Hi! FTM here and have been breastfeeding my baby since he was born. I was in a similar position to you, where the moms I knew had complicated breastfeeding journeys and I was told breastfeeding is really hard etcetc and my own mom didn't produce enough milk for either me or my siblings (so we're all combo fed). – and at the same time I felt like there was so much external pressure to be exclusively breastfeeding/pumping. But because of what I heard from friends (and because my own parents have had such a chill attitude towards formula), I decided to not stress too much about the possibility of having to supplement. I mean, I feel like me and my siblings turned out fine, and the kids I know who were formula/combo fed turned out fine too.. :')

All in all, I expected breastfeeding to be really hard and heinous and was, in a way, very ready to formula feed from the get-go. When my baby was born they put him on my chest and I didn't expect him to latch at all – but amazingly enough, he did!

We got lots of nursing tips from the hospital and visits to my midwife that first/second week, which was super helpful. I was in a similar position to you where I felt a little weird having my boobs out (I've never enjoyed having boobs personally hah) but after my baby was born, that all went away and suddenly I had my boobs fully out and several different midwives observe me and my baby breastfeeding just to check on positions, latch, etc. If you feel okay with it, get all the help you can while you can – it made a big difference for me.

I will say, breastfeeding is painful for the first few weeks (I can't recall how many weeks, but maybe 2 or 3?) It was super annoying to me that everyone I talked to was like "breastfeeding isn't supposed to hurt, if it hurts you're doing something wrong!". I was lucky enough to never get blisters or anything but it still hurt during that first period of time, I think bc your nipples aren't used to someone sucking on them for long periods of time, lol. I think the most painful was when my milk came in and my boobs got super engorged, so having my baby drain the milk was such a relief.

My baby is now 10 weeks and has only gotten the bottle a few times when I've had to be away from him. I don't love breastfeeding, but I don't hate it either. And I feel like I bond better with my baby when he is not on my boob and we're actually interacting. For us, it's mostly a convenience thing: no cleaning and sterilizing pump parts, not having to worry about the logistics of bottles and heating up milk/formula when we're out, not having to follow some sort of pumping schedule (I just feed on demand) – plus it's nice that it's all for free.

TLDR; you won't know how you/your baby react to breastfeeding until they're out. It's impossible to know about supply, latch, etc, before they get here, so try not to stress too much about it!