15 month waking at midnight every night

[futurity]

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!!

Pattern developing! Another 2 hours to get to sleep last night..Nurofen at bathtime but spent until about 9.15 rolling around, murmering..sitting up...and smiling and laughing when we went in! Calpol then given and he sat and watched our film with us (!) for 10 mins or so and as the Calpol kicked in he, at last, got sleepy and went down like a dream. No waking in the night but still woke at 6.15!!

Maybe someone can help me with this.... I was under the impression that there is NO ingredient of Calpol that causes drowsiness. It is liquid paracetamol. Tne onllt reason my ds would go to sleep after having it was because he was ill or in pain and felt better once it had kicked in, so he slept. It certainly has never induced sleep when there was nothing wrong with him....... believe me I've tried EVERYTHING to get him to sleep!!!!!

Futurity - obviously you know your child and I don't, but if he's smiling and laughing etc etc do you really think he needs Nurofen or Calpol?? It sounds to me like he's just chancing his luck rather than being in pain. Just a thought.

In the night he does scream because of his teeth. When he is going to bed he is just very wakeful...lots of murmering..fidgeting..fussing which ends up in screaming eventually. Believe me I do feel like a bad mum for giving him stuff and I question EVERY time whether I should be doing so but, in his case, it does make him sleepy afterwards probably because he pain/discomfort has gone. I also know what he is like when he is chancing his luck and with a molar half way through this is not one of those times.

Yep, the only active ingredient in Calpol is paracetamol which does not actually make you drowsy. But if I can't sleep for some reason (other than ds making a racket in the night ) I often can after a dose of paracetamol, even if I don't feel unwell or in pain. Odd that (but than, maybe I am just odd ).

Futurity, if it's any consolation (probably not!), we have had the most dreadful week so far with ds and sleep. He's had a nasty virus that's made his temp. sky high, along with conjunctivitis and probably teething pain as well (I can see 3 canines coming through all at once). We have been woken up almost every hour for several nights this week (and this is a child who usually sleeps well). Last night he would not go to sleep in the evening. We gave the maximum dose of Nurofen and eventually resorted to Medised (paracetamol plus a sedating antihistamine). I think he couldn't get to sleep because he was feeling uncomfortable and in the end he just got so tired he couldn't relax. I tried rocking him and he kept dropping off and then jerking awake again and screaming (either in pain or because of overtiredness, I don't know). We at least got 6 hours unbroken sleep last night after the Medised dose, but I still feel a complete wreck!

It is OK to give ibuprofen and paracetamol at the same time, BTW. As Bugsy says, just make sure you don't exceed the max. no. of doses in a 24 hour perios. Also, make sure you don't give the doses too close together.

Ds has gone down for a nap ... maybe I shall too ... yawn

Blimey Gingernut...you have really been going through it haven't you! I hope your ds gets well soon!

Meanmum and futurity. Calpol and Ibruprofen can be given at the same time. Ds2 had an operation at begining of Feb (he turned 2 in Jan) and doctors advice was as Calpol is every 4-6 hours and Ibruprofen is 6-8 hours, give him both together every 6 hours. Meanmum - I would check that dosage of 11mls it sounds an awful lot. Ds weighed 11.?kg and his dose was 6.8mls.

Thanks Rainbow. I was a bit dubious and even though I gave it to him once won't be doing it again in a hurry. I'll be checking it the next time I'm at the GP's.

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Thanks futurity - he is actually much better already, it is just me and dh who feel like wrecks now. Ds is asleep at the moment, yipee, and I'm off to bed now for a mega-early night! I just hope that after this bad patch (understatement) he gets back to being a good sleeper, otherwise sales of Medised will go through the roof! I'll let you know if I discover any other good tricks (earplugs spring to mind actually ).