their little stomachs are underdeveloped so they can only hold a few hours worth of food. 2-3 max. so at 3am most likely they are very hungry. And they cant do anything but cry. so checks out.
I had two twin girls. I imagined my life to be hell on earth every night. Long story short: they go to sleep at 22 and wake up at 7.30 every single night. We had to wake them up for milk, otherwise they would've slept the whole. Except one night when one of the girls had 39°C fever after a vaccine dose, I've never missed one night of sleep.