Thought it might be nice to have a thread for anyone currently establishing BF with a newborn or baby of any age!
DD2 is 5 weeks tomorrow. We've had a bit of a bumpy ride. She latched on like a dream before we even got to the recovery room after my section, which was a stark contrast to DD1 who took six weeks to latch on for the first time!
She fed really well but I think because I was partly immobilised for a while due to section (I was bedbound overnight as they didn't want to remove catheter so late when I got to the ward about 10pm), her latch wasn't ideal and I ended up with severely damaged nipples.
I had to stop feeding her and express ('luckily' I exclusively expressed for DD1 until she could latch and feed properly so still had all the gear) until they healed, and then it took a bit of a battle to get DD used to breast again as she was too impatient. We had some awful awful nights where I couldn't get her to latch and she would be screaming and I would be in floods and DH was saying that he couldn't watch us like this and maybe it was time to go to formula, which was def evidence of how bad it was as he is super supportive of breastfeeding and helped so much with DD1. But I think he was worried I was heading down the road to PND this time and I think I was one bad night away from switching to FF when we turned a corner. The good thing is that she's a brilliant sleeper like her sister; she does 4-5-hour chunks overnight and 3 hours during day, which has helped to keep me sane!
The last week she has been about 90% on breast with the occasional bottle of EBM that I've collected using the Haakaa. I fed her for the first time out and about the other day, as a week or two ago she would take sometimes 40 mins to latch on and we would both need crying.
I suppose I'm just a bit sad that it's been so difficult again. I did eventually feed DD1 for a year and really loved it so I'm hoping that things can only get better from here now and we are past the hardest bit, but it has made the first few weeks not as lovely as I'd hoped and I feel like we have some catching up to do with bonding.
Anyone else finding their feet?