Breastfeeding Diffs - advice please

[FirstBaba]

Hi Mum's, sorry if this post is a little disjointed but such is the state of my thought process atm 😅

I realise I am extremely Lucky to have been able to BF my DS for 3 months and am so glad I have been able to give him a good start. Up until his 6 week HV check he was gaining weight great and he hasn't been weighed since but he certainly looks and feels like he is growing lots.

That being said, I have NOT enjoyed the experience lol. Between my very difficult post-birth recovery and absolutely relentless cluster feeding, things had only started to even out around 10 weeks and then he started teething - cue the hours of comfort suckling.

I also feel that my milk supply isn't up to standard for his growing appetite as he used to go for 3-4hours between some feeds and now he only goes 1-2hrs - I am exhausted.

He has silent reflux and CMPA for which I am dairy free. HV said babies can be weaned at 17wks as their digestive systems are fully developed then.

My question is, have any of you began to wean at 4 months because baby is hungry or troubled with acid reflux? If so, how did you begin this process and with what foods? Also, did it help baby to wake less throughout the night ?
DS currently has 3-4 30-45min naps throughout the day, cluster feeds for about 2hrs late at night, goes to bed around 1.30am and sleeps until 11am although with many many feeds in between.
Also, would weaning be a good time to attempt to take him off the boob and on to bottles of expressed milk? I'd like to reduce nursing times to just morning and night.
Sorry - my head is jumbled. I just don't want to be a slave to BF any longer and I don't know how to go about reducing it since I don't want to give formula.

Don't jump to the conclusion that your milk supply isn't good just because he's feeding more regularly, there can be lots of reasons for a change in routine. And the feeding times you've mentioned all sound very normal for a 3 month old IME. And I think reflux can start to improve around 4 months anyway.
Maybe think about a breastfeeding hub if you're concerned though, they might be able to help you address some of the issues you have around it.
Of course if you've had enough of it and want to try expressing then it wouldn't hurt to try, might give you a better idea of how much milk you've got/he needs.
He still needs milk regularly throughout the day though, starting solids at 17 weeks shouldn't really change how much milk he gets, but it's possible he might go longer at night.
You're doing a good job, just need to find a balance that suits both of you. And you might find things are different within the next month anyway.

I was encouraged strongly by my family - my DS self weaned at 13 weeks. Eventually worked out it was due to lactose intolerance.

I held firm and gave milk with coleif drops in it and he started drinking more without the pain.

He did, however, refuse all milk once I tried to move from bottle to cup shortly before 2 years old and has never drunk milk since, and he is a big 15 year old teen now.

Hi op, the cluster feeding can be brutal, my ds has just finished a run of it. I have started to express a bottle every day or so (I'm fortunate in that I have decent supply) so when it gets too much I give a bottle or dh will give one so I get a complete break, I know he's had plenty to eat and honestly that helps with the exhaustion and intensity of it. I also found that around 5 weeks he started comfort sucking more so I gave him a dummy (controversial I know but I stand by it!) He's been much more settled with it as he was nursing to sleep (still does) but struggling with the change from arms to cot so the dummy goes in for 5 minutes and that's him asleep in the cot. I waited until breastfeeding was really well established before introducing it and he only gets it sparingly so he's still keeping my supply up. There's an argument that the sucking also helps keep the reflux down and from my experience I've found this to help. If he's hungry he won't take the dummy so I know the difference between comfort and hunger and since I pump as well as feeding myself it hasn't messed with my supply. Might be worth a consideration? I'd also recommend going to a breastfeeding support group if there's one near you, it's been really helpful for me overcoming these types of challenges. But if you're done, then you're done- you've done fantastic to get to this stage especially if you haven't enjoyed it and you need it to work for you as well. Just as an aside, I'm not sure if you pump already but I found that I actually get a better let down with a wee hand pump than with the very lovely electric pump I spent a small fortune on. So if you haven't got one yet I'd try a hand pump first before spending on a fancy one incase it works well for you. Good luck!