please dont judge..I would like to change from breast feeding to bottle around the 8 month mark.

[missytequila]

has anyone done this? how do you do it gradually... do i just swap a feed with formula... i would like to introduce a formula feed at the morning one, 7am... can i do that and still breast feed the rest of the day? ideally i would like to get down to one evening breast feed, but I have read that some babies will wait for me/the breast and then breast feed during the night. I REALLY do not want that as feeding all night and going to work will destroy me...

has anyone managed this or can offer advice/a plan...

I did this and yes I just switched to formula one feed at a time. I think I dropped about 1 per week. He was still feeding a lot so it actually really hurt! Fortunately he was just as keen on a bottle as breastfeeding so he didn't have any issues such as you describe
with waking for comfort etc. I guess there is no knowing until you try it. How long until you go back to work?
Sorry can't remember which feeds I did in what order but I think the evening and dreamfeed were
the last to go.

I dropped the day feeds at around 8 mo to go back to work. I went with a feed per week too.

DS was (eventually - he wasn't a fan of bottles) fine. He 'converted' three bFs into two bottle feeds IYSWIM. I fed early morning, when i picked him up from childcare and then just before bed. This generally stopped the night feeds as he was still getting a lot of his milk from me, but at slightly more sociable hours for me. He dropped the post work feed at about a year but didn't drop the morning feed until about 18mo (boy was i glad when that went.) He only wanted day bottles until he was about one - he then just had drinks and his evening/morning BFs. He's 23 mo now and still has a bed time feed but is less interested in this and showing some signs of weaning.

A warning though, there were still times when he did want more feeds, typically when he was ill/teething or going through a growth or development spurt. Kellymom has good info about these. i actually found that continuing to bf through these was easier than the alternatives, but wanted to be honest! Good luck with going back to work.