What am I doing wrong

[helpneededplease]

I am new to mumsnet and I am at my wits end. My baby is 61/2 months old and will not sleep for more than 2 hours at a time and has been this way since birth. The ways we get her back to sleep are pick up/put down, cuddle or feed (which I try not to do). We have a good bedtime routine and she has 2 1 hour naps during the day (will only nap if in her pram.
The other problem I have is that she will not take a bottle or any kind of milk from a cup. I want to stop breastfeeding and have tried everything. She used to take a bottle in the night but then just stopped.
Snd then to top it off yesterday I went to get her weighed and she has dropped from the 50th percentile to the 9th in 5 weeks. I started weaning 5 weeks ago. The health visitor said to get her to eat more but what can I do if she refuses food?? The only thing she loves is chicken, sweet potato and apple but I don't want to give her this all the time?
Se is an extremly bright little girl, full of smiles and moving aroiund all over the place.
I am at my wits end and do not know what to tackle first. Help!!

she's lost some weight so get this sorted first - perhaps bf some more to get her back on track with weight gain. Could you express and fix half with formula so she still has the bm taste and gradually reduce the amount of bm in the formula mix. Would check this out with a doctor.

been to the docs and they said she is fine. i cant even get her to take expressed milk from a bottle or cup. she has water in a beaker but thats all. the hv told me to go back nxt week to get her weighed. think it was the final straw yesterday!! feel better for posting a message.

nobody tells you how hard its going to be!!

babies do drop weight around this time as they are using so much more energy as long as it isnt a huge amount it is quite normal. both of my children ds is now 3 1/2 years and dd 20 months, were dreadful sleepers who woke every hour for the first six months then went to every 40 mins before I weaned them! both were absolutely identical sleep wise but of course I blamed myself thinking I was doing something wrong. I started to add a small bedtime snack of baby rice to gently settle their tummy as like you I had a very strong routine but with dinner at five o'clock and bedtime not till 6.45 it was inevitable they would get hungry soon. also try offering some water when she wakes as she may be getting thirsty. Its really difficult but mine were sleeping through by a year old so focus on the end result. its the thought of never having sleep again which is the thing frazzling your wits! it will be sorted within five months if not sooner. take care x

have you tried different teats?

tried avent and tommee tippee, ive jst ordered a free flow beaker to see how that goes.

my dd liked a beaker to sip from that I got in mothercare nearly 9yrs ago!!

there's hope yet!!

hope everything sorts itself out xxx

my daughter would only use the avent breast shaped teats (try getting your partner to ask for those in boots, if nothing else its great to see the look on their face
good luck

my dd1 wouldn't take any kind of a bottle or cup with milk in because she could smell my bm.

Try to get someone else to give her milk - and you leave the room if possible.

If she will only eat chicken, sweet potato and apple, give her that. It really doesn't matter at this stage what they eat, she will not notice that she is getting the same meal all the time and certainly won't mind.

Try not to worry too much about the sleeping (I know that's easy for me to say), some babies just don't sleep very much or very well.

On the food front - if she only wants to eat chicken, sweet potato and apple - then that's what I'd feed her for now. She really won't notice a lack of variety. As for the sleeping - sorry, can't help you much, I had no experience of bf at all.

thanks for the advice. i think she must have read my posting because she ate loads yesterday!!!