As to the lessons. My teachers would cover me up with so much homework assignments and related material that I would have to stop lessons for several months just to catch up. After catching up I'd go back for more lessons. I had to digest what I had been given. This music thing is best taken in small bites said:
This should be a BIG Red Flag! You did the right thing by stopping for a while. A teacher should give a reasonable amount of material, an amount that a student can accomplish in a week, then, at the beginning of the next lesson there should be a review of given work, if the student can't play that, then they should go over it again. If a teacher is piling work on you, he/she is only trying to justify money they are charging you with quantity over quality.
Pat