Sleep: Don’t fall into the trap!
This is an important age for establishing normal sleep patterns. While holding or rocking your child to sleep was fine for the first few months, you need to try hard to get away from that now. Establish a bedtime “ritual” for when you are going to put the baby down, and then be sure the baby falls asleep IN BED, not in your arms. There should be no bottle involved. This way, the baby can learn to go to sleep independently, without you or the bottle to help. When brief awakenings, which are normal, occur during the night the baby will then not need you to “go back down”. Both of you will sleep better as a result. If some crying is necessary to get from where you are now to this state of affairs you should endure it – it will not hurt your baby and will be well worth it in the end.