Well, Cooper was an induced, medicated, hospital birth and we completely failed at BF'ing after 2 weeks. My mother (a midwife) was our saboteur who gave him his first bottle at 2 days old claiming he looked jaundiced and my milk wasn't in. After the second week of her getting up to him during the night with a bottle (her room she was staying in was next to his - ours was the other side of the house so she'd hear him, turn off his monitor and get a bottle) we finally threw in the towel.

Second baby and I was determined to do it. I still to this day hold very bitter feelings for not being stronger with Coops, but you learn.

We had Cary in a birth centre, skin to skin immediately, let her "breast crawl" at her pace, then latch and stay put til she was ready to drop off (1.5 hrs - little piggy).

At home DH moved into the spare room for the first 4 weeks so that I could co-sleep in peace and offer boob whenever Cary wanted it. This helped to establish our supply. That first month we used no dummies etc - it was all me.

Coops got "toy chests" to unpack whenever I needed to feed bubs, so that kept him amused and I am not sorry to say ABC Kids was an AWESOME babysitter LOL

Then we introduced a dummy at around 3 months to let her use it for comfort sucking - took a while to get her to take it - and once a sippy was introduced I found she was wanting more structured breastfeeds.

Nowadays she feeds twice per day, once at nap time and once at bed, although some days she'll ask for more.

So my advice is:

1) Never doubt yourself. You have the ability to feed your baby so don't let formula etc into the house if that's what you believe (and choose)
2) Never feel guilt. If you try and for some reason you can't or don't want to feed - then praise yourself for what you've done and move on happily (this is something I still work on til today xx)
3) Let baby take the lead and if something *seems* out of place, don't beat yourself up, get advice and move on. Let bub latch as much or as little as they like in the first weeks - you're both learning and you perfect this with practice

LASTLY

4) Just when you think you've found your groove, bub will switch things on you. Don't stress if previous 40 minute feeds become 10 minute feeds. Watch bub closely and take their lead. Overall if there are lots of wet and dirty nappies - then all is fine and if you are offering often enough then bub will take what's needed. Don't get hung up on mins feeding etc - and bugger off the charts. Trust your mummy gut

Enjoy my love!!