Hi! I'm a first time mom... my baby is going to be ten weeks old and is breast fed. Are there any breast feeding classes in the area? I would suggest taking one (mine was free)... and also where I am once your baby is born you can join support groups!
I think if I could impart a piece of advice it would be that the first several weeks of breast feeding CAN BE (doesn't mean it WILL BE) very hard. You are trying to recover from childbirth and there's some things I feel like no one tells you...
Cluster feeding... during the first week or two your baby might want to be attached to you at all times and cry if they aren't at the breast ... mine did (they also might do this during growth spurts) Their tummies are so tiny and they are trying to boost your milk supply (so instinctually more time at the breast gets your milk to come in and increase).... I feel like this is where a lot of my friends panicked (I did too) because you feel like maybe your baby is starving or not getting enough or something and you want to fix that by making a bottle.... your baby is not starving and it is perfectly normal for them to want to eat allll the time for a bit, but your milk will regulate and so will they, it just takes a little bit.
The other thing is that if breast feeding HURTS it's not normal... at first your nipples might feel sore and sometimes there's a little pinch right before your milk lets down.... but if you are in pain or having cracked and bleeding nipples ... it's most likely an incorrect latch issue or maybe your baby has a tongue tie (my baby was tongue tied and once it was corrected breast feeding became amazing)... so if it hurts definitely see a lactation consultant !! A lot of people have a misconception that it should hurt. It shouldn't.
My last piece of advice is about comfort sucking.... no one ever explained the difference between nutritive sucking and comfort sucking.... so my baby loves to pacify herself by breast feeding but for the longest time I thought she couldn't get milk out of me and was "eating" all the time and didn't understand why she was fussy of milk came out of me. Basically if my baby is gassy, sleepy, fussy, etc she wants the breast BUT she doesn't wannnnt to eat she just wants to suck for comfort (perfectly normal - and why some people use pacifiers for their babies -because they reallllly like to suck for comfort when they are little and lets face it - mama cannot always be available! Mine doesn't take a pacifier, she just prefers me). So if your baby is on the breast but not actively swallowing and the sucking is smaller than eating, chances are they are there because it's just really comforting to be with mama
but no one ever told me that so I just thought something was kind of wrong with my milk supply or something !
These were all the things I WISH I knew about breast feeding that no one ever shared with me, so I hope it helps you!!! I didn't like it at first but honestly now I am so in love with it now that we found or rhythm and I know what works with her, every baby is different !
About the feeding in public thing. For me I bought a cover and now she's a little bit bigger and I've used it it's gotten better... also I tend to use the car because it's a little bit more private ... but thats me. Breast feeding is natural and beautiful and there's nothing wrong with not using a cover. I'm just comfortable with one. I know you have other little ones but my breast feeding class suggested going to the movies with a little baby and using that as your first public experience because it's dark and no one can really see you in there so for your first time it might be a nice way to break the ice !
