Hyperlactation - weaning advice

Hi there, I am about to embark on weaning my gorgeous 9 month old baby boy.

Please bear with me, I need to give you a bit of background.
My situation is a little unusual because I have hyperlactation -I produce too much milk, my baby also has reflux. For months I had to feed strictly 3 hourly and cluster feed in the evenings and pump off some foremilk when I was really engorged (too much foremilk upsets baby's tummies). I had to follow such a strict routine to regulate my milk supply as I can very easily produce way too much, just one extra feed was a disaster! I am experienced in judging how much too express off so as not to stimulate extra milk production. My baby is on omeprazole for his reflux.

At 6.5 months my supply regulated and I was able to demand feed. What a relief after watching the clock for so long! However at 8.5 months my baby started sleeping through the night on some nights which made me very engorged in the morning and I had to resume the routine and expressing otherwise my bub's tum would get very sore and he would be sick and scream a lot. The routine is a bit different from the early days because bub has solids for breakfast, lunch and dinner now. He has milk after breakfast and lunch plus milk for morning and afternoon tea. He also has a milk feed before going to bed.

I am Sooo over breastfeeding, it's become really stressful for me because if I get engorged and don't get the routine / expressing right, my baby's reflux flares up badly and he is really grizzly and doesn't nap and wakes up all night. I really want to get him off the boob ASAP for my sanity and for my poor sore baby. I am so sick of breastfeeding that it makes me want to cry!

Went to a lactation consultant who suggested adding more fat/protein to bub's diet to fill him up and discourage him to breastfeed as much. She also suggested replacing his afternoon tea breastmilk with formula and then gradually replacing his breastfeeds with formula over 2 months. I have to go gradually because if I wean too fast I could get mastitis.

Please, please, please give me some advice if you can! I'm really nervous about beginning the weaning process - but I can't wait to finally be free from breastfeeding. Any advice would be really appreciated!
My whole breastfeeding journey has actually been such a struggle for me that if I look like I might get hyperlactation with the next baby I will just put the baby on the bottle.

Aw man that must suck, I have oversupply issues as well but luckily mine has mostly regulated (only occasionally do i have to express off some excess!). I've had mastitis 6 times and it is not fun at all. Some people swear by cabbage leaves to help get rid of your milk, I tried that when I weaned Spencer and it did diddly squat, but it's something to think about. The advice you have had from the LC sounds good, I would also recommend putting baby on a reflux formula to help the transition and look out for a dairy allergy (reflux and dairy allergies are linked quite often).

When I weaned Spencer (I had had mastitis 5 times in 3 months ) I was already expressing full time cos it was too painful to feed straight off me, so I switched him to formula quite quickly, I replaced a feed for formula every two days and then I slowly stretched out the time between expressing by an extra 10-15 mins. So starting at 2.5 hours apart, then the day 2.75 hours apart, then 3 hourly and so on, it took nearly a month for me to stop expressing altogether but I really didn't want to get mastitis again and the last week or so I was only expressing 1 or 2 times a day and was only doing it once I felt full. So that is just something for you to think about if the other way doesn't work or suit.

Just with a second baby, I found my milk did not come in as crazy second time around, I had one bout of mastitis when Kyle was 5 weeks old and my supply mostly settled down by the time he was 5ish months. I generally don't feel uncomfortable unless he randomly goes long between feeds, like if he sleeps through, and then he normally has one side and I have to express the other. I am still wearing nursing pads but my leakage is no where near as bad. So if/when you do have another baby it might be worth say giving yourself x months to see how it goes or even x weeks, as it might not be anywhere near as bad as your experience this time around.

I agree with Weegee, you have done an awesome job feeding for this long