5 month old - teething? hungry? HELP!

[Esme]

My son is 5 months old and wakes at around 3am, he then wakes every half an hour until I feed him at 6.30am.  He goes to bed a 6.30pm and has a dream feed at 10.30pm (i know this works out at 12 hours sleep - but it is not a full block of sleep).  I get advise that he could be hungry but when I feed him in the morning he's only been taking 4oz.  He is not eating as much as he has done in the past, I have read TH's book and wondered if he might be teething as she says that they may lose their appitite? (no sign of teeth at the moment), or do I need to introduce solids? He does not show signs of being hungry between his milk (4 hours between feeds) but is having less of his milk and wondered if he needs something else to fill his tummy.

We have also let him have a dummy for bed and nap times and think that when he stirs he wants it back and quietens for a while until the next time it falls out and he stirs.  We have tried letting him cry for a few minutes and have tried the shush and pat but he gets more and more wound up.  He has started showing signs of sucking his thumb but won't try it at night.  Should we try and ditch the dummy altogether, and prepare ourselves for a few hard nights?

Sorry for all the questions, an answer to one or more would be most appreciated.

Thank you
Esme

[Katet]

Sounds like the dummy is the problem, if he doesn't appear hungry.

It is not abnormal for babies to wake at night, but if they need something like a dummy or rocking to get back to sleep they will cry out when they are awake & need to get back to sleep.

It is not unusual to have lots of light sleep in the last few hours of the night & so as your ds sounds like he needs the dummy to sleep, when he goes through those light sleep phases & has no dummy to suck on he can't get back off again.

5mo are also more likely to be disturbed by gaining mobility etc, so you may still get night wakings after ditching it but they should be less frequent.

HTH