Landstuhl Regional Medical Center

LRMC is a huge Army hospital that military families from all over Germany may at some point use. My husband happens to work there so it is very conveniently located for us. So far I have had numerous Family Practice and Pediatric appointments as well as gallbladder surgery at LRMC. I have had great experiences thus far. The only negatives I have encountered have been wait times. The pharmacy takes forever. Just yesterday I had to wait almost an hour for my number to be called to pick up baby tylenol. There are many groups with different priorities and active duty in uniform almost always get through the fastest. This can be very frustrating when you have been there for 30 minutes with a sick baby and someone comes in wearing their uniform and is called immediately. However the service is good when you finally get it and I can't really complain about free medicine. If you need specialty care while living in Germany it is very likely you will end up at LRMC. If I have negative (or exceptionally positive) experiences in the future I will definitely update. :)

Breastfeeding in Germany :)

Breastfeeding in public:

Breastfeeding in public in Germany has been much more laid back than I experienced in the states. It may have been the area I was living but breastfeeding in public was not exactly embraced. Here you can breastfeed pretty much anywhere without being stared at or feeling insecure. My son is a little older now (almost 11 months) so I don't have to feed him nearly as much as I used to. It would have been wonderful with a younger baby to just feed the whenever without worrying. In the states I spent a lot of time hiding in the car feeding the baby while my friends and family ate dinner at a restaurant or shopped, here that has never been an issue. 

Breastfeeding support: 

I have found many breastfeeding support groups while living here. Facebook is a great place to start. My favorite (that I've found) is a group called mom2mom. mom2mom is a large group that has many smaller "chapters".  My areas has a Facebook group and holds weekly meetings. I highly recommend checking for groups in your area. 

***There is also great support for cloth diapering in the area which I will later discuss in a separate post. There are many cloth diapering mommies here in the KMC, I never considered it myself until arriving here and am now SO happy I gave it a chance.

Breast Pumps:

I've included this topic because of a recent negative experience. After having surgery I was forced to pump for a few days while on medication. During this time my Medela Pump in Style Advanced, suddenly stopped working. Apparently these are not meant to be used overseas, even with a transformer. You must buy a separate 220V adapter that can be found online ( I found mine on ebay). I was sure my pump was ruined so my husband and I went to the Ramstein BX and bought a new one, for almost $300. Upon arriving home, and after opening the seal I found that my old one still worked, it was only the adapter that was ruined. So now I have two, but lesson learned. I have now heard horror stories of pumps actually breaking. Be safe and buy the adapter (mine was around $20). 

Berg Nanstein (Landstuhl Castle)

One of the first sites we visited upon arriving in Germany was the castle in Landstuhl. The castle is mostly ruins but is a very interesting site nonetheless. For those of us living in the Kaiserslautern Military Community the castle is an easy choice for your first European site seeing experience. The castle is a 5-10 minute drive from Ramstein Airbase. It can be a little tricky to find the road, at first glance the road to the castle appears to be a bike trail and the road is very narrow going up the hill. We find it easiest to follow the signs to Schloss Hotel and then proceed past the hotel to the castle itself. Once at the top you can wander the grounds, eat at the castle restaurant, and tour the castle (3 Euro per adult). If you are bringing small children to the castle be aware that the ruins themselves are NOT stroller friendly. There are multiple small winding staircases that I can't imagine carrying a stroller up. In our most recent visit my husband carried our 10 month old on his back in a baby carrier. I was still very nervous as the ground can be very uneven and I was terrified my husband would fall with my baby. However if you are bringing a small child to the castle this seems to be the best way. The castle itself was a very cool thing to see. Stone carvings can be seen throughout and there are cave rooms underground (which are very wet and you will probably be dripped on). You can follow the winding stone staircases all the way to the very top of the castle where the views of Landstuhl are gorgeous. Overall we loved visiting Berg Nanstein and while I am sure we will see even more impressive castles during our time in Europe this castle is very conveniently located for anyone living in the KMC. I highly recommend checking it out especially if you are in the KMC and lack the time or resources to travel further. 

Willkommen in Deutschland

I won't lie almost a year ago when I found out we would be coming to Germany I was not thrilled. I was almost 8 months pregnant and hoping to be assigned close to where I grew up. We've been here in Germany for almost 4 months now and it has been a learning experience. Adjusting to life within the German culture has been difficult, especially living off post. I'm still learning and will share some of my experiences here.