My milk took 5 days to come in and LO had trouble latching. We were supplementing with formula before we left the hospital because of those aforementioned issues as well as mild jaundice.

I was not 100% committed to breastfeeding until LO was already born, which was a mistake on my part, but I didn't realize how important it was to me until she was here. In the first few weeks, I was so overwhelmed. My mother had extreme post partum depression, so we were all on high alert to make sure I was recovering normally.

I had a wonderful support system around me to give me breaks and let me sleep. But in those early days, frequent nursing is so important and I worry that my extra naps and overnight breaks hurt my supply in the long run. I also think the immediate introduction of formula before were were even discharged from the hospital hurt our chances for an exclusive breastfeeding relationship.

I went for frequent meeting with lactation consultants at the hospital in the early days. I also attending a breastfeeding support group weekly until I returned to work.

Her latch improved, but she wasn't a very strong sucker, and never drained me so my body didn't know to produce more unless I pumped after every nursing session.

In the lactation consultants office, I saw a sign that said "Every ounce counts". That became my mantra.

I was never able to bring in a full breastmilk supply (even with frequent nursing, pumping, domperidone supplements, nursing tea, etc.). But I kept the supply I was able to create (about 15 oz a day) for all of LOs first year.

She began biting and refused to nurse at 8 months. I exclusively pumped after that (6x a day).

I pumped round the clock, at work, etc. and gave her every drop I produced. We supplemented the rest with formula.

Balancing the two feeding methods was very complicated, but LO was fed, and she received as much breastmilk as I could make, so I'm thankful for that.

The entire experience is still emotional for me to think about, although I have tried to block it from my mind going forward. It really impacted our bonding the first year. The feeding troubles we had is one of the reasons I don't want more children. I can't imagine struggling to make milk like that again, and I worry it is unfair to future LOs to not work to give them breastmilk and exclusively formula feed when I worked so hard to make milk with the first one.

How do you feel about your infant feeding experiences?