Stopping breastfeeding - any advice?

[FatLittleWombat]

DS2 is 6 months old and ebf. I am thinking about stopping bf because he wakes every two hours without fail and needs feeding back to sleep 80% of the time. I'm on my knees with tiredness and even though I am not under any illusions that formula will magically make him sleep better, I do think being able to share the load would help. I am also going back to work in 2 months' time, working 3 10-hour days a week.
The thing is he's not keen on the bottle - I try giving him a bottle about three times a week and sometimes he just refuses, others he drinks an oz or two before refusing. How can I switch to bottle feeding? Do I just go cold turkey and hope he accepts the bottle?
I bf DS1 for 15 months but he was so much easier during the night, waking twice on a bad night, and he always took the bottle. I would have stopped a while ago if I didn't feel so bad about giving up bf so much earlier with DS2.

With DS i went cold turned during the day and only fed at night for a couple of weeks and then stopped night feeding once I wasn't feeling massively engorged every evening. I only hand expressed off enough to be comfortable and took iboprofen as needed. It's not the recommendation approach though due to mastitis risk but he wouldn't take a bottle when he knew there was another option.

Fwiw I did regret it as it didn't help him sleep any better and the reality was that I still did all the feeds and nigh wake ups. I'm still feeding DD at nearly 10m and glad I persevered this time as the intensity of feeding dropped right off once she was eating solids well (blw). I'm now only doing around 5 feeds of no more than 10mins in a 24hr period.

Have you tried milk in an open cup like a doidy? And can somebody else give it to him?

Hello

my DS was combination fed as he was never full up with EBF he fed every 1-2 hours in the night and 2-3 in the day. So a paediatrician advised me to introduce a bottle we started doing it so DH would give the bottle feeds (3 a day) and I'd Bf in between on demand. Have you tried someone else offering the bottle? He slowly got used to bottles then and let me give him bottles after he was comfortable.

could you perhaps do a first thing and last thing BF if you enjoy BF etc? My friend did that until her DD was 18 months and her supply just adjusted naturally x

ODog thanks for your post, it's interesting to read your experience. I do wonder if I'll regret it which is one of the reasons I am still dithering. I doubt weaning will make a difference with DS2 as most people say it won't, or rather, it will take a long time for it to make a difference. I don't feel I can stand another four months or so of this sleepless hell!

tea I haven't tried an open cup yet. So far he has refused the bottle even if it wasn't me feeding him. I am going out for the first time tomorrow evening so DH will be doing bedtime. I have bought the Nuk latex teat in the hope it will make a difference. If not, I will try an open cup because that's more or less the only thing I haven't tried!