Help! Is my 5.5 month old really hungry at 3 am?

[americansea]

Hi,
My son is five and half months , about 18 lbs and has periodically slept through the night and then stopped since he was 2 months old.

From 2-3 months he slept 9 pm to 6 am  (I thought I was really lucky and that was it for night wakings-ha!).  At 3 months he started waking again around 3:30 am.  He would breastfeed and go right back to sleep.  He continued this until 4 months when he suddenly slept through again (8 pm to 6 am) for a week then went back to waking in the middle to eat.

At just 5 months he did it again- 8 pm to 6 am for about a week then back to waking up at 3:30 or so to eat.

What is going on?  I have "tested" him by having my husband give him a bottle instead of my breastfeeding at 3:30 am to see if he wants food or just me but he drinks 8 oz with no complaints and goes right back to sleep.

We basically do EASY.  I also have a two year old so our schedule is influenced by her day as well but here is what our day generally looks like:

6 am  wake up, breastfeed
7:30 am  cereal and fruit
9:00 am nap (usually 45 min)
11:30 am 8 oz bottle of formula and veggies
12:30 pm nap (usually 1.5 hours)
2:30 breastfeed
4:30  nap (usually 45 minutes)
6:00  cereal and sometimes a little formula (lately refusing the bottle at this time buteating the solids great)
7:00 bath
7:30 breastfeed, into crib drowsy, asleep by 8 pm

Then he wakes around 3am to eat and go right back to sleep.  Sometimes he even wakes to eat at 1 am and 4 am instead of just once at 3 am- ahhhhhh!!!!!

Lately the 12:30 nap is sometimes beginning at 1 or 1:30 and the third nap may be disapearing soon, I think.

Any advice is appreciated.  I have tried the dream feed a couple times but I never committed to it.  I always felt he was so deeply asleep at that time that he didn't eat much and still woke at 3 am anyways.  Sometimes even had a poop during the night after the dream feed.

My real question is- why does he sleep through for a week or so and then stop? I often write down everything we're doing and look back for a pattern but I haven't been able to find one.

Any advice is really appreciated!
Juli

[sara_derek]

I would try to get more breastmilk/formula calories into him during the day.  Maybe take out one of the solid feedings and replace with bm/formula.  At 5 months a lot of babies are still on 5 feeds a day and need that nourishment.  Solids don't give him a lot of calories so he could truly be hungry!

[americansea]

Thanks, Sara.  I will try to get more breastmilk into him during the day.  I definitely have found that he gets very distracted breastfeeding during the day with my two year old around so I try to grab my opportunities to feed him alone when I can.  He seems to enjoy the activity of eating solids because it is more interesting, this may have something to do with his not getting enough calories in during the day.  Two days ago I started mixing formula in with his cereal instead of just fruit and he slept through the first night I did that (not last night though!).  :?

Thanks for the advice.
Juli