What were your experiences with breastfeeding your first child vs later kids? Did you do anything different to prepare?
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Breastfeeding my second was much easier in the hospital- I had confidence and muscle memory kicked in and made it easy to latch my baby. However, I'm having more issues with supply this time around. (For context, I am a WOHM and I pump 3 times while at work). I think I got complacent thinking I could do everything the same as the first time and it would all work out the same.
My advice would be to not expect everything to be the same as with your first.
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My first I was super lucky and everything was pretty easy.
My second was born with a terrible tongue tie, we got it fixed at 9 days old but he has just been more challenging in general. He will still sometimes grab a bad latch at almost 4 months old and I'll have nipple pain for a couple days. Having breastfed one has definitely made this time easier though. I know it will eventually be easy all the time instead of just 90%.
I am a sahm so that makes me breastfeeding them easier in a lot of respects. This time I pump more just to have a bottle ready if we want to go out without the baby, I didn't do that with my first until she was over a year
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#1 was so hard! Was not prepared, had latching issues, had to use a nipple shield for the 1st 4 months. Struggled with supply; had to start supplementing at 6 months with formula and dried up at 9 months.
#2 went so, so well. I think 1) my body knows better what to do and 2) I was much less stressed. I didn't bat an eye to supplement in the beginning while my milk was still coming in. We had an amazing nursing relationship and actually just weaned past 2.5 years! Also had better supply, but I was also armed with more information and tried new supplements, etc.
Going to have my 3rd next year and I plan to just remain as stress free as possible too! If it works out great, if not, it's not the end of the world (I did NOT think that way with my 1st...)
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With my 2nd I had a couple bottles of formula ready. With my 1st I was SO worried formula would be the end-all for breastfeeding, SO NOT TRUE and it allowed me to get my first solid 3 hours of sleep after DD nursed all night long post birth.
Other than that, nursing both was pretty similar.
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I had a much harder time my second time around. My supply was worse, and the baby was fussier. I think some of my supply issues had to do with stress. I wish I had talked to my boss about pumping breaks because I now know she would have let me take paid breaks as long as I got my work done, and that was something that caused me a huge amount of stress. I will say that everyone else I talk to has the opposite experience (an easier time and better supply the second time around), so my guess is you will too!
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I had a much easier time the second time around. LO2 latched almost as soon as he was born! My milk came in before I even left the hospital (with LO1 it took 5 full days!). We also had him checked for a tongue tie right away since LO1 had one and tore up my nipples before we could get it clipped.
The only problem I had the second time around was getting him to take bottles once I went back to work! LO1 was easy peasy, would switch back and forth no problem. LO2 hated every single bottle we tried. Thanks to the determination of his daycare teacher she was able to finally get him to take a bottle his second week of daycare.
I only pumped at work for a few months because LO2 hated frozen breast milk. So we combo fed, formula at daycare and nursing at home. We nursed until almost a year (which was longer than my first who stopped completely at 9/10 months).
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@Clementine12: surprisingly very similar with all three. My milk came in by day 3 with all three kids. They nurse(d) similarly as well, quick nursers, Good initial weight gain, spit up a lot.
The only thing that happened to me this time, with my third, was milk blisters and bleeding nipples right from the get go. It was crazy and painful. A lactation consultant I saw told me I just had an over supply and my baby was clamping down to slow milk flow. She also said that each subsequent pregnancy creates more breast tissue and then you have more milk each time your milk comes in which is something I did not know. Despite my painful issues early on this time, my milk supply also adjusted itself more quickly to meet my baby’s needs this time. n
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DS1 I was constantly in tears and in pain. He ate around the clock and it was terrible until at least 6 or 7 months. The snack feeding also led to terrible oversupply, which was also painful (though I was able to donate a ton, which felt good).
DS2 and DD were so much easier. Partly it was because DS1’s mouth was much smaller, but I think it was even more because I wasn’t afraid to break a bad latch. I had maybe 2 weeks of a little pain with each, but nothing like the first. I also worked hard to space out feedings and make them take full feeds. So I didn’t necessarily prepare differently, but my confidence and knowledge made it much better.
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Harder with the second vs the first. Both combo fed from day one. Our older son was able to switch easily between BF and bottle and would eat anywhere anytime easily. He was BF until 12 months. Our younger was distracted and ravenous from day 1. He became extremely difficult to nurse and clearly liked the bottle better because he could guzzle it. He was weaned around 6 months old because it got to be that he would scream and pull off while waiting for let down, couldn’t nurse anywhere but a dark silent room. Saw lactation consultants and no improvement. We did exclusive FF from then on and he still gets 2x 8oz bottles per day plus 3 meals and 2 snacks at 1yo. He’s a little piglet!
Biggest thing was how different they both were for nursing and eating. Our first had issues with solids and didn’t take to it til 11/12 months and nursed very well. Our second was onto solids at 4 months and never looked back.
