HI A.,
I disagree that your son is hungry, he's conditioned to being soothed by you and for you to give him water and nothing will happen to him if you don't.
At what time do you nap him?
My son is 10 months, I nap him once around 9 or 10 - depending on when he woke up 6 or 7am - the next nap is at 2 or 3, that way he sleep until 4 or 5 and can stay awake until 8:30, last night the schedules were all messed up because we were running all day and he went to bed at 8pm sharp and he was up at 5 am, I knew he wasn't hungry so I laid him back down and he slept until 6:30, I brought him to bed with me, fed him and he fell back asleep so there - he had woke up too early....
So that's one - the time he sleeps - I would under no circumstances cut out one nap at 7 months nor feed him in the night or you'll be stuck doing that for a long time again and his body doesn't need it.
I feed my son - did the same with my daughter - around 5, bottle around 5 or 6 - depending on schedules, you know how that can vary some - then I "cluster" feed him again, normally he wouldn't be hungry after 2 or 3 hrs bc I also give him solids around 5 - that also helps him go from 8;30 to normally 7 to 7:30, which makes a huge difference to me, 6 is way too early cos I also have a 21 month old to wake up to.
In the middle of the night, I can tell you that at his age, he can handle some crying.
With my dd I went in everytime she cried - 1st child - gave her water, paci, held her, you name it. At 21 months she still expects me to go in and lay her back down and we can sometimes let her cry and she stops for a while but we also have our son sleeping next to her and we don't want her to wake him. You know the internal clock then kicks in.
So, with our son we did NOT go back in, at 7 months we let him cry at night so he'd learn to self-sooth, we laid him down awake and went through the torture for a few days.
he sleep SOUNDLY, we never went back in except at first, just to reassure him and give him a paci or what not.
Now you don't hear a sound from him unless he's sick from 8:30 on.
Sorry to ramble, write me privately if you want me to tell you some techniques we used, I know the CIO is painful but it does teach them to self sooth. It worked with my dd at 8 months, it took him a couple of weeks, she was a bit older so she only CIO for 4 days, no lie ;) But then again, I think girls learn quicker hehehe