Help! Almost 5 Month Old Suddenly :SNACKING: all night!!!

[turnerx6]

Hello everyone,
We just had our 5th daughter in July.  From the get-go she has been a dream baby.  I say this because we have had serious issues with our other 4 daughters.  Our first born was born 8 weeks early and had horrible colic, our second daughter had a genetic disorder, our third daughter had a heart defect and our 4th daughter barely sleeps through the night even now, at 4 years old!! 
So when our 5th daughter came and was totally peaceful and content we were beside ourselves.  lol    She was pretty much sleeping through the night perfectly, from the get go, until right around 4 months.  All of a sudden she started waking every 2-3 hours.  During this time my husband tried to "take over" (bless his heart) her crazy feeding schedule at night.  Well very quickly I noticed that she would wake up, he would begin feeding her and within 10 minutes they were BOTH PASSED OUT!  This means she would have only eaten about 1, maybe 2 ounces of her bottle.  After 2-3 hours she would be fussing again, he would step in to feed her (to try and allow me some sleep), but within 10 minutes or so, they are BOTH passed out again.  This has been going for a little over a month now.  I keep trying to nicely explain to my dear hubby that this is making things harder for me during the day....and also for all of us at night, because now day and night she only wants to eat a few ounces every 1 1/2 or so!!!!  Now she never really wants to finish her bottles, she is not napping very long before waking up for another ounce or two, then falling asleep during her feeding (during the day).  So everything is kind a mess now and I don't know how to fix it??? 
I feel bad because all 3 of us are tired now - kind of cranky and on edge and when I try to nicely tell my husband that his method during the isn't exactly helping he feels unappreciated for even trying to help.     Oy!  I love my little family so much, I just want to get everyone back on a good schedule so there can be peace in our home again.  Please HELP!!!
P.S.....here is a breakdown of our current mess of a "schedule" with our baby girl;

7:30 wake-up for the day
8:00 - have a bottle; eats 2-3 ounces
between 9:30-10:30 goes down for a nap.  Sleeps between 20-30 minutes, wakes and has some sweet potatoes
between 10:30-11:30 has bottle; eats 4-5 ounces at this time (Normally falls sleep with this bottle, not usually finishing all 5 1/2 ounces.)
Sleeps for about 30 minutes
Wakes up plays in excersaucer or bouncy or with me on the floor.
12:30 very fussy, eats 2-3 ounces, doses off during feed but as soon as she stops feeding she wakes up
Between 1-1:30 wants to finish her bottle; or start a new one depending on time; eats 2-3 ounces, sleepy
Around 2:00 falls sleep on her own, sleeps for 35-40 minutes
Around 3:00 has about 4-5 ounces of her bottle, plays and is pretty content
Between 4:30-5:00 she has the rest of her sweet potatoes (sometimes wants 2-3 ounces of formula after sweet potatoes, other times refuses any formula)
Between 5:00-6:30 If she refused formula during sweet potatoes, she will now drink all 5 1/2 ounces.  If she at 2-3 ounces during sweet potatoes, then she will now want the remainder of her bottle)
Goes to bed sometime between 7-8:30 each night. 
Wakes up between 11:30-12:30 am at eats 5 ounces.
Wakes again between 1:30-3:30 am, eats an ounce or two with daddy and then passes out.
Wakes again between 3:45- 5:00 am, eats an ounce or two then passes out
Wakes again between 5:30-6:45 am, eats an ounce or two then passes out
Up for the day at 7:30am.....

I am a stay at home, homeschooling mommy and I want nothing more than to have PEACE in our home.  I would love to know what kind of schedule I should be aiming for with our sweet baby girl.  She will be 5 months in a week.  How can I help her stop this snacking and get her back to sleeping through the night?  Thanks in advance for your tips!  God bless you all

[Layla]

Hi there and welcome

At 5 months, you would aim for something like this:

7.30am - wake and feed
10-11.30 - morning nap
11.30 - wake and feed
2-3.30 - afternoon nap
3.30 - wake and feed
6-6.30 - catnap
6.30 - awake and feed (cluster feed)
8.30 - final feed and bed (to be in bed by 8.30)

She's not sleeping too well during the day at the moment and from your schedule, I can't see her taking a 3rd nap, so it looks like she only takes 2 short naps? How does she fall asleep during the day? When she wakes early from her nap, are you attempting to resettle her or do you pick her up right away?

Sounds like she's using the bottle to get back to sleep at night and you'll have to stop feeding her and pick 2 nightfeeds you will keep (I would probably keep the 11.30-12.30am feed and then an early morning feed (around 5am) and for all the other night wakings you and/or your DH will need to stop feeding her and use other methods of resettling her. It is much easier to give her a bottle and send her back to sleep and you will both have to be very consistent in using the same methods but until you stop feeding her to sleep, she will continue to wake.

At 5 months, you could start to use the pu/pd method but some babies still respond really well to shh/pat and use the same method to help her resettle during the day. Try taking her out of the house to distract her when she is fussy/when you would usually give her the top up feed and try spacing her feeds apart during the day so that she's eating every 4hrs.

I didn't introduce solids until 5.5months and it was only 1-2 teaspoons to start with. Milk is more important and so when she wakes from her nap, give her a bottle first (rather than solids) so that she doesn't get full on solids and takes less milk

Hope that makes sense, let me know if you have any other questions