Welcoming Your New Baby

Congratulations on the birth of your baby!

Let me take a moment to introduce myself. My name is Nicole Turnbo, and I am a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner. I have been a pediatric nurse for 25 years. I decided to further my education several years ago, and attended Vanderbilt University and earned my Peds NP degree. I am board certified as a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner. I have 3 children ages 22 thru 16. I certainly understand the emotions and exhaustion of being a new parent! I work at HealthWorks Family Medicine in conjunction with my husband, Dr. Kyle Turnbo (Family Dr. for 22 years.) Yes….I work with my husband, and we haven’t killed each other yet! My other colleagues at HealthWorks Family Medicine are Dr. Mittendorf, Dr. Kinchen, and Rachel Crowley, PA-C. Together we are excited to take care of your new little one.

I love children of all ages, but caring for your newborn from the start is an extra blessing. To provide care from the very beginning and to see them grow up is quite rewarding. Parenting can be very demanding, and I want to be your partner thru this journey. These are exciting times, and there will surely be many questions. HealthWorks Family Medicine is here to help! Regularly scheduled well-baby check-ups are the time to get your routine questions answered. I want to offer you anticipatory guidance and examine your infant’s growth and development. Children grow quickly in the first years of life, so bringing your child in for well-child appointments is important. Well-child appointments are done at the 2-week mark and 1,2,4,6,9,12,15, and 18-month mark. We also recommend a well-child visit around the time your child has a birthday until they are 18 years old. We utilize the American Academy of Pediatrics Bright Futures questionnaires to ensure your child meets their developmental milestones. You will receive these important forms via email to fill out before your visit. You will also receive a screen for postpartum depression. Hormones are a real deal, and we want to make sure you are handling the new transition ok. Feeling down, overwhelmed, and stressed are NOT a sign of weakness, and we want to make sure to address that with all of our mothers. We are working to have these questionnaires via our portal and app, so stay tuned for that!

The first month of an infant’s life is exciting as you bond with your baby and learn their temperament and feeding cues. It is important to breastfeed and/or formula feed your baby every 2- 3 hours until your provider tells you it is ok to space the feeds out more. We recommend the book On Becoming Baby Wise: Giving Your Infant the Gift of
Nightime Sleep by Robert Bucknam M.D. It is available on Amazon and is a great resource to help get your baby get on a sleeping schedule. I also recommend the blog and videos by Dr. Harvey Kary called the Happiest Baby. He goes over the 5 S’s for soothing babies.

We offer same-day sick appointments for your child at HealthWorks Family Medicine. Call our office, and we will help you schedule an appointment so your child can be seen as quickly as possible. Our office is working on an online platform to book appointments via a portal app. This is coming soon! We prefer you NOT go to the ER or urgent care unless it is a true emergency. We provide 24 hours a day/ 7 days a week call to help you decide whether to go to the ER or see us in the morning for an appointment. We are human and do need our sleep too, so please use good judgment before calling us in the middle of the night. If it can wait until morning hours, that is preferred. However, if it feels like an emergency to you, please call our number at 270-441-4777, and the online provider will be paged. We understand that children notoriously get sick in the middle of the night. Utilize the free site healthychildren.org from the American Academy of Pediatrics as a guide to whether you need emergent care. It is also an excellent resource for feeding your baby, parenting tips, and common childhood ailments.

A few practice rules:

• Please call and activate your child’s insurance as soon as possible! The insurance company must hear from you to add the child. This does NOT automatically happen.

• We understand emergencies come up. However, please keep all your appointments with us. If you need to cancel or reschedule, kindly do so at least 24 hours before the appointment.

• Have a question about your child but don’t think they need to be seen in the office? We offer virtual appointments where we communicate on a secure app called Doximity. It is basically like facetime in a secure HIPAA compliant fashion. Most insurance companies pay for these visits and can work well if you need the help from a clinician. This does not work for well-checks or looking in ears, however. That will need an in-person visit.

• We only prescribe antibiotics and medication when they are truly needed. For viral infections, antibiotics typically don’t work. Please understand we want to do what is best for your child, and giving medicine isn’t always the answer.

Having raised three children myself, I understand how exhausting, exhilarating, exciting, and scary raising children can be! But together we can do this! I look forward to walking thru this wonderful world of parenthood with you. Thank you for entrusting me with the care of your
child.

Best,

Nicole A. Turnbo CPNP-PC
Certified Pediatric Nurse Practitioner