Tips or advice on BFing

rayofsunshine99

I am a STM and I actually did breastfeed my son until he was 7 months old and while I'm excited to get to do this again with some experience, I am also nervous as well! 

With him I originally intended to pump exclusively, thinking that would be easier.  Then I lived it and realized it was actually much HARDER so switched to BFing.  That gave me a cracked nipple, was extremely painful and DS was also not a great latcher and it took about 10 mins each time to get him to latch.  I struggled a lot and planned to quit at 6 weeks and just make it until then... but by the time that came, it had gotten a lot easier and I kept it up until 7 mos, but did supplement about one bottle of formula per day.   

This time around, knowing that the hard part gets easier is nice and I also plan to EBF rather than supplement at all, but I am worried about other things like what if for some reason the pain is too much this time and I want to quit?  Or what if she won't latch at all?  If I get mastitis or yeast or thrush or something?  What if I'm so exhausted caring for two kids this time, that I want to quit?

So, I have some fears, obviously...   And just wondered if anyone had any words of advice or experience with some of these things, that might help or give me a little more confidence?