An update on my family: everything worked out swimmingly. My husband made it home from Afghanistan and ten days later I gave birth to a darling little girl. We couldn't have asked for a more perfect turn of events.
But when we took her to her 48 hour well baby appointment, I heard words I've never before heard in the Army.
The doctor asked us who our pediatrician is. We just stared at her blankly. I finally answered, "Um, whoever you assign us to?" She said our community has too many babies and is having open enrollment so that we could choose to go to any of the clinics on post or even off post. I was stunned.
We had to choose something? We don't just get assigned? Am I through the looking glass?
So then it became a rush, because our daughter needed a two week appointment. She needed to be enrolled in DEERS and Tricare and I needed to find a pediatrician in two weeks. The first two hectic and sleep-deprived weeks of having a new baby in the house! Oy. I was frustrated that this was the first I had heard of this, that no one mentioned at any of my prenatal appointments that I needed to start shopping for pediatricians.
I asked around and got the name of a recommended local doctor, and my husband finally went to fill out the paperwork. And got told that they have no idea what he was talking about and that we would be assigned to a pediatrician at the clinic he's been assigned to.
D'oh.
I knew it was too weird to be true that we'd get a choice in the matter...
