Bathing - we top and tailed dd in her little bath (enough water in just to put her bottom in but umbilical cord stump well clear of the water) and did cotton wool on head and bottom. We used oilatum once she was a couple of months old because of dry skin but it mad her too slippery to hold. Until then it was just water. We switched to infacare and that was much better, with Aveeno cream after her bath. A bath is a part of her bedtime routine too. Bath, pyjamas, story with a drink her room, bed. When she was tiny it was bath, sleepsuit, milk sitting on our bed, bed.
Breastfeeding... I had a torrid time trying to bf but stuck at it with lots of support. It took 2-3 days for my milk to properly come in, and a full 24hrs to even get much colostrum. I got literally 3 drops on day one by hand expressing and was so worried dd would starve but they have a bit of reserve. It was painful - and expressing was too. After 10 days a community midwifery assistant with specialist breast feeding knowledge happened to visit and told me to stop trying to feed 2 hourly as they had told me on the transitional care unit and just feed on demand, which helped, and she corrected dad's latch, which felt amazing... It suddenly hurt a lot less. I had 2 days of bliss... Then dd got thrush from antibiotics I had to have (because I had retained placenta, omg a whole other story, I told them the was something not right and eventually a week later someone listened and I ended up admitted on IV antibiotics and had a D&C under a general anaesthetic when she was only a week old!!!)
Now, people who have no experience of thrush and bfing, please listen up - any time you get given antibiotics while feeding, check lots for your doc getting white patches on their tongue. If they get it, don't let the dr or MW fob you off with gel anti fungals for baby alone... YOU need them too. Don't let the GP tell you to out the baby's mouth gel on your nipples either, it doesn't work!!! Otherwise you get thrush in your nipples, then breasts, and it's awful!!!
Signs of thrush in your nipples - cracking, redness, dry/peeling, painful feeding (especially which had been ok before). Once it spreads back into your milk ducts they tingle lots and get painful too. I couldn't wear clothes all the time it wasn't properly treated. As soon as dd stopped the meds I reinfected her and we would be back to square one. I got brilliant support re position and latch from my local breastfeeding advisor at the group she runs (drop in) which was great. Eventually she wrote to my doctor for me and said I needed better anti fungal treatment for me, and so once dd was 6 weeks old I was finally allowed tablets (her liver wasn't developed enough to cope with the drug til then) and suddenly breastfeeding became absolutely wonderful. I loved it, it made me so happy. I was so proud that I stuck with it and loved the cuddles and how special it felt. I expressed so dh could feed her if needed in the night when I was ill or whatever but she wasn't that keen on bottles when she was little. I was gutted at 16 weeks when it was all going so well that my meds had to change, I went onto arsenic (!) and had to stop. It broke my heart a little bit to lose that, especially when she was rooting around and asking for the boob for comfort.
So apart from the selfish "it's lovely" stuff the health benefits for dc are significant, conferring your immunity to any bugs you have or fall foul of. You get a cold, doc doesn't because your antibodies pass through in your milk. Also yes it seems to reduce allergies. But there is no point in being an unhappy breastfeeding mummy and worrying and resenting your doc for pain/sadness/knackeredness if it isn't working for you, formula is perfectly safe.
lucy go on the breastfeeding net?ork. There is a pharmacist on there you can email. She sends all the relevant excerpts from any information and research gathered re the drug, there should be plenty on infliximab. She was an absolute star re my 6MP and other meds and is who prompted me to perhaps ask for blood tests for dd when she was born and I was bfing. I'll try to find the link for you. Ask about infliximab. The stuff on the NACC is a bit scanty isn't it? But if you aren't sure formula is fine - but I cried about the prospect of not even being able to try too. And plenty of tears when I was forced to stop!
Dd pooed in the bath for the first time today. We whipped her out and then more on her towel then we stuck her on the loo, she was so upset because I think she knew she had done something not right and was probably gutted about it. She's never done it before. It was so gross to clean up... Not sure if we are brave enough to try the toilet training, she loves sitting on the loo but I don't think she really has a clue what she should be doing there! Plus, she weed on the floor and my leg (clean trousers!) BEFORE the bath and I stuck her on the loo and she finished it there. She was looking so proud of herself and I was very sad that she was so upset post the poo incident - I guess she sat there all wet and cold while we flapped about and she cried for ages, I feel so sad for her.
Anyway, she's tucked up in bed now. I love her so much. I feel so lucky to think I might have another little person soon to love, I don't know how I could possibly love another one as much as I do dd but I am assured by many that I will be able to! Lucky me 
By the way re bonding - I didn't bond straight away and I'm not sure I truly loved her properly until about 6 weeks, it was hard and I worried about it. I was happy to look after her but didn't feel like mummy. Then suddenly at 6 weeks we were in the garden together and I was showing her the flowers, and I suddenly had a rush of love, and realised that I would do ANYTHING for her, leap in front of a car, whatever, to protect her. And I cried. It was lovely.
I will post a photo of the clothes we have at some point this weekend if I can make it work!
Wow what a super long post. I'll have cross posted with loads of you sorry! I hope some of it is useful!
26+2