At the end of my tether with this - will weaning off my breast help?

[Sleep404]

Ds is 6mths and has been waking ever 1-2 hours at night for about 3 months now.
Last couple of nights he woke every 30-45 mins. When he wakes he insists on a feed and won't settle unless I give in. He is a large baby, almost 9kgs now and each feed lasts approx 20 mins although some of them are much longer.
During the day, he has 2 meals and breastmilk although he tends not to have as much milk as he does at night.
I am exhausted and worried about how we will cope when I'm back at work in a few months. So yesterday and today I tried giving him a bottle of formula. He screamed his head off and refused point blank.
Should I continue trying to wean and if so how do I get him to take a bottle?
I really can't carry on like this anymore.

Also, not sure if this is of any use but he has started crawling and is therefore extremely active at the moment.

I was the exact same, I spent a day only giving formula, tried it warm and cool until she eventually - after hours gave in. Horrible but it has been the best thing I have done, she has more energy and smiling all the time, and also sleeping from 7 til 7. I had horrible guilt because she was only 4 months at he time and I really wanted to get to the 6 but it was too much, and looking back now it had been going on long before as her weight although still gaining had fell off her chart line. So stick to your guns, it's horrible, but worth it!

There's a big developmental spurt/Wonder Week around 6 months that can really do a number on baby sleep (the crawling is probably part of it), so possibly if you ride it out you might find that sleep settles down a bit by itself, or even improve.

Also completely weaning to formula may not be a magic sleep panacea - while, eg, the previous poster's LO suddenly slept 12 hours and gained lots of weight after switching to formula, I know other people for whom the switch didn't affect sleep at all. My two EBF babies were completely different sleepers (one terrible, one great) so I'm not sure feeding method always makes much difference, and unless you have other reasons to want to wean then it might not be worth the battle. That said, I never FF, I'm sure more people with personal experience will be along in a minute...

I had this, dd was so hungry at night for a while. Learning a new skill always disrupted their sleep too. Formula isn't a magic cure for sleep probs, and I found tge bottle refusal more stress than it was worth. This too shall pasd.

Sounds fairly normal to me...
I don't remember ages of stages but do remember times when DC would feed / sleep more and less.
DS especially was a night feeder.
Could you try some baby porridge last thing?

Perhaps look at the sleep problem rather than take him from the breast.

Thanks ladies. I did manage to get him to have a 100ml of formula tonight but then he wouldn't have anymore and ended up back on my breast. I wouldn't mind so much if I thought this was just a phase but the bad sleep has been going on for at least 3 months now.
I think I'll try combining both for a while. That way I hopefully will not have a problem with him taking the bottle when he starts nursery.
I'll also try a HV visit tomorrow but her previous advice was just to let him cry at night. Once he starts crying he won't stop and only a feed will settle him.

Some babies just don't sleep...nothing to do with how they are fed. I have a non sleeper & it tough.

And ignore your rubbish HV's advice about the crying. Six months is still very little. Have you tried shh/patting when she wakes or do you think she's hungry?

I listened to my HV and let dd1 cry at night for 3 nights before I realised I got a lot more sleep when I just fed her and comforted her and loved her. I still regret listening to her. My baby was definitely hungry and settled once fed. It's normal and it will get better. DD1 was a rubbish sleeper but it didn't go on forever and she now loves her bed and sleep.

Actually just re-read your OP. Waking every 45mins My DS did that for a while. It was bloody awful.

It wasn't boob related, as I didn't feed him when he woke but it was habit. We were rocking him to sleep and he became dependant on it and started waking every sleep cycle. The other thing that woke him frequently was reacting to food once we started solids.

Have you posted in sleep? Lots of helpful people there.