Question For The Pregnant Providers

[KEG123]

What do you do when you have doctors appointments? Do you have an assistant watch them? Your DH? A family member?

Soon I'll have one full time and 2 pt. I had the parents sign a permission to transport form so I can take the one full timer with (and my 3 yr old son) so I'll just have to schedule for days I don't have the PT-ers.

[SilverSabre25]

My DH is my secondary provider and up until now he's stayed with them when I had appts--I schedule my appts for his day off (thursday) during naptime. As of this week though, his schedule changes and his day off is on Friday. Of course, my provider's office isn't open on Friday and my sister is having a baby any day now (maybe even today!) so she can't watch them. Luckily, the office is open late on Wednesday so I can have the rest of my appts then, after DH gets home. Only one more two-week appt, and then all one-weekers! Baby's getting close ::

[KEG123]

Yeah my full timer is here 8-5 and the docs office is only open those exact hours. No late days. Parents are ok with me bringing him, and I'm not opposed to bringing him either, really until the end where they do internals I wouldn't want him to be there. Also it's the same office the mom uses. I might have a family member come over if I get more FT kids.... just haven't told that particular family member I'm pregnant yet.

[KEG123]

And my dbf would have to be cpr/first aid certified. Which... I'm not sure he'd be willing to spend all day dong that.

[kitkat]

I had my mom stay with the kids for my appts.

[ammama]

I'm not open on Fridays, so I schedule all my midwife appointments for Fridays, along with any other appointments that I/my kids have.

[Unregistered]

My mom watches the kids and I schedule all appts at 1 pm so all the kids have just gone to bed and since its the first afternoon appt I don't end up waiting too long to see my doctor. I also asked her at my first ob appt how far appt she would like me to sched and I sched a couple appts ahead of time so that unless something unforseen comes up I know my next 3 months appts now.

Also, I try to look ahead to vacay schedules and do it when most kids are off and then offer a free no-charge day off to the one that doesnt otherwise take days off. That way I can do the appts and have a day off without kids and they dont have to pay so they seem less stressed about it.

[safechner]

When I was pregnant with my second child and I took a dcb and a daughter with me every time I go to the doctor for checking up. I have the parents' permission and I have no problem at all.

[KEG123]

When I was pregnant with my second child and I took a dcb and a daughter with me every time I go to the doctor for checking up. I have the parents' permission and I have no problem at all.

Great! I'm glad I'm not the only one doing this.

And my doctors office is less than half a mile away, so really, we'd be back in under an hour I'd assume. I plan to do the appointments in the morning, probably after breakfast, maybe at 9:30 or so? They have a nice play area and I'd bring toys for the actual doctors office. I also have a close friend of the family who works there who watched my son while they delivered the news of my miscarriage last time.

[blueclouds29]

reading this makes me scared when i become pregnant (the summer hopefully). I have NO ONE to fill in for me. I only watch 2 kids plus my own 2 year old. Soon i hope to fill in 2 spots. But i have no family(on my side) here by i do have sister in laws but they have their own kids. I just don't know what i'll do . I'm sure my Husbands job won't appreciate him taking off all the time. hmmm something for me to think about.

[KEG123]

Then most likely you'd have to a. make sure parents can pick up early or drop off late on certain days (or take a full day off) or b. hire an assistant to come in for your appointments.

reading this makes me scared when i become pregnant (the summer hopefully). I have NO ONE to fill in for me. I only watch 2 kids plus my own 2 year old. Soon i hope to fill in 2 spots. But i have no family(on my side) here by i do have sister in laws but they have their own kids. I just don't know what i'll do . I'm sure my Husbands job won't appreciate him taking off all the time. hmmm something for me to think about.

[blueclouds29]

Then most likely you'd have to a. make sure parents can pick up early or drop off late on certain days (or take a full day off) or b. hire an assistant to come in for your appointments.

i don't make enough money to hire an assistant. I only watch 2 kids at the moment. I've had an ad on Craigslist for over a month and not a hit yet
Will figure something out. But A is probably the best right now.

[SilverSabre25]

reading this makes me scared when i become pregnant (the summer hopefully). I have NO ONE to fill in for me. I only watch 2 kids plus my own 2 year old. Soon i hope to fill in 2 spots. But i have no family(on my side) here by i do have sister in laws but they have their own kids. I just don't know what i'll do . I'm sure my Husbands job won't appreciate him taking off all the time. hmmm something for me to think about.

Depending on where you live, you could always use a midwife instead of an OB--I think some midwives make house calls.

[godiva83]

I am happy to see that a lot of you guys use your DH's as backups! My hubby works for the police so has all sort of different shifts so this would be doable for me! Did you just ask the parents or tell them in the interview- and did any of the parents have a hard time with it?

[SilverSabre25]

I am happy to see that a lot of you guys use your DH's as backups! My hubby works for the police so has all sort of different shifts so this would be doable for me! Did you just ask the parents or tell them in the interview- and did any of the parents have a hard time with it?

Because up until now DH has worked a split shift (5 hours in morning, 4 hours at home, 5 hours in evening) and had one weekday off each week, he's my "official" secondary provider, so parents have always known about it in the interviews. From here on (we had to switch him to a normal 8-hr shift--not by choice) I'll still make it crystal clear to parents during interviews that DH is my FULL assistant and when he's here he does as much for the daycare as I do--and that includes staying with everyone while I run out in the afternoon for appts, errands, whatever, or taking off half a day when I'm sick, anything like that.