How can I tell if he is actually hungry?

My DS is 4 and a half months and has slept through the night on and off since he was about 3 months. Usually however, he wakes once in the night between 1 and 4am for a feed (and is hungry). The last few days he has been waking at 12am, and I have been feeding him, but he then wakes at 4 or 5am again. I don't know how to tell if he is hungry or just waking and needing settling?? He self settles during the day and goes to bed awake. Also once he is fed in the night he is more often than not awake so he is not using it to get to sleep. His feeds during the day have not changed.

At night he feeds both sides at 5.30pm, a bath, then 150ml of EBM before bed. Two nights ago in the middle of this he slept through the whole night. Then last night he woke at 12am but wasn't RAVENOUS. However when he woke at 4am he was.

I'm not sure what to do as I have not needed to resettle him in the night before. I thought at first it was a mini growth spurt, but since he slept through one night in between now I have my doubts.

I had pretty much decided in my head I would be okay with one wake up until he is six months old or on solids.

I am reluctant to let him CIO, and the only other option I can think of is to give him a dummy but that seems like I would be giving him a prop (he has NONE at the moment). During the day if I go in and try to resettle it just makes him more upset.

Any advice about what I should do next would be greatly appreciated!

Oh and I have checked that he is warm, it is not his nappy etc etc. And the thing is he is still feeding during the day as normal (still hungry in the morning), that is why I am reluctant to NOT feed him. But I don't think a four and a half month old needs TWO feeds a night???

Also forgot to say last night I left him grizzling for about 20 minutes before it escalating into a full on cry, so I don't get up the minute he peeps.

[QUOTE=1st_Time_Preggies] But I don't think a four and a half month old needs TWO feeds a night???

QUOTE]

 

It is completely normal for a baby of this age to be needing to feed during the night. My boy is still waking approximately 4 or 5 times a night for a feed and he's 5 and a half months. If he was sleeping through and is now waking and you've eliminated everything else I would think it was definately due to hunger.

they go through a growth spurt about now that affects night waking, i would just go with the flow and it should go back to how it was.

We started giving H the dreamfeed at 9 weeks and it worked really well for us - cut down his night feeds to one.

BUT having said that I used to feed him every time he woke in the night - it was the quickest way to settle him, and he was always happy to go back to bed and go straight to sleep. So - technically he shouldn't have been hungry etc etc but it did mean that I was up for 10-20 min max.

If you can work out a pattern to when they wake, I usually pop in an hour before she would normally wake and give her a dream feed and it works. If I go in earlier - it doesn't. Later - not so much as well!

He will sleep through when he is ready.