she is 8 months old and holds her bottles well. can almost sit up on her own but can crawl and roll well. I know bottles of milk can cause tooth decay, is that just bc of the milk or bc of the nipple? I'm considering leaving a few ounces of water in her crib for tonight. we had an AWFUL weekend traveling and suddenly expected me to help her back to sleep (for 30-60 min) every time she woke and expected to have a bottle every time. at home she usually only wakes up twice a night max, last night was 3 times. I know that the second time she wouldn't have woken up if we weren't in the same room (she saw me pumping) I tried to stay still but she caught me and started bawling her pretty little eyes out 😢 she also only took ONE hour long nap all day 🤤 she never sleeps well at night after a bad nap day so I'm expecting another night like last night even though we're home (normally at home when she wakes to feed I can put her back in her crib and walk out no problems) I hate to let her cry so I'd like to avoid that but I also don't want her to get into the habit of needing me so much through the night, especially since I literally JUST started working again.. help! she does drink from a sippy too so I didn't know if s sippy would be better than a bottle of water..? she always lets me know if she's hungry 🙄 so if she did drink the water but still need sustenance, I'm sure she'd wake me up.

update: we tried it for the last two nights and she's slept through the night! the first night I woke up and saw her drinking it around 5am. last night I have no idea when she got to it... But both nights she managed to get the nipple off! little stinker! of course the first night she had drank all the water so no problem but this morning she woke up and there was a wet spot and her little feet were wet 🙄 and she managed to toss the nipple out over her (mesh) crib bumpers! not sure if I'll continue leaving water in a sippy cup instead since I worry about every little thing like that the bottle nipple is a choking hazard if it comes out of the o ring (the sippy cup spout wouldn't be) or maybe I'll leave nothing tonight since she's back on her normal sleep patterns. But I did want to clarify that she still drinks her normal average amount of milk and overeats on the days like we had on the weekend. and of course water is dr approved at her age and she never gets more than 4oz/ day 😊 thanks for all your input!