Help please with 5 mo EASY to solve early evening wake ups!!

[Seh13]

Hi all
Lo has just turned 5 months.  Most of his life he has fed twice in a 12 hour night but things went a bit odd around 4 months and I suspected the 4 month growth spurt. I posted on the breast feeding board and got some good advice which led me to increase the time between his day feeds to 3.5-4hrs.  The night feeding settled down and he even started taking longer naps -hurray! (He only used to nap 40mins max). 

Anyway, recently we've had the problem of him waking at 8.50pm after going to bed at around 6.30 and I just can't understand why or know what to do to try and stop it... He'll never have a 'perfect' EASY due to school and nursery runs for his 2 older siblings but I do my best to keep his A time appropriate... eASY therefore is different every day but today's looks like this:
WU.  6.10am
E.  7.30
S.  8.15-9
E.  10.45
S.  11.20-12.20
E.  2.15
S.  2.45-4.00
E.  5.45
BT.  6.15
E.  8.50pm

I now won't hear from him till 4am ish, he'll feed then straight back to sleep till 6-7am.  The 2.45 sleep today isn't typical as on school days we have tobe out around 3ish so on weekdays he'll normally have a short 1 st nap, long middle nap and short final nap at 3.30 when back from school run (how he'll ever get down to 2 naps with the 3pm school run in the way I'll never know but that's a whole other issue!!)

So, any ideas what could be causing the 8.50pm waking? It must be habitual as it's always the same time (ish)? OT? OS? Hunger and needing to start solids? Although I can't believe it's hunger as in the past week or so, on a few occasions, he's gone to bed at 6.30 and not woken again till 4.30am for a feed... I've never really had the time or patience for resettling (e.g. After short naps) so at the 8.50 waking, I half-heartedly shh-pat for a couple of minutes then give up and get him up to feed.  He appears to be feeding but in a very sleepily kind of way...

He's ebf and goes to sleep independently for naps, bt and night feeds (other than if he's particularly ot at bedtime in which case 10 mins of shh pat is sometimes needed). Not done the baby type quiz recently but he's a very happy boy and he rarely shows tired signs so I have to watch the clock a lot and I'm guessing what his A time needs to be most if the time although I do know he needs a shorter first a time than the rest of the day.

Thanks if you've read this far and any tips on how to deal with this evening wake up would be gratefully received! (And please move if this needs to be on a different forum) x

[Ima shel Alon]

Hi there!

Although I can't believe it's hunger as in the past week or so, on a few occasions, he's gone to bed at 6.30 and not woken again till 4.30am for a feed... I've never really had the time or patience for resettling (e.g. After short naps) so at the 8.50 waking, I half-heartedly shh-pat for a couple of minutes then give up and get him up to feed.  He appears to be feeding but in a very sleepily kind of way...

TBH, IIWY and at some point it was the situation for us, I would just feed. 2NF at this age is very good and I assume you are still awake at 20:50? That way, instead of doing a DF like many parents do or have another feed before the 4AM one you have one when you are still awake and can have a pretty long night for yourself .
The fact that he sometimes slept till 4AM without a feed doesn't mean that he doesn't need it, it just means sometimes he does and sometimes he doesn't. Even a baby who generally STTN needs sometimes a feed at night, yk?
I would, however, stop with the pat/shh if you are not meaning to be consistent with it . If you know you anyway going to feed eventually then why let him cry for that time or be fussy?
Like you say, it could be habitual and it could be a bit of a prop, but at this age I wouldn't worry about it too much. If you do decide you want to get rid of it then you have a couple of options. You can either pat/shh at this NW (but not cave in and feed) or you can try W2S (which will only work if it's habitual). You can read about it more here: How do I address habitual wakings? (wake-to-sleep and other methods)
If he is settling well after feeding at 20:50 and sleeps through till 4AM then I would really try not to mess with it IIWY.

[Seh13]

Hi and thank you for the reply. I see what you mean about starting shh pat and not seeing it through. I'll just feed straight away if he wakes tonight... I may well try the wake to sleep just to see if its habitual or hunger. It's not a major problem but from a selfish point of view, if his first night feed could be a bit later it would mean I could go out occasionally in the evening which I can't do at the moment as LO refuses to take a bottle!    Oh well!
Thanks again.