To be dreading breastfeeding second time round?

[BoutrosBoutros]

With DS I bf until 13 months. My main worry before he was born was 'will I be able to breastfeed?' And we had a v tough start but after a few weeks (and tongue tie snip) he was a great feeder and I was happy to continue until we reached a natural stopping point for us both.

DC2 is due in a few weeks and I am surprised to find myself dreading it - the mess, the clinginess, getting your tits out in public. It never really bothered me the first time around and I didn't expect to feel so negative about it all. I still intend to bf if I can because I believe it's the best thing for the baby, but I'm kind of dreading it!!

Did anyone else feel like this ahead of number 2? If so, was it ok when the baby arrived? Did it feel natural again or am I just overthinking it all?

Also I put up with a lot less shit from (ex)MIL the second time round. She used to try to make me sit in her spare room - a bare, bleak box room - to breastfeed but 2nd time round I decided to stay downstairs and not be banished away like that.

I just wanted to come back to say that DS is now 6 weeks old and breastfeeding is going brilliantly - hooray and phew! I was so worried about how it would go; I had a really grim time of it with DC1.

I did get sore nipples again for the first couple of weeks but it wasn't as bad as last time. I think that was because I knew what I was doing this time so my latch was ok from the start.

He doesn't have a tongue tie (unlike DC1) and his feeds are so much shorter than DC1's were (20 minutes vs. 40 minutes plus). I either have loads more milk or DC2 is better at extracting it because I can hear him gulping milk down for the whole feed. My theory is that I'm making loads of milk because the last baby I fed was 18 months old! He actually stops feeding by himself and doesn't want to hang out on my boob for hours like DC1!

Basically, after the initial sore nipples (10 days?), it has gone so well - so much better than last time. I've also felt more comfortable about feeding in public and breastfeeding just isn't the huge dominating thing it was last time. Sleep on the other hand...! So much worse than I remember.

I hope it is going ok with your #2 OP!

Another vote for it being way easier second time round! Good luck, try not to stress :-)

If you do decide to start BFing, then don't forget you nipple cream and use it from day one. I BF DD for about 14mo during the day and then continued for another 6mo or so just at night, but my nipples definitely weren't teflon coated when DS arrived. It was damn painful.