Hi everyone,

I’m 35 weeks pregnant with my second girl. My firstborn had a normal pregnancy and vaginal delivery. She was 40 weeks 3 days. We did some skin to skin immediately but not for a full hour, and the nurses were pretty aggressive about taking her and cleaning her etc. shortly after delivery. I did breastfeed somewhere within the first hour, and she was very alert. From there, we had problems. She wasn’t getting much colostrum, got jaundice on the border of getting light treatment, and then got really dehydrated. On day 3 after birth my pediatrician told me I needed to begin supplementing her immediately. I was devastated, but I worked with some awesome lactation consultants and eventually at about 7 weeks postpartum my supply ‘caught up’. But really it was barely enough for her. I go to exclusively breastfeed or more often give bottles of exclusively breast milk, for about 2 more months, then I wasn’t making enough again and had to supplement about 25% with formula. I did that until i weaned her at 12 months.

I am hoping that this breastfeeding relationship is not as miserable and hard. I will of course work with the lactation consultants again but does anyone know anything else that may help set me up for success?