Finally A Yay for Insurance!

It seems like in the past few years our insurance has gone downhill.  Deductibles are higher, coverage is lower.  Only good thing we've got going for us were $0 copays...or so I thought!  Back when I was pregnant with Samantha I knew I was going to breast feed her.  Unfortunately, immediately after her birth, we realized that that wasn't a possibility.  I learned how to pump from the lactation consultant in the hospital and left with a rental pump from a company in town.  So began my pumping journey.  We learned when Samantha was 9 days old that she had a rather severe posterior tongue tie.  She had it clipped by a top rated pediatric ear nose and throat doctor at Georgetown Hospital in Washington DC.  We had high hopes that breast feeding would come more naturally after that but sadly it didn't.  At her follow up appointment when she was 2 weeks old we realized that she still had a slight attachment of her tongue to the bottom of her mouth so she had a second procedure done.  Even then, she struggled to nurse.  At this point, it became evident that nursing was going to take a lot of work and that pumping was a better solution for us.  I ended up choosing to purchase a pump since it was a goal to give her breast milk long term and renting was rather costly around $60/month.  I trekked to Babies R Us and purchased a Medela Pump in Style Advanced which was an awesome pump!  In the end, I only ended up needing to pump for Samantha's first 10 weeks of life.  In June of 2011 we travelled to Chicago for a wedding and I did NOT want to deal with bottles and all the extra luggage.  I brought my pump just in case, but no bottles and I used our time away from home to really work with her on latching.  She did amazing and we never looked back, as a matter of fact, as time went on she grew to hate the bottle!  I ended up nursing her for just shy of 16 months when she weaned since I was pregnant with Zach.

With Zach, I planned to breast feed as well and hoped that we wouldn't face the same challenges as we did with Samantha.  Sadly, he got an even shorter end of the stick.  He was gaining weight poorly and went on a few feeding strikes so I made an appointment with a lactation consultant.  She discovered more ties!  Turns out he had a tongue tie, upper lip tie, AND a lower lip tie!  We had these issues corrected with laser surgery at a pediatric dentist.  Thankfully the procedures were fairly easy and he had a quick recovery.  Yet again, we didn't see immediate progress.  Thankfully though, he was able to nurse enough that I did not need to pump regularly.  I still relied on my Medela while I was away from home.  Zach was a stellar nurser and actually just weaned a little over a month ago, at 19 months.

I am currently 36w3d pregnant with baby number three and I am yet again planning to nurse.  Hopefully we won't run into the same issues we did with Samantha and Zach but you just never know.  I recently found out that through our insurance I can get a new breast pump covered at 100%!!  How cool is that?  My Medela PIS has been an amazing pump but I think it's always great to have a back up.  Plus, I have no idea where the AC adaptor is for my Medela.  I called our insurance a few weeks ago and they gave me a long list of websites that I could visit to choose a pump.  I ended up choosing the Hygeia EnJoye pump through Lucinacare.  I just had to wait until 30 days before my due date to order.  Once we hit 30 days I placed my order and it was shipped almost immediately.  My new pump came today and I couldn't be more excited.

The pump is very light weight and while it is a little bit on the large side, it isn't overly bulky.  It also came with a large insulated tote bag which will be extra helpful if I'm ever away from home and needing to pump.  Another awesome thing about the Hygeia is that they are the only company endorsed by La Leche League International and every Hygeia pump purchase comes with a free Annual Supporting membership to the LLLI!!  I can't wait to try this pump once our baby arrives and I'm hoping it's every bit as good as I've heard it is!