wait and see how you feel when the baby arrives. to be honest, having visitors at the hospital helped my sanity levels! i hate being out of my home environment so it was nice to have friendly faces - BUT - apart from my dad, all my visitors were women with children, they'd all BF, i'd known them all forever - and i had no drama feeding my DD with them there. they were really understanding - i basically said "i'm gonna be boob out - there's the door if you don't like it" - i'm not someone that thought i would be comfy feeding in front of people, so that was a huge thoing for me!
For me I preferred the visitors at hospital than at home. That way when I got home, I could jsut get used to being a mum, didnt have to worry about a clean house or being in my pj's and also the other benefit of having them at hospital was that you can say to them, We are going to have to cut this short as we have a bf, physio class, etc to go to.
i knew i didn't really want visitors at the hospital other than close family(for similar reasons to you with bfing etc)...i had DS at 6pm & we didn't send out the sms to friends till lunchtime next day. my parents came during the afternoon of day two & DP's mum, bro & SIL came that evening. then i asked to be discharged on the morning of day 3 so there was no time for anymore visitors!
i did find it tough at home having visitors - i think in hindsight it may have been easier in hospital because they would have had to leave at a set time but we didn't really encourage any visitors other than family at home for the first week and at some point i asked that everyone stay away for a couple of days just to let us settle in.
my advice would be the same as most others - just let people know that you'll tell them if you're up for visitors when the time comes & see how you feel
I felt very torn about visitors. It made me feel good that people cared enough to visit, but once they arrived I wanted them gone. I did have emergency c-sections both times though, so was pretty knocked about.
I had ds by c-section at 8am, we also told family that visiting hours didn't start until mid afternoon so we could have the day together as a new family. The first afternoon/evening it was immediate family only.
Day 2 was crazy busy with visitors, the midwives picked up on the fact I wasn't handling it and offered me a sign for the door letting people know that visits were to be kept to 10mins by request of the ob!!! Worked a treat! If it was someone I was very happy to hang out with for ages we just told them to ignore the sign on the door! Kept the pesky Great Aunts from staying all bloody afternoon! The midwives actually had the signs made up and laminated so they obviously experience this problem a lot! I wouldn't stress too much about it, be guided day by day how you're feeling and go the sign on the door if/when you've had enough!!!
Good idea to prepare now. Some ppl love visitors, but I'm like you; I prefer some space and privacy in those first few weeks.
I agree with others, let ppl know ahead of time what you want in regards to visitors. You can always invite people to the hosp if you change your mind. I did find I wanted the space when my milk was coming in, and also in the first day. Days 2 & 3 were good for visitors. I pretty much just had family & my best friend, I didn't want any more than that.
It's a good idea to plan for visitors once you get home too, especially if your partner only has a short time off. You might not want to spend his whole paternity leave entertaining guests and have no time left for him to bond with bubs. I found that we hardly had one or two visitor free days for the first 4 weeks, and in hindsight I wish I'd done something to stop that because I'll never get that time back and now that DH is back to work I'm all on my own.
I've heard of ppl having a 'meet the baby' afternoon tea. It kinda gets everyone over and done with and then you can have your house and your space back to bond with bubs, sit around in your pjs, and have your boobs out. Also heard of ppl sticking a sign on the door: 'mum & bub resting, please leave a message' or 'mum & bub recovering, short and sweet visits are appreciated'.
Goodluck with it all. Don't be afraid to mark out whatever space you need. Those who matter wont mind, and those who mind, don't matter
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Kept the pesky Great Aunts from staying all bloody afternoon! 
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