Good idea to get his ears checked out just in case. If only they could talk and tell us what the problem was huh?
We moved to 4 hourly feeds by 4 months of age (DS was bottle fed) and that worked for us - he drank more at each feed, and fed more quickly and efficiently by that age too. Not sure how often you're feeding Alex now, but perhaps he is ready to have his feeds spaced out a little more?