EBF and struggling mentally

[SuzyQ88]

Hi ladies,

I am EBF our 5 1/2 month old daughter. She downright refuses a bottle, literally screamed the house down last time when we try to give it to her.
However, I'm really starting to struggle mentally with the load of breastfeeding her exclusively.

I'm struggling in that I can't get any time to myself as I can't leave her (even just getting my hair done for three hours was difficult for my husband because she cried wanting food), she wakes up more regularly in the night (where I'm convinced if she had a bottle she would be fuller for longer). I hate that my wardrobe options are limited and I wear the same thing on rotation. And I'm struggling not having my body to myself at all, especially as I have to hold her to sleep and she co-sleeps. Not leaving out of course constantly feeling like the Sahara desert!

I go back to work in September, so five months, and I really do not want to be breastfeeding by the time I go back I think at that point I'm going to need my bodily independence back!

Has anyone else struggled mentally with this? How do you cope with that? It's not an easy fix as she's not going to just take the bottle overnight. Luckily, we can start weaning soon so hopefully she can just drink milk from a cup. I don't want to entirely give up breastfeeding yet, but I would love to combi feed her for a while just to give myself a break. We'll crack co-sleeping another time! Or do I just have to suck it up and realise this is not my time for me?!
Any advice appreciated !

It is hard but you’ve only got a couple of weeks until solids start
you could try a cup with formula or expressed milk now. I bought half a dozen different styles of cup and the Ikea one he took!
Hopefully your baby will take to solids really well and in a month to 6 weeks will be cutting down a bit on bf. By the time you go back to work you may feel differently as it will only be a couple of feeds a day.

When I weaned my first onto a bottle at 6.5 months old it wasn't the bottle that was the problem it was the milk and temperature of it. She took to the 3rd brand of milk I tried and preferred it room temperature. I've heard of some preferring warmer milk when they're transitioning from breastfeeding.

It’s so hard breastfeeding - I’ve been where you are! I transitioned DC1 from EBF to formula at 6 months. I tried a cup and they would not take it so we ended up on mam bottles which I successfully swapped for a cup at 12 months anyway. They accepted the second formula brand we tried, however the whole process probably took around 3 weeks where they would take either no milk or the smallest amount before crying to be breastfed, until one day they just guzzled the full bottle. Just start by only making a couple of ounces or it becomes very wasteful!

I had two bottle refusers and I do think at 5.5 months it’s probably too late to start introducing a bottle. I know mine would never have taken it. I would just wait a bit and start weaning and offering some milk in a sippy cup. It did become much easier after they started eating and I could start to leave them for longer stretches. You only have a few months to go before getting to this stage. Maybe you could try tackling the co-sleeping first so that at least you have some time to yourself at night?