I don’t have the licensing rights to share a picture of Mel Gibson in Braveheart, nor do I have the dedication to paint my face in blue stripes. Please use your imagination. “Freedom!”
With my first child, we were stationed overseas and I wasn’t working. We gave her about ten bottles of pumped milk early on, but it was usually just easier to nurse her when we were out than it was to use my breast pump and pack enough milk and bottles for our outing. When we tried to get her to start taking bottles at about nine months, she wanted nothing to do with them. She also wasn’t very interested in food and refused cups, so I was essentially tethered to her. I left her in the care of a friend two separate times for a few hours each before we moved back to the U.S. when she was 19 months old.
This is not what freedom looks like.
When we moved back, I started working part time, but I came home on my lunch break to nurse her. Granted, my daughter had additional pieces to her puzzle, including developmental delays and oral aversion that prevented her from drinking from a cup, but the fact that she wouldn’t take a bottle meant that I nursed her for much longer than I anticipated.
When I got pregnant with our second child, I knew things had to be different. For starters, I did not want to have to come home to nurse her when I went to work. I wanted to be able to leave her with a babysitter or even her dad without stress and anxiety. However, breastfeeding was still important to me. A breast pump was the solution.
Enter The Breastfeeding Shop.
A fellow military wife had told me about this small company, and then Military Moms Blog provided additional glowing reviews. When my midwife gave me a prescription along with a list of various websites or local places I could get my Tricare-covered pump for free, I knew I was just going to go home and contact The Breastfeeding Shop.
The whole process of obtaining my pump was ridiculously easy. I used an app on my phone to scan the prescription, though you also can just take a picture of it and send it to them (SO EASY). (I also just realized the company has its own app!) I emailed my prescription and filled out a form online. I received a confirmation email and less than a week later I had a brand new pump and tons of accessories delivered to my door.
If only everything was this simple. The Breastfeeding Shop was like the Amazon Prime of breast pumps providers. In other words, amazing.
I got a beautiful Sarah Wells bag, so I could carry my pump, accessories, and laptop to work, and I was ready to go back to work (part time) seven short weeks after my little nugget arrived. So far it has been smooth sailing! My daughter is able to take bottles when I am at work and nurse when I am home. I can pump while I’m at work to keep up with demand.
Not only am I able to work without worrying about when I will be able to get back to the house, my husband and I went out to dinner for our anniversary, to a movie, and have a formal dining out next month. (I’m following fellow contributor Allison’s lead and using Rent the Runway!)
Guess how anxious I was/am? Not at all.
This is such a complete 180 from my first child; I never felt like I could leave her because she was so dependent on me for all or most of her nutrition.
But thanks to my (FREE!) pump from The Breastfeeding Shop, I am able to have an identity aside from Source Of Food. Thanks to whoever invented the breast pump for allowing that to be possible and thank you to this company for making it so easy for those with Tricare!
