Schedule Change

Today, we had a scheduled doctor's appointment to check Jude's progress. We heard the baby's heartbeat, loud and strong, a little more than 140 beats per minute. Jude has gained four more pounds, about 26 pounds overall. She measured right at 35 weeks, which is where we thought she would be. Our doctor said she's doing great! We return to the doctor in two weeks, then every week thereafter.

We were disappointed to learn that due to a scheduling "snafu," our planned C-section was not actually set for April 2, 2008, the date we selected at our visit several weeks ago. For some reason, the scheduling nurse failed to let our doctor (or us) know that April 2 date was unavailable, as a result of which all of the dates near our date had filled up since our last doctor's visit. Jude had to leave to make it to an afternoon meeting for work, so I stayed behind to haggle with the scheduling nurse, office manager, etc.

After I waited for almost an hour, the scheduling nurse emerged and advised me with a reassuring grin that she had arranged for us to be on the waiting list for six days, including April 2, 2008. When I pressed her, she tried to downplay the fact that she couldn't even tell me when we would find out what our actual date for the planned C-section would be. As you can imagine, I was livid. I could just imagine Jude's reaction when I told her not only did we not know when the planned C-section would be, but we didn't know when we would know!?! That makes a lot of sense, doesn't it?

Reaching into my bag of disgruntled customer tricks, I pulled out one of my favorites - the "that's unacceptable, I want to speak to your supervisor routine." It works virtually every time. After waiting a little longer, I was ushered into the office manager's office. After some polite hell raising, some telephone calls by the office manager and a brief meeting with our doctor, the planned C-section was rescheduled for the morning of March 28, 2008.

Whew! An exhausting and frustrating afternoon that ended well. I guess that's why all the books say to "be flexible" in making your birth plan.