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Original poster

15 month waking at midnight every night

59 replies

futurity · 07/04/2003 08:44

This has been happening for about the last 6 weeks. It started with ds waking about an hour after we had gone to bed and we had to go and comfort him etc to get him to go back to sleep. This would happen a couple of times a week.

However, over the last 4 nights it has been happening every night like clockwork at between about 12-12.30. A couple of the nights all I had to do was go in and stroke his back and he would go back to sleep but last night that didn't work and we had 2 hours of calming him down and trying to settle him only to have to get him up again. We did everything culminating in giving him Nurofen (he had already had Calpol a few hours before!) and that worked and he slept from about 3-7.30am.

Needless to say all a bit bleary eyed this morning and I am looking for "answers"! Of course the obvious thing is teething as he now has molar number 2 coming through but I just wanted to hear if others went through this regularility of waking up at exactly the same time every night and how to break the cycle? If it is teething then I am even considering waking him up at about 10pm to give him the Calpol to get him through that difficult midnight hour but I am extrememly fatigued by it all so mad thoughts go through my head at times like this!!

OP posts:
Ghosty · 08/04/2003 09:00

Hi futurity ... we had this problem with DS when he was about that age .... We worked out that he didn't like the dark .... how dark is it in your house at night?
DS was a GF baby and had always slept in the pitch black but suddenly at about 15 months he started waking not long after we went to bed and we worked out after a while that it was due to him waking up and couldn't settle because he worked out that he didn't like all the lights downstairs going out. So what we did was put a night light in the socket just outside his room and he began to settle himself again really quickly!
Having said all of that he is now 3.4 and and since he was 2 he has taken to getting out of bed when he feels like it and wandering all over the house in the middle of the night .... so I will join the 'match sticks holding the eyes open' set too now, if you'll have me !!!!!

kaz33 · 08/04/2003 10:05

Forest - gosh didn't mean too sound cold hearted and lets be honest what do I know. I only have one child, who luckily is not a problem. No doubt my second will be a total nightmare and I'll be posting on mumsnet for advice.

forest · 08/04/2003 10:34

I'm sure you are not cold hearted at all Kaz33, and have a lovely relationship with your baby. It's just I do get annoyed with people going on about cc and how important it is to let babies learn to settle themselves on their own. I just think it takes time with some babies and not with others and I don't believe in rushing it. I'm not rushing to toilet train my dd so I'm not rushing to sleep train her. We'll get there - she slept through last night

rainbow · 08/04/2003 10:51

Ghosty- Snap ds1 is now 8 and wakes at about 6.30 still. Unfortunately he shares a room with ds2 whos only 2, he wakes at about the same time and I have 2 wandering the house at 6.30 in the morning. Ds3 is only 6 months and wakes at about 3.30. Ds2 used to settle himself back to sleep no problem until he moved froma cot to a bed now 3.30 or 6.30 if he wakes he gets up!!

Ghosty · 08/04/2003 11:10

blooming nightmare isn't it rainbow? ... am thinking about drugs ....
Will I ever go to sleep and wake up when I have had enough sleep or will I ALWAYS be woken up when I am not ready?

kaz33 · 08/04/2003 11:21

Gosh I am getting worried now, sort of thought that as now we have cracked it with DS, that was it. How naieve am I ? And, as for no 2 ( due soonish ) - think I need to lie down in a darkened room.

DS1 ( 20 months ) has just started having little tantrums - I find them quite funny at the moment and normally laugh. He looks at me bemused, obviously not the response he expects. But thats going to get worse isn't it. Oh dear, think I better have a large whisky in my darkened room.

Ghosty · 08/04/2003 11:24

Mmmmm ... kaz .... I used to find tantrums funny too ... yup, it will get worse ... make that whiskey a double ...

rainbow · 08/04/2003 11:24

Ghosty - for you or for him? I've also heard a mallet can be rather effective.

rainbow · 08/04/2003 11:25

Double whiskey in the last feed before bed

mum2toby · 08/04/2003 11:30

My ds is 21 moths and his tantrums were cute until this weekend! They reached a whole new level of hysteria and frequency (4 in 2 days)!! I tried to ignore him but 20 mins of screaming on a busy bus was enough to drive anyone to drink!!

I was mortified!

Ghosty · 08/04/2003 11:30

Rainbow ... him obviously ... I NEVER put toxins in my body ...
I used to obsess about the 12 hour thing when DS was a baby ... totally and utterly obsess ... OBSSESSION was my middle name (hence GF ). Now it is just a way of life and short of locking him in a sound proofed room there is nothing I can do about it is there? Or is there ...?... surely someone has the perfect solution?

