My son is ten and a half months old. I EBFed until introducing solids, which only really took off about 6 weeks ago. DS was/is a very hungry boy and throughout most of the BF he was feeding every 2 hours, including at night; he also had bad reflux, was very unsettled as a newborn and developed a reliance on comfort sucking. Whilst I'm very glad I BFed and have loved it, I have found it enormously tiring and have been so much happier and healthier since he started taking more solids and I was able to cut back BFs to 4 or 5 a day. Recently he was having 3 meals a day, plus snacks, water and 4-5 milk feeds (morning, after pm nap, evening and 1 or 2 in the night), and I really felt we were making progress.
I am getting married in May and wanted to stop BFing at around 12 months (mid March), to give me my body back and have a chance to feel fitter before the big day.
So I have been really low over the last few days to find we've gone completely backwards, DS ONLY wants to BF, refusing nearly all solids and wants boob ALL DAY. He isn't teething just now and seems to have come out of a recent growth spurt/unsettled period so I don't really understand it. My milk supply has gone down a lot and I wonder if he is responding to this?
I would really appreciate some advice from people who have been through this. Is it worth trying to refuse BFs or will this only make things worse? Should I take cues from him and hope this is a temporary backwards phase? Or do I need to try and be firm? I'm a stay-at-home mum so we're around each other all the time which makes it difficult to give him to other people for feeds. Any help much appreciated!!