Addicted to expressing, help.

[Lollyheart]

I've expressed from day one, ds couldn't latch on at birth as I have rather large nipples.

I express on advarage 40 oz a day, ds drinks 20 to 25 oz a day.
My freezer is full to the brim with milk,

Basically I want to fully breast feed, ds prefers breast to the bottle now but I can't seen to stop the habbit of expressing.
I get really anxious if I'm not able to express after 4 hours since I last expressed, if I'm out all I can think about is getting home to express.
I guess im worried I'll lose my supply.

I last expressed at 1 am, I breastfed him at 6.30 am but only from one side, so I'm sat here itching to express as I'm rather full now.
But I want to brake the habbit and not have to express anymore.
Reading back I sound totally mad
If I don't expess as often will my body think the milk is not needed anymore? I guess I'm looking for reassurance.

Why don't you just feed him rather than express if he prefers the breast anyway? You will not lose your supply if you feed on demand.

Maybe its the hormone release you are addicted to?

That's what I'm going to do today. Just bf and not express, but it's been nearly 9 hours since I last expressed from my left side, so when he feeds of that side he won't empty it fully as there is so much milk in there, my right side won't get used for a few hours so will also get full.
I'm I right in thinking you need to empty your breast to make more milk.

No you don't have to empty your breast to make more milk. It works on a supply and demand basis. So however much milk is removed from the breast is how much your body knows to make. If you're making too much due to excessive pumping, then allowing your ds to feed to demand means that your supply needs to adjust down accordingly. You might find that you need to do something like block feeding to make this happen but not necessarily. You need tiktok or organic on here as they know what they're talking about in that respect.

But just putting your baby to the breast if he's got breastfeeding cracked will ensure he removes what he needs.

my worry would be giving yourself mastitis if you just switch to BF and no expressing straight away.

How much of the expressed milk does he normally eat or is he mostly BF direct now.

I'd often read that to reduce expressed amounts you reduce how much you express or duration at each pump session, could a combo of cutting some expressions (e.g if you do night ones) and winding down others work?