Thanks for this thread - there are some really great tips in here. i've only been BF the last 5 days and it is time-consuming but I'm loving it so far (despite the sore nipples and last nights 6hour feeding marathon lol)

I'm determined to continue with it - the best bit for me ATM is looking at my LO as he feeds and hearing him swallow the milk that mummy provides

this forum is definately the biggest help for me. when i had my first dd i had very little support so gave up really easily. this time i have this forum and everyone is so helpful. its been over a month and we r doing great!

I second that!!

thirded!

WEll firstly being absolutely determined to bf! Then it was the mum 2 mum ladies who come out to your home, as they kept coming out to see me it kind of got me through the first few weeks when it was hard going i knew there was someone coming to check on me as my worst fear was that i was starving my baby as all it was , was suck suck and only 2 hours of sleep in the first week. Also the support of my hubby! x

I was mostly motivated by knowing how much better it is then formula... that formula doesn't even come CLOSE. I read as much as I could beforehand and felt prepared... but...the beginning stunk for me b/c he didn't really suck for a couple days hardly and when he finally did it HURT. I was at a breaking point and something had to give so I found a LLL leader in my area. When I called her I started bawling so she was like come over this afternoon. She spent a couple hours w/ us showing me different stuff. From that point it started getting better, although I still had to heal, I was very soar. After we got over that initial hump it was totally fine. Also, once we were used to it I was SO glad I stuck w/ it... it saved us lots of $$ and was SO much more convenient b/c you don't have to carry formula and run to the store if you need it, etc etc. For motivation for other moms who are BF now... I'd like to share that we BF for 13 mo and now our son is 16 mo and he has yet to be sick! He has been so healthy! My sister in law who BF also had healthy babies, and my other sister in law who FF had babies who got sick a lot. So hang in there! And if you are having a hard time GET HELP! You'll be glad you did!

hello ladies, I am a breastfeeding newbie - Little man is 13 days old. I had a great pregnancy and birth and then LO would not latch on in hospital and I ended up staying an extra 4/5 days.....this was hard, the ward kept filling up with ladies who had had their babies and then emptying as they went home by the evening. It was a bit of a downer and I cried more than once thinking LO and me would never 'get it'. 6 or 7 different midwives must have handled my nipples over this time (on the whole all really lovely - just one who came down to tell me 'we do have emergencies tonight you know' which did upset me as I was really reluctant to buzz for help but just thought in the end there was no point in staying on in hospital if I didn't access the help!). I also felt, I have stayed in hospital extra days to get this and I am not leaving until I have.

In the end it happened - yayy! and we came home and I am loving breast feeding which is great as I wanted to try it to do the best for LO but actually the idea of breast feeding turned my stomach a bit - but it doesn't feel odd or anything just really satisfying that I am feeding my baby on my own! (Although with brilliant support from my OH!)

I hope it lasts! Just taking it a few days at a time....

Congratulations Abigail, well done making sure that you got the support in hospital. Our little ones are about the same age, my boy is 2 weeks old today and things are going pretty well on the whole. It's a lovely feeling to know that we are providing all the food that they need, isn't it?

Hi Polaris, My LO was born on the 27th October too, so exactly the same age!

Fab thread Breastfeeding has been going really well for us so far, and i feel very lucky.

We have had a couple of low points- day 3 when all Toby wanted to do all day/night was feed, and i was still in hospital and terrified of faliing asleep feeding him and having him roll out of the bed or something. I was exhausted and called OH in tears. The midwives had told me to buzz them "if it got too much" but i just thought "whats the point?" I knew he was correctly latched and i knew there was nothing else they could do for me, i just had to get through it, and in the morning i felt so proud of myself for making it through the night!

Also day 5, before we went home and he was weighed and found to have lost his full 10% I got myself a bit worked up about that but again, when he was weighed yesterday we found he'd gained it all back plus a tiny bit more so that was a HUGE confidence boost.

We had a rough night last night, out of the blue we had another "wanting to feed constantly" nights and Toby was feeding 11pm-3am straight except two quick nappy changes during that time and then snacked all night tto, but again we have survived, he has just fed and finally fallen to sleep in my arms and again i am so proud of us all for getting through it.

I was never THAT determined to breastfeed during pregnancy, i wanted to give it a good go but i was aware it doesn't always work out for people, and we even bought a steriliser, a couple of bottles an some "emergency" formua just in case but from Toby's very 1st breastfeed i was hooked and with each day that goes by i am more and more passionate about breastfeeding my baby boy