My youngest daughter is also 7 mos old and she basically follows this pattern as well. Occasionally, she'll make it until 10:30 before the first waking, but sometimes it's as early as 9:30.
She's #3. My eldest was a pretty good sleeper. She ate at 11pm and 3am like clockwork until she slept through the night at 13mos. Otherwise she was happy by herself in bed. My middle child was a terrible sleeper who was up for hours almost every night in the middle of the night for his whole first year and never slept through until 18mos of age.
For all the children we've done consistant bedtime routines, no light or talking in the night, swaddling as long as possible etc but they each have their own needs and patterns at night.
I don't think it's too strange or unusual for a 7 mo old to need this kind of night time parenting, although it is exhausting. What I discovered when struggling with my son's night time issues was that if I really had to (and with him I did) I could bring a child to sleep with me in the middle of the night and still sleep. I am a very light sleeper and I like my space. I never wanted to co-sleep, but it became a matter of survival with my son.
I was afraid that this would mean he'd always need me to sleep, but because I always put him to bed in his own bed at night this wasn't the case. As he eventually slept longer stretches in the beginning of the night he was spending more and more time in his own bed. This meant that when he did finally sleep through it WAS in his own space! What a relief! I now happily goes to bed in his own bed and stays there all night, except on rare occasion if he's very sick.
So, with my 7 mo old I am doing the same. She goes down in her own bed (which is also still in our room until she sleeps through) and stays there until she needs me around 10. I am typically in bed already at this point because, let's face it, I'm tired! At this time I bring her in next to me and nurse her lying down. She goes back to sleep this way and stays there for the remainder of the night. I barely notice or remember when she eats--typically two to three more times--before we're up for the day at 5am.
Each time she starts to thrash and fuss I try the paci first. Sometimes that's enough. If she's hungry, though, she'll spit it out and fuss some more and I'll know she needs to nurse. When she's done I make sure to pop her off and pull down my shirt so that we don't get in the habit of all-night nurse fests!
At the moment, this affords me the most sleep with the least number of disruptions possible. It's much easier than getting up out of bed and sitting to feed her somewhere and getting up again to put her back down (carefully) and walk back to bed several times a night. She is less disturbed and so am I. Of course, we have a king-sized bed, so we can afford to spare some space for her, too!
Good luck. It is tough to be disturbed for so long, but it's really not that unusual. Babies sleep is designed to be light in the first year and they really do need to touch and comfort of mom in the night, even though it might drive mom nuts!
