Making it work...

Had our first prenatal breastfeeding class last night, it was pretty good. I went in fully expecting the one-sided view that "breast is best" so it didn't really throw me when that's exactly what we got - a lot of information on "boob-good, formula-bad", the areas in which breastfed kids do better, etc. That stuff i basically knew, and pretty much tuned out for. (the one thing of note that i learned is that powdered formula is not very safe as there is no way to ensure that it's sterile from certain bugs/bacteria - babies have been known to get meningitis due to powdered formula. Concentrate or ready-to-go is safe.)

The interesting part was just hearing about all the options and different things to try if you do end up facing difficulties in breastfeeding, instead of automatically "giving up" and switching to formula. Our current goal is to try to breastfeed exclusively until about 6-8mos (adding the recommended solids around 6 mos, of course), but i have been concerned about "what if things don't go well?", so to hear that there are a number of things to try before making the choice to switch was reassuring. I'm a pretty determined person (to a point), and i am also the type of person who will exhaust all available options before "giving up" on something that i had set my mind to. So the class gave me hope that with this attitude, we should be able to get past the difficulties that do arise, and should be able to make that 6-8mos goal.

Anyone out there want to share their experiences with breastfeeding? Am i being too idealistic/optimistic or are my thoughts pretty reasonable? If you feel comfortable sharing, what challenges have you faced and what things did you try to address them? At what point do you decide that for your own sanity/baby's health that it was time for formula? Or did you choose to not breastfeed at all?