How do you feel about breast feeding?

[Lavitabellissima]

I am breast feeding 4 month old twins.

I'm glad I've had no problems, they're growing well and I think I'll probably breast feed until they are a year old.

I don't understand the love of breast feeding though, I love my babies but don't feel like it's breast feeding that provides that connection. Reading some posts it's like breastfeeding is the bond that supplies the love if that makes sense

Breastfeeding was so important to me. I had two premature babies and had to go through the whole unit life. It's hard, it's really really hard because you're not a parent in the unit. You can't pick your child up when you want to cuddle, just asking for permission to do everything is really disheartening. The one thing I could do for them was to breastfeed. Once a day I connected to my baby and I sat there reciting "only her mum can do this".

When I was finally able to do effective feeds it was so empowering! The day she decided she wasn't going to be NG fed again or the day my youngest removed her own tube, was truly amazing!

My body let my children down and for my eldest that is something I'm reminded of daily when I have to give her more asthma medication than most adults take because her immature lungs were damaged by the ventilator and the many infections the damage caused or put medicine in her drinks so she'll go to the toilet because her bowels don't work because they weren't properly developed. Breastfeeding has been a way my body can rebalance that. The amount of times we've been sat in the hospital breastfeeding and a doctor or nurse has stopped, smiled and said "She'd be a lot worse if it wasn't for that".

I don't always enjoy it, I think some of the most interesting parts of breastfeeding are what's on paper, but knowing what I'm doing for them is what's kept me going.

well done with twins - bf is great infact dd just gone to sleep on lap while bf. only downside - breastpads - and changing bra sizes

I found it horribly difficult and painful at the beginning. Funnily enough it was painful mastitis that was the turning point for us. Before I realised I had mastitis I was about to throw in the towel but afterwards when I made a point of feeding him from the infected breast it just soothed it so much and obviously he was more than happy to be back on the breast (I'd been expressing and bottle feeding for two days before this because the nipple pain + mastitis had been so horrible - DS was 2 weeks old).

Now at almost 8 weeks we're doing well and I do actually like the fact that he relies on me for his nutrition. When we go to visit family or friends everyone wants to hold him so I hardly see him and I am always glad to be able to use the excuse of needing to feed him to snatch him back for cuddles.

It still isn't always comfortable but I think it's a small price to pay for the convenience of breastfeeding. I feel proud when I breastfeed him in public (often). I haven't had any negative reactions and my confidence is continually building so I hope that if I ever do encounter any ignorance I will be able to hold my own!

OP, I am always impressed at anyone who BFs twins! I often find it a bit faffy with clothes going up and down, milk squirting into the baby's eye at times and breast pads flying everywhere etc, I just can't imagine how anyone has enough hands two do it with two, so congratulations!

I am glad, reading some of these posts that I am not the only one who didn't love feeding in the early days. I too struggled with the constant feeding and I longed for someone else to be able to take over for a day. I have a bottle refuser and on some days I have just felt totally trapped and depressed. I have accepted it now and I do love my DD very much.

I was lucky that I didn't have much trouble with BF at all, no bleeding etc but I still don't LOVE it as much as I feel I should.

I love it now but DS is 16 weeks, it probably took a while to get there. When I expressed and gave him a bottle I felt a bit of a pang and hoped he didn't like it more than me, that's when I realised how much I loved it.

My mum used to tell me how much she enjoyed it and I found it a bit weird, I thought it would be more functional but it's amazing what part hormones play. I was going to stop at 6 months but am now thinking about going on longer as it's no trouble and I enjoy my time with DS.

Only drawbacks are ugly bf bras - I so want to get back in my lovely underwires! And limited fashion choices, I want to be able to wear a dress again.

red you can get converters to convert a normal bra to a bf one, I forget where, but worth a google

red, hear hear on the clothes thing! It's fortunate I was never exactly a fashion queen because it's a real pain: I'm actually thinner than I was pre-pregnancy, so all my trousers are falling off me, but because of the BFing I've still got a wardrobe of shirts I can't wear. I don't think I possess a single garment that fits at the moment, but it doesn't seem worth going shopping because at some point (hopefully fairly soon) I'll stop BFing, put the weight back on and lose the boobs, and anything I've bought will be useless.

In the meantime, I find Royce bras are OK. And I think someone (maybe Hotmilk?) does underwired nursing bras - I did look at them and they were rather good, but they didn't do them in a back size less than a 32.

10 weeks in, second time around
some days I dont mind it
other days I feel like it restricts my life
eg what I wear, where I go ( I always have to factor in a place to sit down and feed, too cold to feed on park bench at the moment)and I contstantly feel like im watching the clock and have to make sure she feeds before I have to do school run for dd1 or to be at appts etc

my dd2 is still getting into a rhythm some days she feeds every 2 hrs some days every 3 so I keep getting engorgement ouch

I am however finding second time round much easier, first time I had cracked bleeding nipples and I remember it would hurt so much I would be crying in pain when dd1 fed

I second the hot milk bras I have two and they are beautiful and very supportive

I love breastfeeding. However, there are times when I feel overwhelmed by being the only one who can feed DS2 as he won't take a bottle. This was also the case for DS1.