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In home visits from a LC after we got home from the hospital.

Unyielding support from my DH.

Support from DH and never letting myself give up or consider FFing even through all the problems we had in the first three months.

I'm glad I broke my breastfeeding goals down into small, manageable pieces. My initial goal was to get LO the colostrum. That worked fine, so then I aimed for 6 weeks. It was painful in the beginning but I held on to that six week mark, knowing I could quit then and have given LO a great start. Once six weeks came along, things were much better and I decided to aim for three months because that's a good amount of time to BF and get the antibodies. By the 3 month mark, all was going well except for the occasional blocked duct and mastitis so I figured I could go for six months, which had been my big goal from the start. By six months, I was loving it so much I decided to aim for a year or when I got pregnant with the next, whichever came first. Ten months in and we're still going strong.

For me, I know that if something appears to be a monumental task, I'm more willing to just not do it. BF'ing for six months sounds like ages away when your LO is two weeks old,feeding around the clock, and every latch on feels like razor blades to your nipples, but six weeks isn't that far away so it's easier to persevere. Now that we're so close to the one year mark, my goal is to get to a point where we can go straight to cow's milk and avoid formula altogether. Almost there!

I had a midwife who told me that I didn't want to supplement with formula in the first week post partum, my milk was still coming in and I was an emotional mess but she was dead right and I'm so pleased that I listened to her (although I was pretty pissed about it at the time!)

The other thing I did was seeing two different IBCLC's, one at three weeks who helped me with positioning and the other at six weeks who diagnosed Miss A's lip and tongue ties.

Feeding on demand and not stressing about putting LO on a schedule was the best thing I did. I made those mistakes the first time around and didn't make it very far.

@Ree723: That's great advice.

What's helped me the most has been going to a weekly breastfeeding support group meeting. And being stubborn. Really stubborn.

#1 was finding Kellymom.com!!! I seriously don't think I could've gotten through the tongue tie & multiple protein intolerances without her site! Specifically her post "Are Mothers Supposed to Love Breastfeeding 24 hrs a Day?". Everything from average weight gain ranges to bottle feeding tips" I still use her site for the toddler nutrition info!

#2 Not having formula in the house! We had so many issues before even knowing about the intolerances that I actually went looking for the hospital sample one night (a couple premade things) I had no clue where DH put it though so P & I had to just figure it out!

#3 Getting P's tongue tie clipped AGAINST the recommendation of our pedi & ENT who swore it wouldn't have any affect on Breastfeeding! That was bull & things go do much better when we clipped it.

Without those things I don't think we would've made it the almost 13 months we have!!

So far sticking through it despite the painful and huge nipple cracks, thrush, and over active letdown issues! Also, I never set any goal for BFing for myself beyond the initial colostrum days. I think it's been good that I don't feel like "oh I just HAVE to get through X long of a time."

LC home visit at 1 week PP, no formula in the house, and sheer stubbornness!

A lot of support from my DH and seeing a LC everyday for a week while we were stuck in the hospital.

Hired multiple LCs, and continued to press for some solution to the pain, rather than just accepting that it was "normal soreness" (it wasn't--LO was lip and tongue tied, and I was having vasospasms). And sheer force of will--I had no idea how important breastfeeding would be to me until people kept telling me to stop and just use formula.

@runsyellowlites: I cannot believe an ENT told you not to have it clipped! That's craziness!

Supplementing with formula the first few weeks before EBF.

Refusing to give formula in the hospital. One nurse was really insisting. "Look at him, he's hungry!" Finally I told her if my pedi agreed it was necessary I'd say OK. I think we both knew that was not going to happen. I seriously think that nurse was getting incentives from some formula company.