Help with dropping feed at 8 months

[DisasterZone]

Dd has been an enthusiastic feeder and done very well on it. At 5 months I started the process towards weaning, as I'm supposed to be working in January. My aim was to drop a feed a month starting with mid-morning then the evening top -up then the afternoon, until I got it down to 1st morning and bedtime feed. (this is not a timed routine but my rough guide, depending on what he wants each day) I did this with my DD and was able to continue with these 2 feeds till she was 13 months.

DS is going to be a different matter though. I got him onto a cup and formula in the morning no probs and we have had some success at 10:30pm - on and off. But then we had 2 nights when he didn't feed until 5 am from bedtime and the had a knock-on and caused bad engorgement the next day, of course when I had to be out and nowhere to go express. I've now had 3 weeks of both breasts taking turns to get blocked ducts. One was blocked for nearly a week and agony, felt totally bruised from all the massaging and expressing to keep it going. Had to work again yesterday and now the other side is very tender, although it doesn't feel blocked.

DS has also had a terrible cold for 2 weeks so we are back to feeding on demand as he's not interested in solids at all. He's so blocked up, really struggling to breathe and at least BF seems to unblock him a bit. So here we are at the end of December and I feel like we are back to newborn 3 hourly round the clock feeding! I am so knackered, fed up with sore breasts and wondering what's going to happen next.

If anyone can give me any advice about how to get back to reducing the feeds without this cycle of plugged ducts? I do know about hand expressing and try to do this when I feel them getting towards being engorged. How many weeks/months am I really looking at to cut back to no daytime feeds?? I've tried our local BF counsellor and LLL but they seem so bent on encouraging feeding they don't want to give much advice about winding down. Both told me to keep feeding on demand at night - but tbh I've had enough and feel like I've done enough. Could do with some sleep now.

Thanks for reading!

My little one is almost 16mths.

At 8mths we were still demand feeding (although sleeping through at night) and I had to return to work at 9mths dropping him at 7.30am and collecting at 4.30pm so at 8mths we were lucky it was the long weekend for royal wedding and easter weekend so we had 2 long weekends where husband was around to distract with only a few days in middle if it was a total nightmare where I was on my own.

Anyway we did morning feed then distracted offered snacks wherever he wanted breast milk and got til 2pm, extended this by 30mins each day til we got to 4.30pm and then when I went back to work it was nearer 4.45pm when we got home.

He had this 4.45/5pm feed til he was 13mths , we still have a short morning feed when he gets up 6.45am he gets woken by me on work days and then a bedtime feed of 20-30mins at 7pm.

Plan to drop morning feed after xmas.

we dont do bottles (his choice not mine)

and dont do milk out of beakers only water (again his choice not mine!)

Tips- if planning to drop feeds be out of house doing activities so you are not sat in doors where they tend to want to feed more as its easy.

have husband/partner/friend/family member around first few days who can distract.

How quickly did your supply adapt eastmidlandsnightnanny? This is more of a worry for me than the actual not giving of feeds.. it seems to take ages for my breasts to get the idea. Strange as I have small breasts but they seem to be capable of making plenty of milk! Yes, I think the afternoon feed will just get pushed back gradually. Did you find feeding hom then impacted on his appetite for solids at dinnertime? I struggle to get breakfast into DS in the morning as he's had so much milk overnight.

yep def had an impact on food not straight away but after couple weeks starting eating much more solids and after a couple mths ate loads went from 1-3 spoonfuls of food at mealtimes to small pot to whole bowl now!!

Supply settled down ok - I expressed twice a day for first week, then once a day actually until a week ago as he had my milk on his brekkie as wanted him to have as much as possible. until i dropped the 4.45pm feed i could express 4oz in about 15mins at work mid morning and after dropped that feed could only express 2oz and this needed to be early afternoon otherwise before then would struggle to express,

Like you have small breasts but produced milk+++++