Is breastfeeding easier second time round?

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DD is 3 and I'm only ten weeks pregnant with my second baby, but my mind has already skipped ahead to the horrors of trying to feed!

My milk took aaaaaages to come in (DD nearly had to go back to hospital as she lost weight, I hadn't realised she wasn't getting anything) and it was such a battle for months. I felt like I was fighting my own body and was taking fenugreek supplements, eating lots of oaty porridge, expressing every minute DD wasn't latched to up my supply . . . it really had a negative impact on the first few precious months.

So, I'm going to try, but switch to formula if the same thing happens again, just so I can take some joy in the new baby! But I was wondering - might it be easier this time? Would love to hear experiences!

For me I was more aware that it might not be an easy ride (I had naievely thought that as it was natural it would more or less happen/baby would feed correctly instinctively), so I asked for help sooner which made it easier. With my second my milk took longer to come in, emcs though plus tongue tie which no doubt had an impact. Don't hesitate to ask for help if its a struggle is my advice, and so long as baby is fed that's all that matters. Bf is very time consuming, I was floored when a mum friend said that a formula feed took about a minute, there was me spending 30-40 minutes each feed. Whatever works best for you and baby though - congratulations!

A wholehearted and reassuring ’Yes’.

As pp said, no illusions of it being a natural and so an easy process.

You can’t beat experience.

I had a really tough time first time too; too much weight loss, top ups, feeding every 2-hours. It was very hard going and I had a similar experience to you mentally for the first few months.

The second time was much easier. This was partly as the second one seemed much keener to feed so it wasn't so difficult to encourage her to latch but the fact that I already knew what to do and had tried so many different things the first time and so had a toolbox of tricks was massively helpful. I was able to feed her happily for over a year compared to starting to drop feeds at 6 months with my eldest.

In my experience, initially yes!

DS1 took at least a month to latch in less than five mins of fussing. I used to call him piglet and he would snuffle around like a pig looking for truffles! The first two weeks meant a lot of crying and despair for both of us, however we persevered and he BF until 18ms.

DS2 latched within the first 20mins of life and it was so easy until 6ms. Them he discovered food and forgot how to BF! Stopped completely at about 10 months.

It's so good to hear this, thank you. Upshot seems to be, it's easier because you know the reality of it (ie that it's not easy!) and I think (for me) if it's not working out then I'll be more relaxed about moving to formula (it felt like the end of the world, that I was letting DD down . . . I don't think I'll feel like that this time!)

I did mixed feeding after having problems with Dd1 that exhausted me. Things got easier and I got happier. So did mixed feeding earlier with Dd2.

Did generally BF on demand and FF in the evening or any time I was feeling exhausted. So it doesn't have to be all one or the other.

It was easier in the sense that I was more confident I could do it and I understood latch and the 'flipple' technique etc so no spending hours on Google desperately trying to work things out, no nipple shields as dc1 had pulled them from being flat to ridiculous.

Still had tongue tie, allergies and oversupply to contend with but everything came far easier.

I don’t know if it made a difference, but I think expressing colostrum from week 37 and freezing it in syringes really helped me. I knew then I had back up milk if baby wasn’t getting enough I had back up milk! And I knew how to express if baby wasn’t getting enough. Best of luck ❤️

Yes. And I had tonnes more milk and a far chubbier baby!

Yep much easier with 2nd one - even when it was actually harder (tongue tie, mastitis, thrush - happy days!!) - I knew what to look out for, what was normal etc. I was more confident basically and more confident to seek help when I knew things weren't going well. In the end baby 2 fed for much longer - I actually struggled to get him on to food he loved boob so much! It was a much more positive experience 🙂

I have a DS 5 and DS 1.5, it was definitely easier BF second time! But partly due to the labour. With my first, very traumatic labour, needed an operation after he was born and recovery time so it took about a month of hell to establish breastfeeding. With second DS 1.5 had a very straight forward labour (planned Caesarian due to previous issues in labour) and was feeding him within about 10 mins of being born 😂😂 and still breastfeeding DS 1.5 now!

A definite Yes here. So much easier.

Definitely less! My second was a dream compared to my first. Congratulations! xx

Yes. Second time around it was so much easier.

Find your local support group now and have the contact details to hand ready.

Have your partner on toddler duty when baby arrives. Their leave should be all about the toddler and the house letting you just feed baby.

You don't need oats or fenugreek. They only way to get the milk in and increase supply is to remove the milk. The best way is to just feed baby whenever they want.

My second was a dream to feed. First feed at 45 mins old. No latch issues, gained weight amazingly. The only thing I'd 'warn' you off is that after pains get worse with each baby. Breastfeeding triggers uterine contractions. Oh.my.god those pains were toe curling. That passed quickly.

Yes, I found it far easier the second and third time. I had more milk second time around too.

Much the same each time.... although the only time I got mastitis was with DC3.