teething, hunger or phase?

[brightside]

DS is 4.5 months old and weighs about 16lb. He is bottle fed and usually takes about 38oz of formula a day.Each bottle about 7-8oz. He is a good night time sleeper generally and has not been fed in the night since about 10 weeks.  This week has been a nightmare for night wakings. He often wakes once or twice a night and we put the dummy back in and he settles after about 15 mins but this week has been terrible.

Mon: awake for 2 hours-wouldn't settle-very fussy
Tue: woke once but cried out in sleep 6 times and seemed to settle himself-we put this down to overtiredness from night before
Wed: usual couple of wakings
Thurs: awake for 2.5 hours-very fussy. Decided to feed. He took 5oz and then slept till morning. However, he would only take about 5oz in the morning instead of his usual 7
Fri: woke up 6 times! We didn't feed him though as he was settling quite quickly with the dummy.

Then last night (Sat) he woke at 9.30pm really crying. This has NEVER happened before. I tried to settle him with the dummy and even picked him up but nothing would settle him. We normally do the DF at 10 anyway so just fed him early. He took about 5.5 oz and went to sleep. Then at 2.30 he woke and wouldn't settle. He had a kind of angry cry and kept spitting the dummy out. It was obvious he wasn't going to settle. I've not really heard him cry like this before. I decided after the early DF that maybe he was hungry and so fed him. He took a full 8oz bottle.    He then slept with no further wakings until 7am. Today, instead of taking his usual 7-8oz, he has only taken 6oz at each feeding so I'm thinking maybe it wasn't genuine hunger. Could it be teething? Not really noticed any extra fussiness in the day but he does put EVERYTHING in his mouth but don't most babies? Any ideas? Thanks

[Wiki]

I wondering a similar thing. My DS is 4 months, and also formula fed, about 38-40oz in 5 feeds throughout the day. We dropped the dreamfeed a month ago and he's been sleeping through since. However, in the last week he has started to wake at 5.30am, ready to start the day. He is hungry then, so I tried to feed him more in the day for a growth spurt, but he wouldn't take any more. He also cries out in his sleep (once he did it twice in one nap!) and at night, although he does resettle. I can see teeth behind the gums and am wondering if its that.

Or maybe some crazy 4 month thing? I hope the frequent wakings stop for you soon, and someone can tell us why our LOs are suddenly doing this.

[teezee]

well if lo was ok without feeding and is taking LESS the next day then the wakings aren't/weren't hunger related. by feeding you are reinforcing the waking (as many lo's will take a bottle/nurse to comfort). if lo's wake at the same time every night it usually is hunger related. as it may be pain - have you tried any pain med?..tempra/tylenol?? and see if that helped any? how about gas drops - could it be gas bothering lo?