These aren't necessarily all things I believed right up until my baby proved me wrong, but they are certainly things I believed at some point before getting pregnant and learning more on the topic.
Teeth are nature's way of telling you to wean the baby - First, of course, some babies get teeth at just a couple months old, or are even born with a tooth; but let's ignore those outliers. What I didn't know was that, even after starting solids, babies still have to have either breastmilk or formula until they're a year old. I was envisioning eight-month-olds living on nothing but jarred baby food, but that's not how it works. Why would I voluntarily "wean" if it just means switching to formula? I haven't yet had to nurse with teeth, but I've heard it's really not bad - and honestly, I know full well that he could bite me plenty hard with those gums if he wanted to.
Nursing in public is kinda weird and unnecessary - The truth is, it's very easy to nurse discreetly (until he pops off and tries to make me nipple-flash the world), and it's far from unnecessary. If I could never nurse him in public, I'd either never be able to go anywhere, or would have to pump a LOT more in order to always have a bottle on hand just in case. I think my opinion on nursing in public was changed by one experience: I'm a grad student, and a fellow student had brought her baby to a research meeting. She was sitting next to me, and at one point I snuck a peek at the baby and had to do a double-take when I realized she was nursing and I hadn't even noticed! I couldn't see any boob or anything, and if I hadn't looked right at her I never would have known it happened. I hadn't realized until then just how unintrusive it can be.
Pumping is easy, I'll always have plenty of pumped milk around! - For some people, it's tedious but not too bad. But I don't respond well to the pump. See, a baby gets milk by simultaneously squeezing and sucking. Their mouth is the ultimate mommy-milking machine, and is very efficient. The pump only has suction to work with; some people can get plenty of milk that way and some people have some trouble. I generally get 1-2 oz in a 20 minute pumping session. So I don't have a freezer stash; I'm doing well to have just enough to leave my husband one ounce per hour I want to work, which is just enough to keep the baby from rioting.
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