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Honestly, I had a lot less patience and joy with nursing and pumping for LO2, so my supply dwindled due to cutting my pump times short, and I stopped around 9 months, which was basically the entire opposite of LO1.
But I basically breastfed or was pregnant for 4 straight years sooooo..... I think I was just done.
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I had a much easier time with #2 - with my first I had supply issues, and he was such a sloooow eater, every session was 45 minutes long. My second was a champ, it was more like 10 minutes, and I seemed to produce more milk.
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I had a much harder time the second time around, which I did not expect at all. My second was a slow and lazy nurser, which led to weight gain issues and lots of stress. She essentially decided she preferred bottles so eventually I started exclusively pumping, which I hated. I've learned that your experience can really vary each time based on the specific temperament of each kid.
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@SteelerGirl: Same advice here. I ended up supplementing my second around 8 weeks after really low weight gain and we transitioned to fully formula-fed around 6 months. My first was BF until 15 months. I WOH with both babies, returning to work at simlar times, but I think I was too laid back and assumed things would go the same or level out based on my prior experience with my first LO.
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DS1 was a good nurser but it HURT for awhile and then got better. He was a crazy cluster feeder at night so we had to supplement most nights with a bottle as I wasn't producing enough at night. He stopped nursing on his own around 11 months. I pumped throughout the entire time and was able to feed him from my stash up through a year
DS2 had a rougher start and wasn't nursing well the first 2 weeks. I needed to see a lactation consultant from the start. After that, he was a breeze. I didn't have to supplement him at all and had to wean him at 14 months. I pumped only for the first 10 months and was able to feed him from my stash up through the time I weaned.
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All of my breastfeeding experiences have been similar, decent eaters with decent latches. I have just gotten much more relaxed each time and didn't really do much to prepare except have a ton of lanolin on hand for my 2nd and 3rd. I had a cracked nipple with my first that I didn't want to repeat. I nursed my first for around 7 or 8 months and 2nd for 5-6 months and then switched to formula. I don't love breastfeeding even though I have had a pretty good experience. I plan on nursing my 3rd for about the same amount of time.
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My second was way easier than my first. My first had a tongue tie, which we had clipped at two weeks, but it took a long time for her to relearn how to nurse. It was super painful for a long time. We went on to have a great nursing relationship, but I wouldn’t have been able to do it without support from DH and a few lactation consultants.
DD2 had no tongue tie issues and nursing was super easy from the beginning.
I’m pregnant with our third and will have them check in the hospital for a tongue tie right away! If there’s even a slight one I’m getting it clipped ASAP.
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My second was twins so I had to deal with that learning curve.
They were born a full month earlier than my son, and they were too sleepy to nurse enough. So I had to triple feed.
Other than that it was pretty similar (although since there were two babies it was always more complicated!) and my supply was better the second time around.
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Baby 1: Bad. Had a tongue tie and lip tie clipped, had a really bad latch, oversupply, saw so many lactation consultants, so much pain, slow weight gain, mastitis. etc etc etc. Bf (especially for the first two months) was such. damper on the newborn phase. Made it to 14 months.
Baby 2: lip tie clipped at 5 days old, dealt with some nipple "trauma" for a couple of weeks, but that resolved itself. The worst part was pumping 4x a day at work because I didnt have that same oversupply. While there were a couple kinks initially, it's been a whole other world. We are still going strong at 12 months.
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@LemonJack: With my first I was told by LC in the hospital that everything looked great. There was a LC at the ped's office who told us repeatedly his latch was great, and the pediatrician didn't believe in tongue ties and refused to give a referral to have it checked out further. I spent nearly three months with chronic mastitis, non-stop clogs, DS was not gaining well....ped was just like "well obviously, just formula feed him." finally I just found an IBCLC on my own, she said it was super obvious that he had a tongue tie, and fixing it was night and day. LO is still bf at 20 months. I'm due in Dec and the first person I call after the baby is born will probably be the IBCLC who diagnosed DS.
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Nursing my first was so painful for close to 6 months. She had upper lip tie that I did not correct because, despite my immense pain, she was nursing well and gaining weight. She would nurse at length all day and night. I nursed her until 13 months and stopped only because I was pregnant. She was so easy to wean. One day we stopped and that was it.
Nursing my second was easier, and she doesn't nurse nearly as long or as often as my first. I had mastitis once in the early first weeks and thought i may die. I'm still nursing her at 15 months but trying to cut down to just nursing at nap and bed. I'm a little sad, but find myself just too busy to sit down and nurse her a various times during the day now that I have two. Again, so sad.
I exclusively nursed and also pumped during the work week for 12 months for each girls.
Pretty much no preparation for either. Although I did take a breastfeeding class at a boutique which helped me a little with expectations before my first. I also met a lactation consultant there who I ended up having on speed dial. I took advantage of her as much as I could afford, and also the hospital had help during the first month. My husband was so very supportive and I couldn't imagine doing it without him the first time. By second baby, it was just a world different and seemed like second nature. I didn't need the help.
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