How to completely stop nightwaking that is not hunger

[MGardner]

My DS has gone through a lot, I went back to work and he stopped eating during the day and was up all night feeding. However it seems that problem has been cured. He is now eating about 8-10oz while I am at work and I feed immediately before I leave and after. I cluster feed before bed which is at 7:30. He is on 3.5 EASY and we're trying to stretch it to 4 a little each day which is working just fine. Now that he is eating all day I don't want to feed as much during the night. I went down to two feedings a night and the other times he woke I would just use a pacifier and that worked fine. Last night I tried to not feed except for once. That worked too, I used the pacifier and only fed once at 4am. But he woke at these times:
11:40p
1:30a
3:00a
4:00a (in which I fed)
then slept until 6am
Since all I did was put in a pacifier and adjust him in the crib (he squirms his way down to the bottom of the crib and gets his blankets all tangled) at all the previous wakings and he went right back to sleep, I'm not all that concerned - it's progress! But I don't know how to proceed to keep up the progress. Should I keep doing what I'm doing and go in everytime. Or should I just wait and see if he just goes back on his own? The reason I usually just go in is because I have waited before and he just keeps fussing and fussing and gets himself more and more awake and then it takes more to get him back down. I end up having to take him out of the crib and do pat-shh for a long time. By catching him early and simply putting the pacifier in I can go right back to bed and he goes right back to sleep. But I don't want that to become a habit either. I just want to eventually have him not wake up at all unless he is hungry. So what should I do?

[Colin Macs Mom]

Can you post his routine? And how old is he?

[MGardner]

He is 1 week shy of 4 months old. Here is his routine although his wake up times vary, I try to not take him out of the crib until 6:45am for the day.

6:45a wake and feed
7-8:30 activity
8:45-10:30 nap
10:30 feed
10:45-12:15 activity
12:30-2:15 nap
2:15 feed
2:30 - 4:15 activity
4:30-5:30 nap
5:30 feed with mom when i get home from work
7:00 bath
7:30 feed wind down and bed
If he wakes up early from nap his activity time gets shorten. I usually tell my sister (who watches him during the day) that his activity time should equal the amount of time he had napped. If he wakes up after less than an hour from his nap she works hard to put him back down. So sometimes the day gets altered due to that. If he has a short nap though he usually makes up for it with a longer one the next one.

[LyndaManus]

Is he waking at consistent times?  Maybe w2s would work?

[MGardner]

Unfortunately every night is completely different, that is what is so boggling. We have such a good routine during the day and a consistent bed time. Because he is mostly breastfed sometimes I feel like he has better feedings than other times so that may be what is causing the inconsistency. I have tried wake to sleep for his naps, he would take 45 minute naps so the next nap I would try going in and stirring him at the 30 minute mark and it would work, he would nap for 2 hours. So I know the concept works but it's hard to figure out when he is going to wake when every night is so different. Take two nights ago - he didn't wake up until 2:30am from going to bed at 7:30. Now his day routine was just the same as any other day. I don't think he ate exceptionally well before bed, it was just a normal feed. But for some reason he slept for 7 hours. But last night, again was up 4 or 5 times from 11p on. There must be a reason but I can't put my finger on it.

[Lana]

I am not sure there is always a reason.  My almost 8 month old does the same thing and so did his big brother.  Some nights he goes right through and others he is waking. Your best bet is to deal with them without doing any AP.  For us we just go in reassure and leave, IF he gets really upset we then pick up.

[LyndaManus]

hmmm, I am sorry I don't have more input to give  .  I had the same problem last week, but, looking for an easy way out, I just kep feeding him to sleep.  Turned out he had gas and I was making it worse.  After a night of dh helping me get him to sleep w/o feeds, he now only wakes once or twice a night.  If it was gas or something like that, I don't think you would be having such an easy time getting him back down.  

Are there any noises in the house that might be waking him up (maybe something you wouldn't normally think of like the AC starting???).  Maybe turning on some white noise would help.  Kind of grasping at straws. 

I have to agree with Lana in that sometimes there just isn't a reason.  Hopefully one night in the near future you will go to bed and the problem will disappear