Breastfeeding & expressing: to carry on after 6 months?

[DragonOnFire]

Bit of a long one, but it feels like a pretty complicated one so included a bit of history & explanation of how I've come to this point:
I've breastfed my baby for 5 and half months now, and I've been very lucky that everything has gone very smoothly since birth.
I went back to work after 4 months and DH has taken a couple of months SPL, coming to an end now. Baby starts nursery full-time from September, and I envisaged continuing to breastfeed him.

At first, expressing milk at work was fine; I expressed 3 X daily and the baby was taking a bottle fine. Sometimes DH needed to supplement what I was bringing home rest day using my stash of frozen breastmilk, but generally my supply met demand. I am still doing night feeds and baby happily switches between bottle & breast. Baby has never slept through, so I've been co-sleeping at night & felt like I was getting enough sleep to survive going to work every day (except one day after a particularly tough cluster feed!).
However, in the last 3 weeks I started with symptoms of thrush, which I got treatment for, and continued to breastfeed baby when I was at home without problem (except the pain). At the same time, baby had started to drink less in the day, and I came home to find he's been taking about 20mls from a bottle twice a day. DH assumed baby had just switched to feeding more at night and wasn't concerned and didn't make a big deal of it (our HV warned us that this may happen when I first went back to work). Looking back I'm wondering if it was a taste issue wth having thrush. Baby is still gaining weight well and is in 90th percentile for weight, and has regular heavy & dirty nappies.
Now this week I've had symptoms of mastitis (flu, tired and still sore in my breasts) so am now on a 10-day course of antibiotics. I'm off work today and am still BFing through it all.

I'm still planning on continuing to BF, but here is the issue: I feel like it's taking up so much of my time and causing me to become quite grumpy & bitter. I am starting to resent spending so much of my time in a room on my own at work while I express, and feel like I'm having to work extra hard to prove I'm still productive in my job (although I've no complaints & boss is happy). Lately I have been cutting down to expressing 2 X daily (I realise this likely contributed to my mastitis!). I also feel like my time spent BFing at home is causing a lot of wider issues: relationship with DH is like walking on eggshells because I'm always tired, don't have time to help out at home (I haven't cooked in months!) and he feels pushed aside from parenting when I am home. I'm considering giving up BFing if it might help ease other pressures in my life. DH claims he is more than happy to do night feeds from a bottle, and baby's nursery didn't even know how to deal with breast milk, all the babies that go there are given formula (included in the daily rate).

I just feel like I don't want to keep squabbling with my husband in the little time we have together, and would like to cut down on time spent expressing because it's just mindnumbing. But I love BFing, my baby loves it and I do feel like it's easier than dealing with bottles & formula.
What would other people suggest? Is there a way to reduce the amount of milk I'm producing so that baby can have both breast and formula, and how do I do it without exacerbating mastitis?

It can be done, I went back to work when my oldest was 8 months and he had bottles of formula during the day, one before bed. He then BF in the morning, when he got home from nursery and through the night.

I advise to avoid mastitis is generally to drop one feed at a time.

Do it slowly. Leave an extra hour or two hours (as long as you can manage) without expressing and slowly leave longer periods.
Plenty of moms only BF at night.

FWIW, I think you're amazing to have carried on through the struggles.

When I went back to work I must admit I couldn't find enough time to express and I didn't feel comfortable expressing at work so I breastfed when I did the feeds and DH and my mum (who had him 1 day a week while I worked) fed formula. My supply dropped for those formula feeds but my supply didn't change for the feeds I breastfed. It was lovely to still be able to breastfeed while safe in the knowledge that anybody else could feed him no matter what.
Having said that, you need to do what you feel is best for you. If you decide to go down the formula route, you can always change your mind later on.

P. S I had both thrush and mastitis, I feel your pain. I hope it all gets better soon

I am another one who mix fed.

I went back to work full time when dc was 5.5 months. Dc had formula at nursery and breastfed when I was home.

We had a tomme tippee machine (not for everybody I know) but it makes formula easily. If we went out dc breastfed. Hopefully your dc will move on to more solids as they are older and less milk. My dc never drank much formula at nursery he seemed to drink more at night.

The only issue I had was overnight trips with work where I had to pump and dump, that was hard.

I co slept, still do and still breast feed now dc is 2yrs. I am a sahm now but would still be bf if I was working x

Would you consider just feeding when you are home? I went back to work closer to a year but I never expressed. I just fed morning and when I got home/bedtime and during the night. He had cow’s milk during the day (was about 10.5 months and I couldn’t be bothered with formula which he wouldn’t drink anyway).

In your case, I’d offer formula during the day and bf the rest of the time. Your supply will adjust. I carried on like that to 15 months until I decided to stop.

Thank you everyone for your replies, I realise now the answer is mixed feeding... I think I got myself so worked up about 'giving up' BF when actually I can cut back without stopping.
I'll try reducing day feeds/expressing once he starts nursery, and continue to BF at home. He is starting solids already (baby rice) so weaning is also firmly on the horizon.
I really appreciate your thoughts and experiences, I don't know why I couldn't see that I cut down slowly without giving up completely. Think the last few weeks with thrush & mastitis have scared me off cutting back.

I'd also wait until the mastitis has totally gone before cutting back on BF/expressing, otherwise it might make it worse.
From what I remember it starts with a blocked duct that the baby is the best thing to help clear by feeding as much as possible.

I’m about to start mixed feeding too. Baby will be 6 months when I go back to work in two weeks & my plan is to breastfeed when he’s with me and use formula for the 3 days per week he’s with the childminder/ my parents. He’s not had a bottle at all before so really, really hoping he doesn’t turn out to be a bottle refuser!!

Thanks Ribena, forgot to clarify, I've got a week of holiday next week, which coincides with my course of antibiotics, so will continue BFing until I'm better, then start to cut back. Thanks for your advice and concern though, I feel better after some solidarity from others that have been through this x