Hi

Couple of new things are happening with my almost 5 month old with feeding that I would like some feedback on please so i can understand what is happening at this stage.

1) he has stared waking up in the middle of the night again. He is not doing this every night but just every few nights. He is fed at about 10.30pm each night and normally slept through until between 6-7am however over the last few weeks has woken every few nights at 3.30/4am. I haven't tried to resettle him but have fed him when this happens - should I be trying to resettle before offering a feed or just offering the feed? Also any ideas why he would wake some nights and not others?

2) As most of the time he is not good at giving signs that he would like to be fed ( i put this down to me having to wake him every 3 hours to feed for first 8 weeks or so due to him being sleepy baby so I don't think he ever learnt how to let me know - just my theory could be wrong) so at 5 months if he hasn't given me sign how often should I offer during the day? I think he will feed better the hungrier he is - see next points. Does this sound reasonable?

3) at some of his feeds he has started whinging slightly when feeding. He will stay attached but give tiny little cries. Sometimes then he drops the nipple and jumps back on and other times he pulls away from the breast with the nipple still in his mouth. Is he frustrated? He appears to be sucking fairly hard (can be painful at times when he gets on first of all on the right breast in particular). Would he be having having an issue with flow or supply?

4) at other feeds he will feed for a little while (few minutes) then take himself off and lie accross my legs and arch his back throwing his head over my legs. He doesn't appear to be in pain or distressed just stiffens his whole body and lies there looking around. Is this just distraction? Or could something else be causing it. How long should I leave him do this for before I give up and assume he has finished feeding. I normally try to get him up and burb him in case he has some wind and then try for a few minutes to get him to reattach. Anything else I should be doing? Is he not hungry enough to do proper feed so just a little bit hungry rather than very hungry IYKWIM?

Sorry know there is a few different things here but he seems to be going through a lot of changes at the moment so trying to get straight in my head (if that is possible with a baby) as to what is happening? FWIW his sleep pattern is also all over the place. Some days he will do long sleep in the morning and other days will just do little catnaps during the day.

Any feedback advice on any of my questions would be appreciated.

Cheers