Stopping breastfeeding. How?!

Hi Rebecca. First of all well done for BF for 9 weeks, that’s an amazing achievement and will have given your baby a great start so don’t feel guilty about needing to stop. I had to stop for similar reasons when my daughter was 6 weeks and I also felt so guilty but now a month on we have found our feet with formula feeding and we are both doing well ☺️ so I’m sure the same will be true for you two. In terms of stopping the milk, I kept pumping whenever they felt hard for a few days, being careful not to empty them but just take a little bit of milk so as to ease the pressure. After a few days I switched to hand expressing, again just whenever they felt hard and not emptying them completely. Then they stopped making more milk and I gradually hand expressed all of the remaining milk until they were empty, little by little. Took about a week and a half x

Thankyou! I did tell myself I wouldn’t put any pressure on breastfeeding but somehow you just do. It’s hard not to.
It’s nice to hear you have done the same and feeling better.
Do you find that baby sleeps better too? My little one is 9 weeks and she’s still waking every 2 hours sometimes less. And it’s soo tiring. The health visitor think it’s cus she’s still hungry. We tried formula last night and she slept over 4 hours.

Random question,.. do you just get to the point where you express and nothing comes out?😅 I did think about breastfeeding during the day for convience and formula at night but don’t know if that’s a thing? X

aww I know, it’s easier said than done. I was super emotional when I decided to stop BF but I do think a lot of it was hormones/exhaustion/stress, now I feel much better and don’t think it’s a big deal! I hope it will be the same for you ☺️ yes my baby sleeps way better, this could also be her age so I can’t 100% say it was the formula. She sleeps 9pm-4am and then has a feed and back down til 7am. When she was EBF we were up every 2 hours. The lack of sleep was really affecting my mood so I feel much happier now.
I can’t advise on BF during the day and formula during the night as I just cut out BF completely, but yeah you get to a point where nothing comes out any more. You’ll be able to feel when your boobs are empty as they feel all soft!

Yeah, I’ve cried and cried and cried. But I know it’s the right decision for all of us. I’m so grump/moody and I feel like I have nothing left in me when it comes to my husband. It’s just so exhausting. And the pain sometimes is unbearable that I shouldn’t have to dread her to want milk. 😣

Ahh okay, I think I’m going to try that then! did you let her feed at all when you were gradually stopping or just went straight to formula when you decided? Did you still have to get up during the night to express?

Sorry, question central 😅🙈

Oh bless you I’m sorry to hear you’ve been having a rough time ♥️ so my baby actually started refusing my nipple so I stopped BF pretty suddenly. When I woke up in the night to feed her a bottle I would pump at the same time a little bit for the first few nights but gradually tapered it off. Basically just go with what feels right for you. I had read all these things online about having to pump x amount of times a day and found it so confusing so I just pumped when they felt hard to relieve them and it worked for me!

You’ve done an amazing job making it that long breast feeding, please don’t feel guilty!! I only managed 3 weeks and found it incredibly difficult on my body and mental health. I made the decision almost overnight to switch to formula and I felt super guilty at first but I never looked back. My baby is now 4 months old, exclusively formula fed since 3 weeks old and happy and healthy as can be!

My supply wasn’t great because I didn’t do it for long so I was a bit sore for about a week and then completely dried up after 3 weeks. I’d say for you you may need to reduce feeds more gradually or even pump a bit to give relief but not too much otherwise you will keep your supply up. May be worth speaking to a health visitor for advice although be prepared they may try and talk you out of stopping breast feeding as some are very opinionated 🙄 (I found this when I was debating stopping breast feeding!)

You’ve done well, don’t feel bad! We’ve had a bit of a crap journey with breastfeeding as well. I didn’t produce enough so we had to top up with formula. I produce enough now but she’s fussy sometimes over the boob unless she’s really sleepy, so I don’t know if she’s gotten used to the bottle being easier (and the milk arriving straight away!). I pump a lot more now to keep supply up and means she’s still getting my milk even if in a bottle (and also means my wife can feed her and give me a break). So we do a combi of breastfeeding (mainly first thing, last thing and in the middle of the night), formula and expressed milk. Like you thought I think formula keeps her going for longer so we’re wondering if she would sleep longer with that instead of boob. It’s a tough journey and I’ve been upset and frustrated but made my peace with it now just about - she’s happy and fed and putting on weight so we’ll stick with it for now. Xx