Nighttime schedule

For better or for worse, we're on a pretty regular schedule for nighttime feedings. Evan goes to sleep around 8 pm. We change him, I feed him, burp him, and put him down. Most nights he's still awake when I put him down, but falls asleep within seconds.

Then he wakes up between 11-12, again around 2 am, and around 5 am. So, basically every 3 hours. Since we've been on this schedule (probably close to 2 months by now) he wakes up wet frequently. So I have to change his diaper either at 2-3 am or at 5 am. That, or I have to change his diaper and onesie next time he wakes up, which probably happens because he's wet.

So our solution of using disposables at night because they absorb more is not working too great anymore. I tried using a super stuffed cloth diaper and it just gets too cold with all that pee, and wakes him up nonetheless. So I do the middle of the night diaper change (to cloth, so we still only use one disposable per day), hoping once he stops eating at night he'll be able to sleep through with one night diaper.

But I digress. This waking up 3 times every night is really not working too great for me. He's really easy in that he eats and falls asleep right away, so it really only takes me away from my bed for about 10 minutes. But the vacation was a little brutal on me (We went to North Cascades for 3 days/2 nights). I didn't get any naps, and I was very concerned with responding to Evan's noises as soon as possible so we wouldn't wake up our friends' twins. And we slept on an air mattress which didn't help much either. And I don't drink coffee, and tea doesn't really do that much (and I don't drink tea that often either). So I'm still recuperating from it, and the occasional 4 wake up nights don't help.

I also thought maybe once we started solids he would sleep better, longer, as so many believe. Well, we're up to two solid meals per day (cereal and vegetables) and he's waking up as if he had an alarm set up. So I believe that's false.

My mom told me to try and give him water and not milk... he cried on and off for an hour before really staying asleep, and that's too long for me. So we have two options: either we try again the 3-4 nights in a row cryfest, or we just let him be and I feed him when he wants.

The cryfest, well, you know I don't really like letting him cry like that, and he's a stubborn little one (reminds me of his mom...). The two times we've tried this he cried for a full hour, and I'm not sure I can take it.

Letting him be could be fine, except I think it's more about him falling asleep on thebreast than anything else, and I do want him to fall asleep on his own. But how can I tell if he's waking up because he's hungry or if it's just that he can't go back to sleep on his own? He falls asleep on his own no problems for morning naps and at bedtime, but he has problems in the afternoon and possibly at night. So what's the answer??

I don't know.

I should have some breakfast before he wakes up, so I'll let you ponder that question.