OP is still here but hasn’t been able to digest all this yet.
Just backing up the comment that it will (most likely) hurt like nothing else for a few weeks, and that if you are latching your baby correctly (the midwifes and LLL suggestions will make this clear), you will get through it. I can’t believe how much it hurt then, and how easy it is now. Well worth perservering if you can, as it makes going out and about so much easier - I’ve fed her in movies, in cafes etc without having to faff about with bottles and formula.
Breastfeeding gets easier after six weeks. Just tell yourself to get through those first six weeks. After that, work toward three months, another point after which it gets easier. You may have a bit of a bad time at four months (often breastfed babies have a sleep regression around four months, because they get distractible while feeding during the day because they’re starting to notice the world around them more), but after six, everything is golden. So keep setting mini-goals.
Thanks for the warnings and reassurance. I don’t like having my breasts touched at the best of times, so this has been a bit of a worry for me as I really want it to work. I’m also still having difficulty in relation to what I had to do to get pregnant (maybe GfMs can understand this), so it would maybe go someway towards making me feel like my body can at least do one thing naturally and easily.
I just wanted to chime in and say if you’re nervous about co-sleeping, as I was, a co-sleeper bassinet works great. I know tons of parents co-sleep with no problems, but I was just too nervous about the possibility of rolling over on top of her or something. She’s 3 months old now, and still sleeping in one of these.
It’s especially nice because recently she’s started wanting to hold my hand while she falls asleep. She grabs a finger in each hand and clutches my hand to her chest, like a teddy bear. It’s the cutest thing ever. 
Since she’s right next to me in the co-sleeper, I can drift off while she’s still holding my hand.
She slept through the night for the first time when she was about a month old (and man, what a panic that was when I woke up. I was sure there was something wrong). It’s hit and miss now. She gives us a full night of sleep 2 or 3 times a week.
One piece of advice I read on whattoexpect.com that we just recently started trying, is to try to get her back to sleep without feeding her (by rocking, singing, pacifier, whatever works). In theory, the more she gets used to not eating at night, the less likely she is to wake up. It said not to try it until the baby weighs at least 11 pounds though. By the time they hit 11 pounds, they should be perfectly capable of going 8 hours without eating, and if they’re waking up at night to eat, it’s out of habit, not out of need. Definitely check with your pediatrician first though.
The best thing to remember about babies is things change quickly. When they are very little, their sleep patterns change every few weeks. The happiest night for me in 2009 was when my son started sleeping through the night.
That’s one habit I’ve retained successfully from my twin girls’ infant days (they’re almost 7). I can slump down in just about any chair so my head’s resting and I’m out. My wife can’t catnap like I can though, so she had a much harder time of it.
We co-slept here and there each with a girl in separate beds but it was never a regular thing. One girl was ok but the other is a thrasher and always wanted to be perpendicular to who she was sleeping with. What was a regular thing was having the girls in the same room as us.
Echoing people who say not to overplan, rest when you can. Catch what rest you can at the end of the pregnancy too.
My son is 36 and he still doesn’t sleep through the night. 
I remember feeling guilty when he was a baby-- I didn’t even have the presence of mind to realize that both his father and his grandmother woke up several times a night, so apple/tree.
Try not to stress out too much ahead of time.
It’s great to see all of you young people expecting babies. This thread made my day. Happy times ahead!
Don’t put too much pressure on yourself to do this - if you can, great. And if not, you will find another way to nuture your baby, and it won’t mean your body has failed.
I totally get where you are coming from. It was really important to me to give birth naturally, since we had so much intervention to get her installed in the first place. And so I was really gutted when we thought I’d need to be induced (didn’t need to in the end it turned out). But I reminded myself that my body had done the real work in keeping me healthy, and carrying this baby to term. The rest was just gravy.
In a short while you’ll be looking down at your baby (through bleary bloodshot eyes!) and thinking to yourself, “I did this”. From the stim and collection, the following 9 months, the birth in whatever form it takes, and beyond. You and your body have done more for this baby than most other people have had to, so don’t ever feel that you have failed in any way. You’ve done great, and I’m so excited for you!
Erm, must be the hormones, because there’s something in my eye, ahem. You’re quite right, of course, but it can be easy to overlook that at times. I’m hoping that when I actually lay eyes on the wee boy, all of what you are saying will make sense and fall into place. I’m trying hard not to have any expectations (actually, this is remarkably easy, given that the getting pregnant thing didn’t exactly go according to plan), but it is can be hard sometimes not to just wish for something to go textbook for once! Actually, I’m probably overlooking the fact that the actual pregnancy has gone really smoothly so far - I should probably stop and appreciate that just now while I have the time.
I just realised that I have never, ever slept through the night myself, so I shouldn’t be surprised if my son takes after me in that regard. Oh crap…
I think that I will bookmark this thread and revisit it nearer the time, and after the birth, just to give myself a wee reminder that babies come in all shapes, sizes and tempraments, and that they will change from week to week, and that the key to sanity is a willingness to go with the flow and adapt.
I’d echo the idea of not overplanning. Definitely work toward a schedule, particularly after the few four to six weeks (having an “official” bedtime and routine), but if I were you, I’d expect that you won’t have a schedule. That’ll help you avoid a lot of frustration. Plus, if your wife is breastfeeding, your baby might have other ideas about who can comfort him or her at night - my daughter won’t let my husband near her after 7 until 7:30 the next morning, and she will no longer take a bottle, even of expressed milk. Babies often use nursing as a source of comfort as much as they do for food.
Our second just turned eight weeks. She had finally been settling into a more or less predictable schedule, but thanks to the fact that her brother is in preschool, she’s caught conjunctivitis (pink eye) and hasn’t been sleeping thanks to a burning, itching eye. Then she developed a double ear infection, which often accompanies pink eye, so I expect we’re screwed again for a while. I caught it early, so hopefully the antibiotics will kick in before things get too out of whack, but just know that any schedule your baby has gotten on seems to go out the window if they get sick. This is true for the very young babies and older ones.
Wow, so much good advice! My two girls (now 3 and 1) slept well. They were both fed on demand, and slept in a bassinet in our room until they were 5 months, then moved into their own room. The first refused to breast feed so had expressed milk in a bottle. The second baby had a pacifier for 3 months as she was a sucker, trying to breastfeed even though she was full to the brim as she liked the comfort factor…
We used baby sleeping bags for them which helped when feeding, they didn’t feel they were being put back down in a cold bed. The baby still likes hers. One way in which they really differ is body heat when sleeping. They now sleep in the same room which is usually between 18 and 20 degrees Celcius. Last night the oldest had the duvet thrown off and her pyjamas rolled up, the baby was in a track suit in her sleeping bag and under a blanket which meant she didn’t wake up cold.
What did change their sleep was the arrival of teeth, it all went to pot then! Things are better now!
As most have said, don’t overplan, go with what feels right for your family! Good luck all of you!
I don’t sleep through the night either, but the kiddo does. Takes after her dad in that regard.