When I was pregnant I had a wonderful vision of what it would be like to
breastfeed my baby, I even dreamt about it, however the reality wasn't
quite so simple!

I only stayed in hospital for a few hours after the birth of my
daughter as I was eager to get home, before I left a breastfeeding
expert came round to make sure I knew how to do it, Amy latched on fine
so I left feeling confident that all would be well.

I didn't know it took 2-4 days for your milk to come in and my
daughter seemed to be permanently hungry and forever feeding, on the
second day when my midwife came to see me and said she was slightly
concerned as my daughter was a little lethargic (it turns out she's
always like that) and thought she might be getting dehydrated, that was
it for me I couldn't stand the not knowing how much milk was going in
and when I tried to express nothing was coming out so I could only
assume that my daughter was getting nothing. So that evening when she
was screaming I relented on my, 'My child is only having breastmilk'
and my partner gave her a bottle, which sent her straight off to sleep
until 3am! The next morning I woke up and my breasts felt full, hard
and heavy, yippee I thought my milks here I don't have to give Amy any
more formula! However I still didn't feel confident and prefered to
express off as much as possible (which I now know wasn't giving me a
good indication of how much milk I was producing)

By 4 weeks Amy was on 50% breast and 50% formula and I planned to
continue with this for as long as possible. When Amy was 5 weeks I got
a stomach bug which lasted nearly 10 days and meant I couldn't eat or
drink a thing for a week at this point sadly she became 100% bottle fed.

I'm glad Amy got some breastmilk and if I'd been more prepared for
the dedication breastfeeding takes I might have been better at it and
Amy may have got more, but she's fine and I'm fine so I have no real
regrets, but to all those new mums out there that persevered, hats off
to you & well done!!!