Pediatrician Woes

As soon as I found out that we would be moving to Amarillo I began searching for doctors for myself and Mali. I soon came to the realization that in Amarillo, you must be born here to get into a doctor, and especially one that everyone else has heard of. It took me forever to get into a pediatrician for Mali. Our preference was for a female pedi., as Mali has always seen a female pedi. and we just thought it would be convenient for the future since Mali is female. Needless to say, no female pedi's would accept new patients that were toddlers...only newborns. Come to find out, no pedi's in Amarillo would accept new patients unless they were newborns. I finally got Mali into a male pedi that several people had recommended on the basis that I was expecting another baby in January. Even when I miscarried they allowed Mali to stay as their patient. Mali saw this doctor a total of 3 times. For various reasons we were not satisfied with that doctor. Primarily because Mali cried and would not let him examine her (in Lubbock our pedi had referred to Mali as the perfect patient and always told us how she wished all of her patients acted like Mali when they needed to be examined. We always left so proud of Mali and her achievements as a model patient.) So, we decided to get a new pedi. I finally found a female pedi that would consider Mali as a new patient BUT Mali had to go through an approval process first. This took a few weeks and they accepted her. I was so happy. Then they informed me that Mali could not be seen for her 3 year check up until they received all of her medical records. It took 6 weeks and about 6 annoying calls from me for our Lubbock pedi to send the records to the new pedi. In the meantime, Mali's 3 year well visit approached and our 1st Amarillo pedi would not see her for our scheduled appointment because we were in the process of changing pedi's. Finally, Mali had her exam yesterday. I really liked the new pedi, and Mali did great with her. We did spend a total of an hour and a half in the office, but we had waited that in Lubbock too. When we went to check out I tried to schedule Mali's 4 year well visit just to be on top of things. The receptionist informed me that Mali could be seen April of 2009!!!! I'm sure I looked at her really strange and said "her birthday is November 23rd". All of our previous well visits have been the week after Thanksgiving. She then informed me that our new pedi only sees children 2 years and younger for well visits during the winter, so we will have to wait until April for Mali's 4 year visit at which time she will be 4 1/2 almost ready for her 5 year visit! So, it seems that, again, we will be switching pediatricians. I plan on waiting a while because I'm too tired of dealing with this all and I do like our new pediatrician, but not the well visit policy.
I just felt like venting about this crazy ordeal! On the positive side, almost all Amarillo pedi's do have a separate sick and well waiting room! I'm sure only mothers, and mothers who have moved, can relate to this!