poohy, kudos to you on breastfeeding. You really perservered.
i am a very bad example. When i was in hospital, in the labour ward, i tried to breastfeed. After that is round the clock bf. But baby had difficulty latching on. Nurse told me i had short nipples and baby's tongue kept pushg out, i have 20% chance of succeedg in bf. 2nd day of birth, colostrum was only a bit, milk supply haven't come in yet, and mum and auntie said i'm starving my baby. One of the nurse said tt i'm depriving my baby of milk too, i was so mad and stressed. But i insisted on bf but was kinda coerced to supplement with FM as baby was wailing. For those who want to bf.. it is perfectly fine if you're not having enuff for baby in the 1st few days of their life.
After birth, my haemorroids came back, it was the worst piles i had. I was battling with this and bf. 4th day of birth, let down was there and milk supply came on. Still have problems latchg baby on/off, went back hosp. to see lactation specialist twice. i was expressing bm every 2-4 hrs. Concurrently, my nipples are sore and v painful. i dread every feedg/express and squirmed in pain (but not everyone feels pain, and sld not feel pain if baby is latching on properly). My case was probably baby didn't suck properly (must suck the whole areola)and caused the sore nipples. Plus my impatient baby bites and sucked v strongly which aggravated the wound.
Last Thu/Fri, barely a wk of Isabelle's birth, i see blood when i was expressing the milk. Saw a couple of times. i was still expressg regularly. But due to block ducts, the breasts became engorged and v painful. On Sat, i went to see the doctor, and decided that i will layoff bf (as good as sayg stop) and let my breasts heal. Taking medication (process is reversible) but still feeling engorgement Pain (cold cabbage, hot towel alleviates pain 4 a while) which will last for 5days-2wks. In a nutshell, we have started Isabelle on FM, with a bit of frozen EBM.
i'm a failure case, so dun learn from me. My point of sharing is...be prepared to go thru' some difficulties in bf. Giving up was a dilemma.. There are many successful cases like poohy. i even took 2 months unpaid leave thinkg tt i'll bf, think maybe no need liao.
Btw, 1 recommendation. Buy NUK rubber teats bottles. i used Avent silicon teats but they are quite hard and hence baby has to suck hard, which means if combing bottle and breastfeed, baby may suck hard at ur breasts. Lactn specialist recommended NUK rubber teats which are softer and more similar to nipples.
My colleague told me, mothers are inherently noble. To me, going thru' motherhood (now) is like my cross to bear)... but i believe things will get better.
All the best in your experience.
But it's good.. motivation for all of us that we can be like u... seemed like samuel is an easy kid to look after huh? 
