After the twins were born, I wrote a post about our breastfeeding experience and what I would do if I could do it all over again. When Baby Brother was born, I got a chance to do just that. My experience this time has been so different, and we’ve been much more successful. Looking at my previous post, however, has taught me one important thing: your breastfeeding journey will be different with every baby. Sure, I learned from my last experience, but this time I had a new set of challenges and not one of the things I would have changed last time applied this time.

Baby Brother was born at nine pounds two ounces. He came out hungry, ready to eat, and had no interest in slowing down anytime soon as opposed to his brothers, who were born at 36 weeks, only ate a few milliliters at a time initially, and were put on supplemental donated breast milk and eventually formula from Day 1. With the twins, I was never able to get my milk supply anywhere close to enough to feed them. With Baby Brother, I’ve had the opposite problem. And while I never would have thought I would say this, yes, too much milk can be a problem, too.

At a little over three months, we are going strong and I’m enjoying the experience. That said, there are a few things I would do differently.

1.  Be consistent about giving a bottle once a day. Obviously there’s a risk of nipple confusion, but I’d still do this differently if I could. Baby Brother loves him some boob. Only boob; nothing else will do. We gave him a couple of bottles in the hospital and one or two after we got home, but only after he breastfed and was still screaming with hunger. I really, really wanted breastfeeding to work this time around and I wanted to wait to push bottles until everything was well established.  Plus, Mr. Blue was working a lot of late hours the first couple months after Baby Brother was born and was often working during the bedtime bottle. It was just so much easier to feed him then to pump and then bottle feed. So, I didn’t. Fast forward a few weeks. We were getting ready to travel for a wedding in which I was a bridesmaid and the twins were ring bearers. We started trying to give him bottles so my in-laws could feed him during the wedding and reception. Many bottles were borrowed or bought. There was pleading, wailing, and gnashing of teeth. I tried. Mr. Blue tried. My mom tried with me out of the house. My in-laws tried at the wedding. Yep, we have a complete bottle refuser over here. I’m so thankful that breastfeeding is working . . .  But, man, it would be nice to get away for a couple hours now and then.

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2.  Not having enough milk sucks. Having too much milk sucks. Actually, anything but the right amount of milk sucks. The first time around, I remember hearing people talk about having a freezer stash full of milk, and I hated them a little because I was trying so hard to breastfeed my two babies, was miserably failing, and feeling ridiculously guilty (don’t feel like this if you’re in this position by the way–breastfeeding is a great option and so is any other way you feed your baby).  This time around at about two weeks post-partum, I noticed that Baby Brother would pull off and milk would spray allllllll over. Thus, started our joyous journey into the world of too much milk. My poor little guy would choke and cough and sputter and cry every few sucks because the milk just came out too much and too fast. He was also super gassy and had to burp every few minutes because he took in so much air while trying to manage the flow. Though much more minor, it also made me super uncomfortable and I leak alllll the time. And as for the freezer stash, that didn’t happen either because everything I read said not to pump since that would just increase my supply and . . . oh, yeah, my kid refuses all bottles.

Even with the over-active let down and a really stressful few weeks of a nursing strike, this time around has been so much easier and better. I’m really thankful for that.

What was breastfeeding like for you the first and second time around?