how to go from boob to bottle?

[Blonde1982]

Lovely mumsnetters, please can you help me? After recurrent mastitis and now I suspect lashings of thrush, I've decided to give in and stop breastfeeding. My little son and I have made it to 8 weeks but, for the sake of all our sanity, not least my poor husband's, I need to knock these increasingly common and excruciating crying fits on the head. (sorry this is me justifying decision tp myself, I feel so guilty and selfish!)
I already feel like I've failed my son but that's for me to grapple with and I don't want to bother anyone on here about it. Rather, am wondering about the practicalities of it all- should I wean him off 1 feed at a time or can I just go cold turkey withthw feedsand express less and less? Sorry if I sound stupid and clueless but I feel awful enough for my tiny son already and don't want to cause him any unnecessary upset.
Thank you so much x

woops forgot to say- he can drink from a bottle already, but has never tasted formula milk. Sorry for all the typos! Am on phone and haven't been able to sleep much.

Firstly, do not beat yourself up over this. 8 weeks is brilliant! I agree, you have to do what is best for EVERYONE. I am typing this one handed as currently feeding my little one so my reply is a bit brief, but in answer to your question, if you can continue feeding and drop one feed every couple of days, for example, you will avoid engorgement and pain but also the time involved in expressing as well as bottle feeding - double the work! Having said that, if the feeds are v painful/stressful for you all, you may be best to express as you said. But expressing is time consuming....
Sorry, not too helpful but I made the same decision as you at 8 weeks and just dropped the breast feeds over the course of about a week, much quicker than I thought it would be. Did have quite a few times of discomfort but wasn't too bad.
regarding formula, just let your lo suck it and see! If baby doesn't seen keen on the taste, maybe mix breast with formula and gradually phase out the breast milk to help with the transition x

Ps my encouragement may seem like I am just trying to make myself feel better about the same decision I had to make. However, I bf my first child until 13 months so was so disappointed it didn't work out this time :( but having come out the other side a few weeks later I am so much happier having finally made the decision as baby is happy, our elder son is happy an so is DH....well worth it x

Thank you so much for your advice- one week on and everything is so much better thanks to your wuse words. What a relief! Thank you again x

Oh good, I am glad things have improved for you :)