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Good question! No answers, but curious to see what others say. LO is nearly 3 mos and seems to be hungry when he does wake. I feel like until he hits a higher weight (He was 10 lbs 6 oz last Thurs), it's important to feed him when he shows signs of hunger, but I don't want to reinforce wakings/feedings that aren't necessary.

The sucking felt a little different to me. When my son was hungry, he would be taking longer, harder sucks but when he was soothing, he would suck a little bit and just kind of just play with the nipple and repeat. It was hard to tell in the beginning but I think I figured it out pretty fast just based on how he was sucking.

I soothe first and if that doesn't work, then I feed. Also M has a very distinct (and shrill) hunger cry. When she makes that noise there's no mistaking it!

Agree it may be reverse cycling... And that the sucks feel different. If LO just sucks for a few seconds, very shallow and irregular, then I pop him off and try to soothe another way

Once we got the ok from the pediatrician (around 3-4 months) that he was doing ok in terms of weight and didn't nutritionally need night feedings anymore, we gave him a pacifier instead of his one night feeding and he would fall back asleep. He was super soothed by sucking in general so we knew he was ready.

We tried using the soother for a few weeks but it caused more nightwakings because he'd wake and we'd have to put it back in. It would definitely tie LO over for longer (a few hours) but it sucked to be woken every hour!

Now I can definitely tell with his cries. If he is just waking for the heck of it then it's a sobbing cry. If he is hungry it's a shrill shrieking cry that makes me want to poke my eyes out! I will also send DH in first and if LO is trying to eat his shoulder then he's hungry :).