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Not pump as much!

I will introduce a bottle early and often!

To not revolve my world around it. I was in a low, dark place when EBF didn't work out for us. It was honestly the first time in my life I have ever been seriously depressed. I missed out on a lot of quality time with LO. Next time around, I will give it my all but not beat myself up if I end up having to supplement.

DS2 is my last, and I'm really glad that breastfeeding is working for us. With my first I had to EP, and my goal this time around is to avoid the pump as much as possible (says the girl who is currently pumping while posting).

get help right away! I thought the pain was "normal" and it was not..by the time I got help (I couldn't afford a LC visit, so a friend's sister came to help) I had seriously damaged nipples

Be more comfortable with nursing in public - meaning just suck it up and use a cover. I was always so concerned with what others thought of it, even family and friends, and looking back it would have been less time-consuming to just use a cover instead of worrying about pumping, finding somewhere private to pump, remembering to bring everything with me, etc.

Nothing. I BFed until I needed a break, gave formula when I needed one, made it to a year, nursed to sleep (favourite time to nurse actually, it's the only nursing session I miss) was not shy about NIP.

I will certainly not nurse for an hour in the morning with a future baby. Nursing to sleep is great, but my daughter expects to get to sleep another hour or two while sleepy nursing, and for the last few months that we've been slowly weaning, I just can't. So instead she just wakes up pissy and hungry.

I'd also likely not nurse another baby for 8 hours a damn day! I'd try a pacifier or some thing else. Really anything.

I'm planning to take mothers milk tea and my pump to the hospital with me to help my milk come in...it took a week the first time and my LO lost too much weight

pump way sooner to build up a stash.
i was in soooo much pain and bleeding nipples, i think if i had known a nipple shield would help i might try that this go around.
not nurse to sleep.
lactation cookies and more calories overall!

Have nipple shields on hand. They saved my nursing relationship but I didn't even know about them until a week later!

Okay, what's the deal with nursing to sleep? LO is 4m and we frequently NTS. :S

We are not gonna have a second one but if I do, I would

- feed on demand and not on schedule.

- try not to freak out if he had enough. Just chill out.

- if it doesn't work, I will not fight with it and give in early. I was devastated when LO had his multiple nursing strikes leading up to completely refusing breastfeeding. Thinking back it was completely not worth it. Breast is not always best.

- hire a nanny who is pro-breastfeeding.

@Foodnerd81: have you already broken the nurse to sleep habit? My LO is only a couple weeks behind yours and the majority of the time I put her in her crib asleep. It's very rare that I don't nurse to sleep. Tell me your secrets.

Next time I want to stock up on All Purpose Nipple Ointment, start the bottle earlier (frick! What a struggle this has been) and try not to nurse to sleep. I will say that nursing to sleep has been so easy though. She practically falls asleep as soon as she latches on if I get the nap timing right and I can easily transfer to the crib.

Not try to put her on a nursing schedule. We started out with in demand feeding and then I read the baby whisperer and became convinced she should only eat every three hours. It led to a week of absolute hell for both of us. We went back to nursing on demand and we've both been MUCH happier.

Things went well for us, and continue to, but I was worried it would be tough so I didn't introduce a pacifier. My daughter never took one. I think it would have significantly improved her sleep! Next time, if everything is looking good again, that kid is getting a pacifier.

So interesting to hear everyone saying they wouldn't nurse to sleep... this time around, I convinced myself to be okay with nursing to sleep, mainly because there were so many threads in the HB archives that were super pro-NTS. With DS #1, we were consistent with his schedule and it worked really well, but I EP'd so NTS was never an option and he was and is a great sleeper.

This time, I knew I would go to a LC early if I needed it and pump often while home.

@sandy: Many (most?) hospitals have pumps if you're in the US. You can ask them to bring one in for you. The big plus with this is that if you have a Medela pump at home, the parts they give you when they bring it in will be an extra set for your home pump. I brought my pump with me to the hospital the first time and my sister made me hide it and ask for the hospital pump FYI, my milk came in 2-3 days sooner with #2.

at 10.5 months into this one, i would be totally okay if my next BFing experience was the exact same.

@delight: Yup, we broke the nurse to sleep habit, but we had to cry it out. It wasn't working anymore-- she would wake up on the transfer half the time and have a harder time falling asleep because she had the cat nap while nursing and it was an all around frustrating experience for everyone. So, we did CIO and we are all so much happier-- I think she was just ready for it. If nursing to sleep was still working, we'd still be doing it.