Help! I've created a monster!

[whatmess]

We have recently moved countries to a time zone 5 hrs behind the UK. Prior to this my son was sleeping from 6pm to 6am with a little help from a bottle of milk about 3am.
He's 20 months now and I have known for a while that I need to wean him but because of the move I put it off.

Well, we've been here for almost 4 weeks now and he goes to bed at about 7.30pm but wakes like clockwork at 4am and refuses to go back to sleep, even after he's had the bottle. He doesn't nap as well as he did during the day usually only managing 30mins to an hour if I'm lucky.

Its wearing us all down, especially me as I give in and take him downstairs so as not to disturb my husband, who is trying to get used to a very demanding new job with really early starts, or my 6 yr old daughter who is struggling to get to sleep at bedtime and keeps coming down stairs for one thing or the other.

I know the answer is to wean but I need some advice on the best way to go about it with minimum disruption to the rest of the household, or is this expecting too much?

[CultureSucksDownWords]

You might find reposting in the Breast and Bottlefeeding section gets a bigger response. The Weaning section is about introducing solid food, rather than stopping breastfeeding/bottles.

(I'm assuming you mean stopping giving milk, given your child is 20months)

[leedy]

Some of the problem could well be just jetlag/adjusting to the new environment, rather than anything to do with milk - given that he used to fall back asleep after the bottle and now doesn't. Not saying that you shouldn't try to drop that feed but it may not be the magic bullet for sleep you think it is right now.