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I’ve had a much easier experience BF my second. With my first we had slow weight gain, I had to EP for 6 months...ugh

With this kid he is a nursing champ and my
supply is SO much better. I don’t use the electric pump at all but I have been doing a nightly
Pump with a hand pump to make sure he takes a bottle. He gets 1 bottle around 6 pm and then still nurses before bed.

I exclusively pumped for both babies. I had c sections both times. The second c section resulted in a hemorrhage (known for tanking milk supply).

The first baby, I tried everything, but nothing really worked. After three months of heavy supplementing, I ordered domperidone online. That was what enabled me to continue breastfeeding at all, though I just barely kept up and eventually stopped at 9 months.

I read that it's most important to take Dom during the first weeks after giving birth, because that signals to your body how much milk you need to produce and affects your whole supply for the entire span of nursing. So I ordered it ahead of time, though I didn't expect much result after I realized I'd hemorrhaged (I started taking the medicine on day 3, and before that I couldn't pump a thing--no colostrum, nothing).

It worked! Immediately! Not only did I pump enough, I pumped extra. I had three months worth of milk stored up when I quit pumping (I could have kept it up but was glad to stop as soon as I could). So I'm a huge believer in domperidone. I'll definitely be ordering some next pregnancy.

@buttermilk: Yeah, you're allowed to order up to a three months supply for personal use of medicines like domperidone (anything that isn't an illicit drug is legal). I've ordered from In House Pharmacy in the past, but now I order from a business in Thailand because it's so cheap ($33 per 1000mg).

I had low supply with my first - I was taking a LOT of fenugreek and blessed thistle to have enough to keep him going. With my second I didn’t need to. Plus with my second “time to eat” was a ten minute process, as opposed to a 60 minute process, but he may have just been more efficient.

I can't speak from experience yet but my 2 best friends had a lot of trouble with their first (lathing, pain, low supply) and their experience with their second was a breeze!! Both had no problems at all and they were worried initially.

I didn't pump enough for my first, and supplemented with formula when she was at daycare and exclusively nursed on weekends when we were together. With my second, I made an effort to pump more earlier on, added in an extra pumping session in the evening before I went to bed after I went back to work, and ended up renting a hospital grade pump from months 6-12 when I started to pump less than he was drinking at daycare. It was a lot of effort, but I did pump more for him than for my daughter, and with the stash I built up in the beginning, we made it to about 11 months before I ran out, and at that point our pediatrician said not to worry about supplementing with formula.

So overall, my output increased but only because I put in the effort to build up a stash early on. Otherwise I think it would have stayed the same.