I want to be successful this time! (long!)

Haley.Beth

I had dd in January, and we had problems from the beginning. I have a feeling it started in the hospital, they took her to the nursery despite our birth plan, and she got caught up in the nurse's shift change and basically forgotten about. Long story short, I didn't get to bf for the first time until she was 3.5 hours old. I think that kind of got us off on a bad track. I exclusively bf for 6 weeks, but it was just never enough. She would eat for over an hour every time, then be hungry 20 minutes later. Everyone kept telling me it was cluster feeding, try this, try that....the lactation consultant couldn't find anything wrong with her latch or anything. I just never experienced a true letdown. It never got better. She never gained weight like she should have. She was born in the 90th percentile, by 6 weeks she was in the 5th. So I caved and started supplementing with formula. Finally I had a happy baby! She actually started interacting instead of crying from being hungry! I pumped with an Ameda Purely Yours double electric every time she bottle fed, and I still tried to breastfeed her at least every other time. However, my supply kept dwindling. I tried everything to keep and increase it. Fenugreek, oatmeal, beer, hot compresses, massaging my breasts while pumping, nursing while pumping, mothers milk tea. You name it, I tried it. Nothing helped. By 4 months I was only getting 3 oz a day, and it wasn't worth the stress anymore. 

This time, I want to be more successful. First off, I'm having a home birth, so immediate skin to skin contact won't be an issue. Also, since I'm having a summer baby, I'm going to try not wearing a bra, just nursing tanks and summer dresses. I have large breasts, and with dd I didn't think about it, I just wore my regular, formed, underwire bra like I had been since high school. Then my SIL (who has been successful bfing her son for 10 months and going strong now) mentioned she hasn't worn a real bra since he was born, so I'm thinking that might be part of my issue. 

Anything else you ladies would like to add to my try-to-do list?