From breast to bottle: help needed!

On Wednesday I reached my limit. A person can only go without decent sleep for so long, and "so long" in my case seems to be five months. I went out and got some formula for Charlie to see if a bottle at eleven wouldn't make him sleep a little longer, and - crucially - deeper, so he wouldn't ask for his dummy every hour. I'll keep going with the breastfeeding for his other milk feeds, but I need a little help in the night.

I was determined to breast feed exclusively for much longer than six months this time. In an ideal world, I still would. At the weekend, I have great milk even at night. I get to catch up on some sleep, I get some good meals thanks to Babes and his culinary talents. During the week, I seem to run out of milk by the evening. I try to eat and drink regularly and rest enough, but it's impossible. The other two children need attention, too. There's shopping to do, school runs, tidying - well, you know, the work of the household drudge - and I only have so much energy in me. I'd be able to keep it up if I had more help, but I don't and that's all there is to it.

I've been slowly getting Charlie used to eating vegetables and fruit during the day - a spoonful at first, then gradually more. I am saying goodbye to that gorgeous breastfed baby smell. It is also the end of liquid nappies - I'm less sad to see them go. The major change, though, is in his naps. He's sleeping much better during the day. It doesn't take me twenty minutes to get him to sleep, and I don't have to keep going up to give him his dummy.

This boy needs stodgier food than he's been getting. He's a five month old giant, and giants are not satisfied with milk only. I feel bad for him that I've left him feeling unsatisfied for this long. He was obviously getting enough nutrition because he stayed at the top of the growth curves, in both length and weight, but I think he did need a little extra substance. You should have seen him the first time I gave him a spoonful of fruit mush. He was so happy - it was as if he was saying "That's what I've been trying to tell you at the table every night. I needed some decent food!" Now we just needed a similar solution for his night feed. Some stodge. Some nice, sleep-inducing stodge.

So - it's a bottle we need and out I went to get him one. Of course it turned out like that saying "If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans." God in this case would have been Charlie. He knew the breasts were around, so he wasn't going to settle for anything less. After a little while - predictably - he won. I've offered him a little bottle before most meals since. He doesn't cry any more - he just chews it. He gets a little bit of formula that way, but nowhere near enough to fill him up. And I need him to suck! Now!

I've tried to trick him by giving him a dummy first and then making the switch. I make sucking noises so he'll get the idea. I let him suck on my hand. I make sure he gets a little taste of the milk first. Occasionally he sucks it by accident, stops himself, then starts to chew again.

Please tell me all your best tricks. Please! I need a night off.