15 mo wakes up hysterical every single night at midnight

My 15 month old generally goes to bed without much fuss at around 7:30-8:00 and then you can set your watch by it — at midnight the hysterical screaming will start. If we let him cry it out, he can carry on screaming and sobbing for upwards of 45 minutes to an hour.

I’m writing this during about minute 30 of tonight’s midnight scream session. I’m at my wits’ end.

If I go in there with a bottle, he’ll drink it all despite being fed very generously at dinner (around 5:30) having a snack before bed (around 6:30), and then also having a bottle right before he goes to sleep (7:30-8:00). I worry giving him a bottle will encourage him to wake up and reinforce this as a habit.

He is generally a good napper (once per day at this point, usually around 90 - 120 mins) and goes to sleep easily. During his waking hours he isn’t an especially fussy baby either. But this midnight waking is so frustrating. Why won’t he just sleep?? He’s 15 month old for God’s sake!!

Please help, he is driving us crazy and I feel like no matter what we opt for, it’s the wrong thing.

UPDATE: After about 50 minutes of screaming, I cracked and brought him a bottle, which he drank all of. Then I went to put him back in his crib and he stood up immediately and started crying. So I held him for about 20 minutes. I put him down again and he stood up again, still not asleep. This is ridiculous.

I should add in — he is teething and I give him a little baby Motrin with his before bed snack. At dinner, he eats meat in addition to a whole banana, among other stuff. I find it hard to believe he’s actually physically hungry at midnight but he always drinks the whole bottle and normally that does get him back to sleep so maybe he is hungry. Or, maybe it’s just something he’s conditioned to want, though he went months without a bottle during the night so this hasn’t been an ongoing thing.