Advice needed - baby weaning right now

[LifeBeginsNow]

What should we do? Baby is 6 and a half months old and EBF. Has never taken a bottle or dummy.
I've been out all day (last feed was at 9am before a nap) and my DH has been trying to feed my expressed milk with no success. Maybe the odd dribble has gone in.
The baby has now gone to bed. Do I go home or will he smell me? Do we get DH to try the bottle through the night or should I breastfeed (my boobs are rock hard now)?
This baby is stubborn!

I'm bump for you but don't quite understand what you mean!

I think the main point here is the baby needs fluids??

Ha sorry. It was a panic post. Basically I left the house about 9am ish after breastfeeding him. DH has only managed to get a small dribble of expressed milk in him all day and I wasn't sure whether to carry on trying him with the bottle or give up and breastfeed.
The HV was the one who told me we had tried all we could so for me to leave the house and it would force the baby to drink from a bottle if he was hungry. The stubborn little thing has lasted 10 hours!
Luckily he's woken not long ago and taken a couple of ounces of milk. I'm so relieved.

What's your overall aim OP?
The general advice is to try to drop off one BF every 3-4 days if you are trying to wean completely from the breast. This allows your supply to reduce gradually.

If you are weaning so you can go back to work, many will still feed when they get home/at night, and express during the work day to prevent leakage /blocked ducts/ to have milk to leave for the baby.

If you are needing to go cold turkey for some reason, you will need to express (bit to much- just to soften/comfort level) as you will be very uncomfortable otherwise. I'd suggest DH try a "dream feed" with the bottle as baby have had much to drink since you've been away.

If you can say a bit more about what the situation is, there might be other info/suggesting that are more relevant

Have you tried a cup OP? My DS is just over 6 months and he’s learnt to drink really well from an open cup.

I guess I'd just like a little bit of freedom (I feel selfish saying that seeing how he must be starving now). There's no rush to do this but it's all been down to me for so long and he feeds every 2 hours day and night (often more in the night).
I was hoping to have a break now and again. Next month I want to get my hair cut and to leave him with someone to have a bottle.
Plus I was secretly hoping it might fill him up so if he can have a bottle before bed, I might get a little more sleep.
We've never tried a dream feed (seeing as he's up every couple of hours). Would you just push the bottle in and see if he takes it?
I'm torn between loving breastfeeding and just wanting to run away. Right now I really miss him as I haven't seen much of him all day. On other days I could only dream of such a break!
@pinkplantcase are you using a regular little plastic cup? That sounds messy but I will try in the day.

6.5 months is quite old in my opinion to push a bottle on a baby - they can be pretty set in their ways at that point so I'm not surprised he wouldn't take it if one has never been introduced before! They also say not to introduce when baby is hungry as they may get a bit more agitated and less likely to accept something new. I agree with above, we started using a baby cup at that age and my daughter would sip milk (my husband still held the cup for her though) or could try a tommee tippee free flow cup.

That's a long time without fluids though, if your husband was in that position again, I would recommend at least syringing milk into the corner of his mouth so he doesn't get dehydrated 😊

Absolutely nothing wrong with wanting a break - giving expressed milk may just need a bit more a transition period if he's only used to breast x

@fullofpips that's a good idea about the syringe! We will do that if we can bring ourselves to try again 😥.
We have tried the bottle at various points but end up wasting the milk as he just opens his mouth and let's it pour out and I'm doubtful any actually goes in. We haven't been very consistent though as its always been easier to give in.

Does your baby eat food? They may breastfeed less than every two hours if they're getting more to eat, plus water in a cup with meals and throughout the day to keep on top of fluids.

Tbh we never even tried with a bottle - just went straight to a cup. A bottle is just something else to wean them off once they hit 12 mo. The one we used is called baby cup - you can get them on Amazon. They're like little plastic shot glasses, lol. I couldn't be around when my husband gave it to her though, she would only take it if she couldn't see or smell me! So might be worth just popping out for an hour or so and seeing how it goes. At 6.5 months, my baby wasn't eating enough solids where I felt happy to let her go without milk for hours and hours but once she started eating better - around 9 months - she would happily go without for a bit. Good luck!

@miltonj we did start on solids but that's when the sleep went wrong and I realised he was constipated. I don't think it was sitting right on his tummy. He did sleep for 4 hours sometimes in one go but it dropped to hourly (or less wake ups) after starting solids.
I've stopped for now and letting it all work its way out and will reintroduce baby Porridge each morning and build up from there.
@fullofpips I'll order those now, thank you. It's going to be so odd seeing him drinking out of a cup!

Ah, I've gotcha now! I think everyone knows that feeling of needing a bit of time off, breastfeeding is intense!
For tonight, and assuming you haven't been pumping through the day, I'd let him feed from the boob as much as he wants, or have a super good pump to empty your boobs. If you've been 10hours without removing milk be watchful for any blocked ducts etc.
Going forwards, as above... Lots of suggestions for cups, free flow beakers, Doidy cup to try as alternatives if bottles not popular. Let him practice regularly, expect a bit of mess (do it at bathtime?!) Let him copy what you do with a cup.

Have a plan for regular short breaks which fit in with your family life, maybe it's 2 hours on a Saturday and DH takes him to the park, or maybe it's a regular Tues night while you go to the pool/gym/friends house. Maybe it's with a grandparent, it is half a day in nursery, whatever is going to work for you.

DD was 5.5 months when we started moving from bf to ff.

She took a bottle once and never again. We cup fed for 1/2 year without any issues.

We had Doidy cups, great but messy. A friend with similar problems had success with Tommy Tippee first cup, the free flow one, not the sucking one.

I know that DD would be screaming for milk for this amount of time and my boobs would be a nightmare. We didn't really wean until she was 9 months due as she just wasn't interested.

After about 1 week of using a cup DS 6 months can drink without spilling any if we hold it for him.