Blimey, even 21 years on I'm still cringing!
I did the dummy thing too - no child of mine etc etc. Until he was screaming the ward down, keeping everyone else awake after hours of being grumpy and just wouldn't settle. The midwife produced one (which of course made it alright!) and the peace was immediate. Sleeping baby minutes later. I could have kissed her.
I also breastfed, or tried to, for far too long when my milk was clearly not enough. A visit from my nursing sister friend, who promptly went out to buy some formula saved my sanity and my boy's empty tummy. After his first bottle he slept for hours and we never looked back. I don't think four weeks of breastmilk is too bad though.
Re the gender stereotyping though, this still makes me laugh. My brother and his wife were a bit new age hippy. My niece would have no girl specific toys or clothes, and would not conform to society's expectations. No pink, dolls, frills etc! The first pictures of her that we received show her in a lovely purple and green tie dye baby grow. Roll forward ten years and she is a proper girlie girl. Pink, glitter, sparkly, Barbie, High School Musical etc etc.
Mind you we never allowed our DS to have toy guns when he was small. Then someone bought him some sticklebricks and the first thing he did was to make a gun and shoot my Mum with it, complete with sound effects.
They are what they are!