Ghosty · 08/04/2003 11:33

Mum2toby ... your little boy sounds like an angel ... mine has 4 in an hour ... or at least sometimes it feels like it and he left the terrible twos 4 months ago ... he is now in the bloody awful threes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

rainbow · 08/04/2003 11:37

I have had all the strange looks while ds2 is throwing a tantrum, you have to see them to believe them!!he is no1 drama queen, he's only just turned 2!! I am the only one who doesn't know my own child? The world and his wife seem to have some sort of opinion on what I should/should not be doing and they insist on telling me, not quitely either. I can be anywhere, on a bus, in the high street, in the bank and you can guarantee some one will tell me I am not bringing my son up properly. I wish they would keep their opinions to them selves unless I ask for it of course. There got that off my chest!

rainbow · 08/04/2003 11:39

Someone once told me the 2's are not all that terrible, wait for the teenage years!

Who wants 3 boys? I'll have them back when they're 20+

mum2toby · 08/04/2003 11:49

Ghosty - I think he's just warming up for his 2nd birthday in 3 months time....

I can't believe how quickly he's changed!!!! I thought people were joking when they talked about the speed at which the terrible twos decends!

Rainbow - everybody else knows better when it comes to how to deal with a tantrum... hmph... isn't it annoying!

kaz33 · 08/04/2003 11:51

I know Rainbow but then you have to deal with the daughter in laws....

rainbow · 08/04/2003 11:53

They can join a monastery!

Ghosty · 08/04/2003 11:53

Kaz ... don't talk to me about DILs... I already hate mine and DS is only 3! She is just not good enough for him

Original poster
futurity · 10/04/2003 13:26

Update: Still doing it basically!! He has now added taking 2 hours to go to sleep at night. He doesn't cry just murmers in his cot and fidgets around. This then ends up with him getting stuck at the top of the cot and caught or just sitting up both which result in crying out.

Last night he was then up at 12 so I stroked him back to sleep and then awoke at 6.15am and calmed for half an hour but then screaming again.

Will this never end?! Even now he has woken up after 50 mins sleep and had a scream so I had to go and lay him down (do you see a pattern emerging here!!). He has quietened down so I think he has gone back to sleep.

Sleeping is just such a stressful time at the moment and I am ending up with one tired grumpy ds because of it!

OP posts:
edgarcat · 10/04/2003 13:29

Message withdrawn

Original poster
futurity · 10/04/2003 13:44

He is constantly hitting the bars..getting his head stuck at the top..his arms hanging outside it! But he is only 15 months and a bed is a long way off surely?

OP posts:
Bugsy · 10/04/2003 15:25

futurity, I taped cardboard to the inside of ds's cot when he was little because I got so fed up with him getting his arms and legs stuck through the bars. It was helpful in our battles to get him to go to sleep and stay asleep.
With regard to teething, you may want to check this with your GP or HV, but I give paracetamol and ibuprofen to mine at bedtime if they are teething. My GP said that as long as I didn't exceed 3 doses of ibuprofen and 4 doses of paracetamol in a 24 hour period it was OK to give a double dose if I thought it necessary.
Don't forget that babies are very clever and they know how to get our attention. If your little one wakes up in the night, you can guarantee he won't want to be awake on his own.
I wish you lots of luck and speedy success as I know how painful it is to go without sleep for a long time. Took us 15 months to get ds through the night and dd is nearly a year old and I'm still living in hope that she might make it through the night!!

Meanmum · 10/04/2003 15:32

I was at the hospital the other day and they told me that giving 5ml of calpol wasn't actually enough. They recommend the dose based on weight and as my ds is 12.8kg they told me to give him 11ml of calpol. This certainly helped his fever and rash go away.

Mind you, I'm dubious as to their amounts as a 3yr old I know who is 20kg only takes 12ml of calpol. Huge difference in weight but not in calpol is my view.

Original poster
futurity · 10/04/2003 15:41

I gave ds 10ml of Calpol for the first time a couple of nights ago and he did sleep through that night...BUT I did the same thing the next night and he didn't! I have never given Calpol and Nurofen at the same time..only 2 hours apart which is what I was told a while ago by a doctor as being acceptable.

Hope the bottom two molars appear soon so we get them over and done with!

OP posts:
Meanmum · 10/04/2003 16:00

I'm hoping it is because he's teething that he is so sick at the moment. I can't see a tooth at all and I'm expecting the molars too. Doesn't help when he clenches his teeth together so you can't have a look. You can only do so much tickling to get him to open his mouth while he is on his back.

I've only ever given calpol and nurofen 3 hours apart and wasn't game enough to do it sooner.

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