Stopping breastfeeding

[Mrsbiscuits81]

Hi, I have a beautiful 6 month old baby (my third). He was hard won because I had very severe hyperemesis for every day of my pregnancy, I threw up 25 times a day, every day until he was born. I lost 7kg and he was tiny. I made no milk as I was so unwell and I worked really hard to recover enough to feed him. He’s now super chubby and happy and we’ve been happily bf away since week 2. However I am EXHAUSTED, as he won’t take a dummy, he just uses my nipple and I still have some residual health issues. I kind of want to stop and be proud I’ve done 6 months when it looked like I’d do none! He does take ebm in a bottle very well and has started having the odd bottle of formula which he’s fine with BUT he’s my last baby and I know I’m going to miss it and be sad and miss the closeness. So then I think I’ll keep going…. But I’m exhausted and etc etc I go round in circles! Has anyone felt this, and how did you stop and make peace with it?! Thank you x

Have you considered combi feeding? You could keep one or two feeds a day (whichever are the nicest/cuddliest) and use formula for the rest?

Then reassess to see how you feel?

Agree with pp to try combi feeding. I basically spent a few months dropping down, eventually just doing nights etc. I too had the battle of loving the bond but my body being drained, the last few months were better as my body adjusted to producing less milk, but since stopping I've realised looking back how drained I was! Have much more energy now and she sleeps better!

Thanks you guys... what age did you drop those feeds and go down to the one or two day? Am I shit doing it now? I fought so hard for this after so much but I'm just so knackered all the time it's hard to enjoy it tbh - and he sleeps the worst of ALL my kids bless him - maybe formula would help?!

DD and i had a very difficult bf journey (my supply was crap and DD dripped below the 0.4th centile) and like you, i was ready to start stopping around 6months.

I decided to slowly drop feeds. So after six months, i swapped 1 feed a day for formula every week, until after around 7 weeks, we were just left with the first morning feed, when my supply was best. We kept this going as long as we could and then after a bout of thrush, i picked a day when i was going to stop (9 months, which happened to be mother's day). Did the last feed in bed, DH brought me a bucks fizz and croisant to celebrate, and then that was that.

I'm so bloody proud of getting that far and i think being in control of when / what was happening made the whole process smoother and more positive.

I wanted to stop at 6 months, but we were going through a stressful house move and I was getting overwhelmed trying to get her on formula etc, so waited until she was about 10 months and took until 11 months when she started nursery to drop day feeds then about 2/3 months of me procrastinating and making excuses before I dropped the nights! However it has solidified in me that for our next one I'm definitely stopping at 6 months, or at least starting to stop with the aim of being done by 7 months. Getting those sleepless nights of them crying for milk out the way while you're not at work, and also my dd was very well aware when I was stopping which didn't help. Also for the whole time I was breastfeeding I found sex really painful (and I had a c section) so I struggled with that, literally a week after stopping it feels normal!!

You could try night weaning and sleep training, and keep feeding in the day?

Love the idea of empowered stopping! We are travelling a lot the next two months and so far he shows zero signs of interest in 'real' food despite me trying religiously on the daily, so I am reluctant to be honest to stop knowing how easy it is when you're on planes / in hotels etc but also want to enjoy my holiday y'know..... I puked through every holiday last year! I think I'm going to try weaning him onto formula for the 3pm and 7pm feed, and then maybe dream feed him and do the morning feed (love my blind optimism that he's not up 6 times in between the dream feed and the morning feed ) - my supply is also best first thing in the morning. I really appreciate the feedback - it helps hugely to feel proud that I've got this far and done a good thing and it's ok to start to let it go x

I also found that my dd didn't like a teat bottle but preferred straws, the tum tum cups were the best for us.
I think the fact that you persevered and got your milk supply up after what sounds like a tough pregnancy and not only that but have made it 6 months is an immensely huge thing to be proud off 💙 well done and have a lovely holiday!!

@Flopsy145 sorry to hijack the feed, wondering how you dropped the feeds, did you slowly reduce time and hope they took more solids or did you replace with bm/formula until they could have cows milk?

DD is 10.5 months and starts nursery in 6 weeks so I'm panicking as she's EBF. Always hated bottles. Tried Tum Tum, b.box, munchkin now back to a basic sippy cup as after speaking to nursery that's what they use. She knows the word boob and comes scooting over. Want to do a morning and before bed feed but drop the other three before back at work. Not convinced she'd up her solids, does take a bug breakfast. Any tips? ☺️

Hi!
I am hijacking the thread.
My baby is 5 months and breastfed apart from one bottle before bed. I am lucky that he loves both boob and formula in bottle.
I have also just started solids and he is loving it. Very surprised as he ate 7 spoons of carrots yesterday and only stopped because I didn't want to over do it. My husband also gave him some mashed banana this morning which he loved! Anyway... He sleeps through the night 7:30 to 7:00 (very lucky I know. I taught him independent falling asleep and he stopped waking up for feeds gradually).

It means that I feed him approx 5 times during the day (I alternate boobs as I have a big storage capacity) and then her gets a bottle at nighttime.

What is the minimum of feed I have to keep to maintain a good supply (with in mind the fact that I alternate boobs and one gives more). Basically I want to keep morning feed because so convenient but I feel ready to let my partner have him for longer stretches in the day. Also we are going away for Christmas and I will be leaving him for 4 hours every morning to my DM.

Thank you xxx

Do you have a partner who can do a bottle of formula feed during the night? This will make the biggest difference to your tiredness.

Just feed for whatever you need. So if you want to do one feed a day and then feed one feed a day that’s what your body will make.