How to give up bf at 6 months?

[RubaiyatOfAnyone]

Dd is about to turn 6 months. She’s been breastfed with one 3-4 oz bottle each day, so i know there’s no problem taking a bottle. I wouldn’t say i’ve hated every single second of it, but a good 90%. It hurts every time, i hate not being able to take (minor) medication that would make my life easier, i spend so much of my time saying to homeschooling dd1 (4) “just a minute, i just have to feed your sister”, i even feel resentful about the much trumpeted health benefits - dd2 has had bronchiolitis and eczema, unlike formula fed dd1 who has always been healthy as a horse.

In the pro- column, i have liked getting a bit more sleep with quicker night feeds, and the bonding feeling is nice when you can ignore the pain.

I want to give up now we have made it to 6 months. All the advice i’ve found say drop one feed at a time to avoid mastitis, which is fine, but how did any of you do it? How long between feed-drops? did you give ip day or night feeds first? Can you give up day feeding but keep night feeds for a while or does your body not produce enough milk without constant feeds? How quickly did you give up?
Thank you!

I have up day feeds in one go, but pumped at lunchtimes (was needing to go back to work). This gave me the relief until I got back home. My body adjusted after about 2/3 weeks. I still pumped at lunchtimes as my baby was under 1.
I had to do "all or nothing" in the day as baby wouldn't take a bottle from me, but would drink from the sippy cup at nursery. I didn't get mastitis doing it like that.

I kept up the night feeds for about another 5 months, then I introduced the sippy cup at night. At this point it was just the bedtime feed, which I dropped 3 weeks later when DH's shifts meant he was home for a week to do bedtime to make it easier.

If you gradually drop feeds, your body will recognise it and produce less during the day. I would recommend that way as you can get a bit uncomfortable otherwise.

P.s that was a convoluted way of saying you can still feed fine in the night if you've ditched the day feeds.

P.p.s. (why on earth can't we edit posts...)
I realise that it's completely anecdotal, but my DC1 went from waking 3/4 times to BF to sleeping through within a month after I stopped breastfeeding at night. He was a bit older than yours though.

Start with dropping daytime feeds first. As your baby is used to the bottle you shouldn't find this too difficult. I'd drop the morning feed last as that's when your breasts are most full. As your baby is used to both breast and bottle don't worry if you think "ouch boobs are getting a bit full" and have a breastfeed to empty them a bit. I weaned my first between 6 & 8 months onto formula - the only difficulty I had was finding a formula she liked! Once I'd done that it was smooth going.

Oh thank you both so much - excellent to know i can drop day feeds and keep night for a while, as that would be massively more convenient, and v.good thought to leave the morning feed till last, i hadn’t thought of that.

I’m not sure i’m brave enough to go cold turkey during the day, was thinking a week between dropping various feeds to take it down? Or two?

I'm in a similar situation OP.

My son is almost ten months. I was in the process of cutting breastfeeding before lockdown but stopped. He takes a bottle and I just want to stop now but I don't really know how...

I hear lots about dropping one feed at a time but he feeds on demand so some days it's loads and other days not so much which always seems to affect my supply the following day.

Happy to continue feeding at night like you but I'll be back to work soon so feeling very stressed about dropping day feeds successfully.

I've had several near misses with mastitis and blocked ducts so just get this right!!

Is he eating solids yet? If so that may naturally change his feeding schedule. My LO has dropped his night feed and 1 small day feed after just a few days of solids.