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Definitely advocate for you and your baby! You can do this!

With my two, each experience was very different. With my first LO, I asked for help within 20min of delivery and the nurse kind of helped me get him latched, but that was the beginning of a really painful and difficult BF struggle that lasted for 3 months until the problems finally resolved. I stayed in the hospital just 2 nights with my first and saw the LC and nurses several times and just couldn't get the hang of it. They even helped me pump and we fed him colostrum using a tiny spoon. I struggled a ton with BF him.
With my 2nd LO I was really apprehensive about BF. But she latched with no problems within about an hour of birth. The first 48 hours or so, she would literally nurse for about one minute, then be done. We also had a really hard time waking her to eat, but I didn't have any pain, and she was producing wet and dirty diapers. It turns out that she was an extremely efficient nurser. I don't think we ever nursed for more than 10 minutes in our 14 months of BF.

DS was in NICU born 34 weeks so no BF for first week, he was too weak.
DD- did skin to skin right away, she latched immediately. OB stitched me up while it was happening. For the first 24 hours I tried feeding her every 2-3 hours, sometimes she latched sometimes she didn't. She was pretty tired. I had private room so nobody in room but DH.

Here's what the lactation consultant told me when I was in the hospital:

-do skin to skin as much as possible. Your DH can also do skin to skin while you're resting.

-wake baby up to nurse every 2-3 hours until she is back to her birth weight. I set an alarm. They told me that if she was sleepy to strip her down, turn the lights on, tickle her feet, or rub a cold cloth on her. Eventually I could get her to latch doing one or two of those things. If she wakes up before the two hours is up, don't hold her off, go ahead and feed her.

-the best way to know if she's getting enough is if she has enough wet and dirty diapers. They gave us a chart. I can't remember how many diapers they wanted her to dirty each day.

They told me the second night would be harder than the first because she wouldn't be as sleepy and would want to nurse more.

Side note: they made you take a bath right after delivery??

ETA: I wrote a post about early breastfeeding days: http://www.hellobee.com/2015/12/11/five-things-i-did-to-help-me-have-a-successful-start-with-breastfeeding/

Definitely ask for a lactation consultant to see you ASAP to help with latch. Baby should be put to the breast at least every three hours around the clock. If you aren't have anything come out, ask for a pump to help get things going. Like @lamariniere: we used a spoon and a syringe to feed both my LOs in the hospital.

@Cherrybee: I'm sure things are going to be a little different here in the US compared to the UK, but here's what happened to me:

Both times, I delivered and the baby was put on my chest while I was stitched up. The first birth, then I did try to bf immediately and a nurse helped me with that for maybe...45 min-an hour? And then they took her to be weighed and cleaned up a bit (in my room, they had a changing station thing there).

The second birth, it was a precipitous birth and I was pushing immediately upon my arrival at the hospital, so they didn't have time to get a regular room ready for me and I delivered in the OR. I also still had my clothes on (well, my bra and top on). And LO2 was much more sleeping---so this time, the room was just in much more of a flurry because of how fast it happened--and no one helped me put her on the breast, and LO2 was basically asleep and didn't want to do anything anway..so we did skin to skin WITHOUT nursing for about an hour while they got me "real room" ready and then they transferred us. After we were transferred, a LC came immediately and kind of tut-tutted that no one had helped me latch the baby before, and she got us started. At that point it was maybe 1.5 hours after birth, and LO had just been laying comfortably on me.

I think you should *absolutely* have had a nurse help you latch. Not so many hours later! All I can say is that I think this time, without the retained placenta, you will have a 100% different experience.

I did the same as LBee - I was nursing basically nonstop. I have logs as well that I look at and it's like 45 minutes, took 12 minutes off, nursed for an hour, two hours off, nursed for 3 hours, etc.

I think this time it will be easier for you at least in the sense that you know what nursing looks/feels like. I also am really mad at your midwife because that is NOT how they're supposed to be! Will you have the same midwife? Does your hospital have a lactation consultant? Could you request them right away for help? Or maybe consider hiring a doula, if that's at all feasible, who could also assist with nursing (the lactation consultant I used with my first baby also was a doula).

I think a big first step is how much confidence and determination you're showing - you know how you don't want it to be, and I think that's going to be so much help for you in having a better experience this time.

I always put both of them to breast first before I did anything else when they cried. Which was often. If yours doesn't cry/is a sleepy newborn, then waking them up every 2 hours to eat is 'normal'. Try to make them nurse for 10 minutes each side at first and alternate the sides at each feeding. And it's 2 hours from the START of feeding, so if you start at, say 2 & nurse for 45 min the next feeding is at 4, not 4:45.

Few tricks to make them stay awake: undress them completely, tickle their feet, slide a finger along their jawline (actually the last one works too if you notice theyve stopped nursing. It reminds them to swallow).

ETA: really guys, I'm surprised all of you are expressing horror about the bath. I had one (well a quick soap & rinse from the waist down) after both my deliveries. Baby isn't going to starve in the 20 minutes it takes to do that.

Separately, about supply: Both of my babies have had jaundice, and the hospital peds have sort of scared me about the amount of fluids they need, so I have started hand expressing or pumping from about 12 hours after the birth, as well as putting the babies on to eat as much as they will. I think that's why I had such an oversupply each time.

So if you are worried about supply this time, just keep the baby on the boob as much as you can without damaging your nips, and also have an LC help you hand express or hand pump (if they tell you it's not necessary, tell them you had low milk supply the first time and tell them it IS necessary for you piece of mind).

