How to resettle baby without feeding?

[Terriblethirtytwos]

My DD is five months old and has been through the four month regression of waking hourly and come out the other side. She self settles at bedtime and nap time, though I am always next to her when she goes to sleep. She used to wake a maximum of three times a night, usually it was just twice.

However she is waking 4/5 times a night now. Last night I lost count of the wake ups. Probably 6/7. I’m exhausted as I have a toddler to take care of as well. I’ve always fed her when she wakes although i don’t think that she is actually hungry every time as she’s not taking full feeds and the wake ups are too frequent. I’m wondering if I shouldn’t be feeding every time as she’s not actually always taking milk.

So my question is - if I don’t settle her with feeding and she already self settles, how am I supposed to settle her in the night? Obviously she will need a couple of feeds overnight. How do I decide when to feed her and when to try and resettle without feeding?

Really grateful for any suggestions.

I never fed if it had been less than 3 hours since last feed and started this around the 4/5 month time and I unswaddled and did a bit of pick up put down, bum tapping.
I remember one night I had fed her before bed and it was a long feed of 45 mins. I was definitely drained! She woke about 45 minutes / one hour after that feed and I knew she wasn't hungry so I started pick up / put down and that was the turning point. It becomes more difficult to know what to do at later points. My 7 month old can self settle like a dream at naps and bedtime (I worked hard on naps recently as was just contact napping) but she still wakes a few times in the night most nights. She's normally in bed between 7:30-8 and any wake up before 11, I try to settle without feeding, anything after it's feeding. Two nights ago she woke up crying every 1-2 hours (she has a bad cold) and it was crazy out of character so I fed each time because she was clearly in pain (calpol and ibuprofen given too), then last night she slept 8-3:30am straight, woke and had a quick feed then down easily at 4-6:30. So random!