. I’m sure they are a wonderful hospital, but I really liked how small and quiet St. Lukes was.
Wish me luck as my search continues!
-Tracy (16 weeks pregnant and Noah will be 16 months on Monday!!)
Here’s a little bonus picture just to liven this post up a little 🙂 This picture was taken after going to the Melting Pot with Eric for Valentines Day. I was probably about 9 weeks pregnant. My sister said it looks like I smuggled the fondue pot out! Did I mention I swell up pretty bad when I’m pregnant? LOL Same thing happened with Noah, hopefully this baby will be under 8 lbs too!
