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I had a really good experience nursing with the first, but still had pain at the beginning and the second time I barely had any pain! I only had a 4 month gap between feeding 1 and 2 though.

I had a super painful experience with my first. Wasn’t pain free until about 6 months. My second was much easier and less painful. Mild soreness for a few weeks (didn’t even feel the need to use the gel pads or anything) and just occasional bad latches after that.

I had a lot of problems with my first. I had discomfort and likely and poor latch, what I thought was low supply/disinterested baby, so I pumped from months 3-9. I had a rough time pumping too. My milk took nearly 9 days to come in,
I was engorged, baby was losing weight (it was actually so miserable). My LC saved me in that moment
fast forward to second kid:
He latched immediately skin to skin and stayed latched for 45 min after birth. The nurses had to pry his hungry little mouth off of me. I did ha w to work on latch a bit; he was so eager that he would latch shallowly. I had some pain and cracking in the first week; soothies gel pads, and earth mama angel baby helped. I also bought bamboo reusable pads this go round too. He shot up to 95% weight and has been a nursing champ. My milk came in a few days after birth, I had what I consider to be more normal engorgement (totally manageable) and now I’m on month 5 and he’s happy as a clam (so am I). I’m not sure if I’m keeping up with him wel though; I’ve considered adding a bottle of
Formula in the late afternoon.

I was in serious pain while nursing for the first 2 - 3 months with my oldest. With my youngest, I got a cracked nipple on day 3 which was unpleasant for about a week but it was only because DD2 was such a voracious nurser. After that? Smooth sailing. She's 19 months old and still nursing. Good luck!

With LO1 I had typical pain with one breast and awful pain with my other breast that has an inverted nipple. Even with a lot of help i quit nursing on that side at 11 weeks. We weaned at 16 months. I approached nursing LO2 with a lot of trepidation and absolutely none of the resolve I had with LO1. I posted about my total lack of enthusiasm. Fortunately things were just so much easier. I had some inverted nipple pain but it was about 1/4 of what it had been. We had some positioning issues but i found nursing standing up while tending to a toddler actually helped me find more comfortable (seated) nursing positions. I nursed on both sides for 15 months.

@ElbieKay: @Raspberry: I remembered somewhere in reading along this thread that was saved me (I think, maybe it just coincided with me "toughening up") was hot hot hot saltwater nipple baths with shot glasses followed up with coating my nipples in lanolin, along with becoming a drill sergeant psycho about latch position. I'm really hoping for an easier time this go-around. I have a couple of friends IRL who loved the My Breast Friend for twins--are you getting one @ElbieKay?

@ElbieKay: cool. I am tired just thinking about this.

I had an equally hard time with my 2nd, because she had every single one of the same issues (tongue and lip ties, MSPI). The only good thing was that I obsessed less the 2nd time around, I already had all my helpful gear at hand (nipple shield, all the pumping equipment, all the ointments), and I knew that in the grand scope of things, BFing wasn't going to last forever. With my first, when we still had tons of issues after her tongue and lip ties were corrected, I switched to EPing early on, around 6 weeks.

With LO2, same thing happened and her latch was still bad after trying everything, but instead of EPing, I just nursed with a nipple shield exclusively until she was 6 months. At that point, I went back to work and I pumped for all feeds except her last feed and any overnight feeds. And we continued that until she was 1 and I weaned. It was fine. Emotionally, it was just a smaller issue the 2nd time around. My supply dropped around 9 months after an illness and I wasn't fussed about power pumping or taking supplements or anything, I just introduced an once or two of formula in every bottle with the BM and didn't care at all, whereas with my first I was obsessed with her having only BM until we weaned.

@LCTBQE: I’ve never heard that, will be saving that one in my back pocket to try, thank you!

@ElbieKay: I had so so sore nipples with my first. It was a bloody mess (literally speaking)... It got a lot better after that once I figured correct positioning and off-center latching with a LC out. With my second things were so much easier. I knew which things to avoid, for me it was generating an oversupply by pumping and being religious about a good latch. Things were easy... Then came along my twins (#3 & #4) and suddenly I had another set of obstacles to master. The main thing I learnt really early on (like still in the hospital early on) is that feeding on demand with twins is pure insanity. So while I hated seeing my kids move to N(I)CU, it really helped with putting the kids on a schedule (every 4h was the schedule in our NICU). We stuck with it and now over 16 months later I can say I BF them at about 95-99% and weaning is a whole other topic.

Every now and then a bottle of formula was really helpful and it saved my nerves. In the beginning we chose the night feed (around 11pm-midnight) to bottle feed so that the youngsters were and stayed used to it. So I would pump and DH would feed them about 3oz of BM (from the night before) and then 3oz of formula. Worked like a charm and built a great freezer stash. Added bonus was that they were really full and slept until 6am from like a month old on.

If you feel like talking twin's logistics don’t hesitate to reach out.

Painful for a while with my first; much easier/better experience with my 2nd!

Physically it’s been about the same or some things worse with LO2. I’ve had a few issues nursing my second that didn’t come up with my first (suspected thrush, a couple clogged ducts). With both I’ve had some nipple pain and I continue to have pain sometimes with this one at 3 months old bc she likes to use me as a pacifier sometimes and clamps down when she does so, it’s lovely! But that’s more of a rare issue now.

Mentally it has been sooo much easier. Even when she was first born those nights spent cluster feeding just never seemed that bad. I was just used to it whereas with my first it was just so mentally taxing. Also my second did latch on much easier and I felt confident in the hospital about nursing. My milk also came in a lot quicker despite having another c-section and I’ve been confident in my supply (though my boobs stopped feeling very full in between sessions very quickly which did throw me a little bit for a loop so FYI that can happen quicker the second time round).

So even if you have some issues I think it can be easier to deal with, but obs I have no experience with twins! You’re a champ no matter how you end up feeding them!

@ElbieKay: 2nd time around was actually harder since DS had a tongue tie and also he was just hungrier, ate more often and sucked harder.