Kinda terrified second time Breast feeder

[flic22s]

Hi I am currently 29 weeks pregnant and am planning to BF for at least 6 months as I did with my DS. However I am so worried about it. My last experience was 8 years ago and I absolutely loved it, so convenient and gave me such a great feeling however... My son was born at 34 weeks and spent three weeks in SCBU I was exclusively expressing for the first 2 weeks for him to be tube fed , by the time he started feeding from me he was on a 4 hr routine and he maintained this once we were discharged at 6 weeks , and continued this apart from dropping one of his night feeds at 7 weeks going roughly from 10pm till 7 am it couldnt have been easier. So I am a complete novice at the early days and I am terrified that I will find the whole experience impossible and desperately want to give my new son the best start.

Any advice would be great. Are the first six weeks really as traumatic as I have been led to believe ?

Just wanted to reassure you. I have breastfed all my dcs and even second time around it took a good few weeks to get used to it all again. Each baby is different and this will play a part in how and when they feed.

In fact I think second time was worse for me because I thought I knew what I was doing

Remember to be kind to yourself - the first few weeks are going to be an upheaval anyway.

Congratulations on your imminent arrival. Be prepared to be sitting down for a long time, you'll often think "but I just fed him, he can't be hungry again". The thing that stuck in my mind from the breastfeeding workshop I attended whilst pregnant was if in doubt, whip them out. My DD clusterfed for 6hrs every night until she was at least 6 weeks old, might've even been longer. All babies are different, just trust in your baby to know when s/he is hungry and trust in yourself to be able to recognise those signs. You've done it before and you'll do it again. Oh and buy some lanisoh for your hospital bag

Hopefully I'll manage the night times thats what is bothering me most, I am not the best with sleep deprivation, at least he will be sleeping right next to my bed in his crib and I reckon I can remember how to feed lying down. I am much more comfortable about feeding in public this time round even though breast feeding is far from the norm in the area I live in . I have a feeding scarf which should maintain my modesty so I wont be completely tied to the house and DP is taking 3 weeks patetrnity so he can help in the house while I concentrate on the baby. I am pretty determined to do this , a friend has recently had a baby and is bottle feeding I def want the convience of BF after seeing the faff of formula , at least I can remember how easy it was with DS so I have that to aim for once the early days are past

flic - there are quite a few videos on youtube with breastfeeding.
they're great for learning different positions and latching techniques.

I'll see if i can find some that were helpful to me. :)

Some reassurance here as well, DS1 is 4.5 and DS2 is 15weeks. I found BF easier this time as I knew what I was doing and also to spot the various signs that something is wrong (boobs going hard etc).
I found the first month difficult as I was feeding every couple of hours and recovering from a CS. But I think that was normal!
Now, I am more or less feeding 5 times a day: 4/5am, 9am, 1pm, 5pm, 9pm.
I bought some Lansinoh in preparation as I needed it with DS1, but the tube is untouched so I now have some expensive lip balm :o
Good luck.

this channel has quite a few

Hi - I have just been through exactly the same. I bf my ds who was prem (31 weeks) and spent two or three weeks expressing before he learnt to breastfeed, then he came home on a nice three-hourly routine. I am now feeding my dd who was a term delivery and I was terrified in advance that it would be so much more difficult and I would struggle. I have to say - it was a bit harder and it took a while for my boobs to 'toughen up' - a 9 lb baby has a stronger suck than my little 4 lb-er! But I forced myself to relax about timings and just feed her whenever she was hungry and it worked fine - she stretched out naturally between feeds as the weeks passed and by about 8 weeks she was always 3 hours between feeds and more at night despite the early days of every hour! I used tubes and tubes of lansinoh and visited bf groups for some extra reassurance even though theoretically I was experienced! In retrospect (she's now 8 months and still bf) it was a much nicer experience not having to panic about how many mls I had expressed or how often to pump but just trust my body to do its thing. Something prem mums struggle with I think!

Good luck - I'm sure it will all be fine and in a few months you'll be wondering what you were worrying about.

Thanks for the links nickelhasababy I will take a look. It looks like If I can get through the early weeks I should enjoy it. Really us premy Mums have a completely different experience of early BF I remember well the pumping sessions and whether there was enough milk , I very nearly went to formula and would def have regretted it. I guess I have been worried coz my SCBU baby may as well have had a manual with him it couldnt have been easier I will be a mother of 2 who hasn't looked after a new born . Thanks for sharing your experience cheekydino it is nice to hear from someone with the same history.