Nighttime bottle feeds without the wake-up spiral

Keep everything you need next to the bed: prepared bottle in a bottle cooler or thermos of warm water, burp cloth, dim night-light, and a phone charger within reach. Nothing that requires walking to another room. Speak softly or not at all. Skip the diaper change unless there's an obvious leak or dirty diaper. Keep lights dim — even a phone screen at full brightness can reset your baby's sleep cues. Every unnecessary stimulus stretches the wake-up. Put your baby back down drowsy but not fully asleep. Babies who fall asleep in your arms and are only laid down asleep learn to expect that transition on every wake — which means more wake-ups, not fewer.