Looking for some advice on breast v bottle

[ScMacBt]

I'm currently 25 weeks pregnant with 2nd dc and bottle fed first time round due to not having breastfeeding as an option. However would really like to beastfeed this time round, but all i hear is horror stories and people telling me not to do it. Does anyone want to share there experiences just to help me see both sides of the story?

Not read the posts but just wanted to say I tried BFing and failed so went to FF after 6 weeks. I would recommend BF every time as it's so much easier. It was a complete pain and stress FF - the times when DD screamed in tesco when I'd just popped out and she was probably hungry but I hadn't taken her bottle and being stuck in the lake district with nowhere to warm her bottle at lunchtime when she was hungry and wouldn't drink cold milk are just two examples when I wished I could whip out my boob! So much easier.

ScMacBt- will you have someone who can do the school run for you initially? Obviously you won't be able to drive for the first 6 weeks I think.

Regarding age differences- OK, so things are quite tough at first when the wee one has so many overwhelming needs, but there are lots of things you can do whilst feeding or cuddling your baby. My older two are only in reception and year one, but I generally feed the baby whilst listening to them read, spellings etc.

You may find a sling helpful in the early days and means you are hands free.

Is your DS old enough to understand that things will be different at first, but things that everything will get calmer as the baby gets older?

Hope this helps

Oh and there has been posts on here about bfing after a cs. I think as long as you can get lots of skin to skin contact early on then that should help your milk come in.

I'll have a search and see what I can find.

crikeybadger Its only a 10 minute walk to school so i dont need to drive and dont have a license yet anyway. Im hoping my sisters will be able to help depending on shifts etc.

ds understands that babies need extra care and im very lucky that he isnt a child who rrequires constant attention and happily plays away on his own. The idea of a sling sounds like a good idea, i just dont want ds to feel pushed/left out as we have a very close relationship.

I think its more my anxienty about another baby thats bringing out these worries as ds is so excited to be a big brother.

Thank you though x

OK here we go-
here's a thread from a while back

here's an article by Dr Sears

Good stuff ScmacBt- definitely rope in as much help as you can.

Thank you crikeybadger must admit its been weird reading about all the different opinions on bf and the conflicting advice from HCVs etc. Im sure it will all be fine and i'll have an amazing baby who takes to it like a duck to water and doesnt hurt me, cluster feed or any of the other things (wistfully dreams haha).

With regard to nipple shields, they can be extremely useful (enabled me to bf when ds couldn't latch on to my boob), but I think they're best kept as a last resort as they can cause some problems.

What marzipan said. I wax lyrical about nipple shields on here, as an antidote to the many negative comments, but I would never recommend using them routinely. They are the thing to try if feeding gets so painful you are about to give up. There are also other circumstances where they can be useful, but you'd need a bfc to advise and supervise.