If they're available, ask for a lactation consultant and ask your midwife in advance about breastfeeding and latching. That said, I'm going to walk you through my experience, just in case your medical team fails miserably at supporting breastfeeding again--which hopefully won't happen, but just in case.

My baby was put on my chest immediately, and the nurses helped me get my bra off and shirt pulled up. Your husband could help you with this. The nurses had me try a football hold to try and nurse her in first. It's basically where you hold baby beside you, and put them under your breast. I wasn't a fan, and had much more success with a cradle hold, baby basically laying on one arm and nursing at the opposite breast. At first, I needed to constantly squeeze my breast to direct the nipple to her mouth and get her to latch.

We had skin to skin for the first hour and I tried to latch her on and off through out it. They took her to get height and weight after that. I declined a bath for her right away (they cleaned her up though), and certainly didn't take a bath myself.

Whoops, posted my novel too soon.

As soon as they were done with her, I tried to nurse her again. Those first couple of hours when she was still alert, I tried as much as possible. Once she started to sleep, I tried every time she woke and woke her about every 2 hours. The nurses told me that one way to tell if she was getting anything was if she spit up at all--if it's yellow, baby is getting colostrum. A good number of wet and dirty diapers is the main indicator..

Once we were home, about a day and a half after birth, she was still wanting to nurse about every two hours. My milk came in, with a vengeance, within 48 hours of her being born.

Sorry that was so long. Hope your experience this time works out beautifully!

You are in charge of what you want done with your baby!!

Shortly after both of mine were born, and after some good skin to skin time (45 minutes +) and before bath, weighing, whatever I put my babes to my boob. They both latched quickly - make sure you put lanonlin on immediately after breastfeeding, especially in the beginning! it helped me IMMENSELY --- the key to helping them out is helping them open their mouth wide around your nipple...

I let them nurse every two hours. No idea if they were getting anything, but with my 3 month old he would latch right on and happily suck until I switched him to the other side and happily suck again....My milk came in pretty quick then he wanted to nurse pretty much every hour to get caught up. I just stuck to the two hour rule, sometimes they didn't want to nurse so I would try again later.

My second time around I just figured the first couple weeks would be a lot of nursing time, and it was, then it started to level out....

I can't say I am an expert, but in fact, the "experts" didn't help me much at all!

I just put the baby to breast as soon as she was born. They were doing things to me but I didn't even notice! They waited to weigh her and did not bathe her until the next day (gave me the option). We did skin to skin and fed every two hours, or constantly

This time I am going to follow my own intuition. I ended up with an awful nurse that told me I was trying too often and made me pump and bottle feed. No. As long as baby is eating and not losing too much, try not to listen to anyone (is what I am going to tell myself). I was vulnerable. This time I am going to feed her constantly unless I am asleep, otherwise every two hours, and if some nurse thinks I am "trying for too long," as long as baby is doing well, she can suck it! I will ask for a different nurse, or send DH to, if I have another awful one.

This time I might be even more laid back and let baby wake me to feed. But won't go for more than 2-3 hours, because I know getting established is important. (In other words, it seems like all kid wanted to do was feed constantly, but I was also stressed and offering a lot. Or maybe that awful nurse just made me feel that way!) I think in hospital I will just set a timer and feed every 2 hours, but if kid is wanting it more often, will do that too!

My midwife said that babies have what they need for the first 24 hours, so that time is for sleep and practice. After that I fed every 2 hours for days because LO was jaundice. It's not possible to nurse too much. They need to suck and your body needs the stimulus. With a bottle they finish it and are stuffed full, nursing isn't like that. But that doesn't mean that they aren't getting what they need. It's good if they are on the breast all the time in the early days. Get as comfortable as possible and nurse away!

@Cherrybee: I am sorry for your experience. Don't listen to anyone! (Extreme statement!) Listen to yourself. Your hospital doesn't sound very breastfeeding friendly. It sounds like the opposite of our "baby-friendly" birth facility (no nursery, everyone is encouraged to have baby with them and be doing skin to skin and breastfeed).

@MenagerieMama: YES! I watched a video in our Bradley class and a nb baby army crawled, on its own, up the mom to the breast and latched! It was incredible!

@Cherrybee: ha! I think those of us with larger breasts have a tougher time at the beginning, especially with a small baby! The mountainous boobs overwhelm them!

I think absolutely find an LC before you deliver and make plans with them to do a visit as soon as you get home. I found it so much easier to work on it at home with someone. The lactation consultants at my hospital were kind of eh and gave inconsistent advice.

I had a day where I was totally panicked because my milk came in and DS refused to eat from me the entire day (turns out the milk was coming out too strong for him). I was flipping out and panicking and frustrated and emotional. I wish I had taken the advice of my breastfeeding class and have already established to have someone come visit me. I did end up finding someone last minute and she was so helpful.

@Cherrybee: I just want to give you a great big hug right now because I remember your struggle when E was born!!! Do you have La Leche in your area or even a friend that's experienced with breastfeeding? I'm just thinking that if you could chat with somebody before you're due to deliver you could maybe work through the issues you experienced with E and make a plan for when your new Squish arrives (I did this before Felix was born and it made such a difference in my confidence levels).

You could also register over on the LLL message boards and post about your experience with E, the ladies over there are very knowledgeable and might be able to give you some good advice.

Sending you love and hugs!