Brinley Pre-Toddler Summary: 15 Months Old

15 month old pretoddler schedule and routine. 15 month old schedule. Pretoddler schedule for baby’s 64-65th weeks. 64-week-old and 65-week-old pretoddler routine and daily life. Learn about dropping to one nap a day, dealing with a cold, and dealing with toddler tantrums.

15 month old Brinley

This is a summary for Brinley from 14.5-15 months old.

EATING

Eating is the same. She is just eating foods she can eat by herself.

PLAYING

Playing is good. 

SLEEPING

For naps, during this period we went to one nap a day. She wasn’t quite ready for one nap every day, so we did an every other day plan. This worked nicely for our schedules of what we do each day. 

>>>Read: Dropping the Morning Nap Transition Time

Brinley has this new thing of liking to throw her blankie out of her crib. Okay, she doesn’t like it being out of the crib, but she likes to see what happens when it is thrown. 

Brayden also loved his blankie. My other two girls weren’t highly attached to anything for sleeping, so we never had this issue, but I did with Brayden. With Brayden, he threw it out once, maybe twice, and then stopped. I think if I remember right, he threw it out, I gave it back, then he threw it out again during the same nap, so I didn’t give it back, and he never threw it out again.

I tried the same thing with Brinley. She has gotten significantly smarter about it, but she still tests by throwing it out every so often (though maybe she accidentally drops it as she is throwing other stuff out). Most of the time, she throws everything but the blanket out. This isn’t upsetting to her. But if the blankie makes it out, you know immediately.

The good news is she typically doesn’t do this all until after she has slept, so it isn’t preventing her nap from happening. 

I can talk to her through our video monitor, so when she has hung her blanket over the edge, I will talk into it and tell her not to throw her blanket out. The first time I did it, she looked pretty shocked 🙂 But she has always listened.

SICK

Brinley had a cold during this time period. She was not happy about it. The first night, she woke up crying about 1 AM. I went in and sucked out her nose (used Little Remedies Saline Spray/Drops and a plain old Bulb Syringe Aspirator), put some oils on her (I use doTERRA Breathe Essential Oil Blend), and put some baby vics on her (Vicks Babyrub Soothing Ointment). Then I held her for a bit before putting her back in her bed.

Funny story about the nose-sucking. I was doing it with as little light as possible so I wouldn’t wake us up more than necessary. As I was squirting the snot onto a rag, it bounced off and hit me right in the eye! So gross.

>>>Read: Surviving a Cold

MAMA!!!!

At the beginning of this period, Brinley started yelling MAMA!!! in about as annoying of a manner as you can imagine when she wanted me. Amusing initially, but quickly not something I enjoyed. Happily, before this two week period was up, she was done with the annoying yelling.

15 month old Brinley outside

NODDING YES

I LOVE when babies start doing things like nodding yes and shaking head no. She is nodding yes now, which is very fun.

MINI-FITS

Oh yes, we have them. The mini-fits. Any time she doesn’t get what she wants, she throws a little fit. I think this is highly compounded by her siblings. Any time she cries, they try to make sure she stops. They will basically give her whatever she wants in order to stop her from crying. Can we say spoiled much?

I am having to work with them. They have such a soft spot for her, but it obviously is not the way to react with mini-fits. It will be interesting to try to teach them how to be gentle and loving during a fit while not giving in to the fit–children are so “black and white” that they can have a hard time understanding things like this sometimes, but they will get it. See The “Mini-fit”

15 MONTH OLD SCHEDULE

Two naps:
8:45–sippy of milk, fruit, cereal, yogurt, finger foods. Independent Playtime happens in this block.
11:15–nap starts
12:45–wake up, sippy with solids (veggie, fruit, other foods we are eating)
3:15–nap starts
5:00–wake up, sippy with solids (veggie, fruit, dinner) 
7:30–Sippy of milk, then bedtime. In bed by 8:00-8:30.

One nap:
8:45–sippy of milk, fruit, cereal, yogurt, finger foods.
Get ready. Clean with mom.
Independent Playtime.
Lunch.
Play with McKenna.
1:00–Nap starts
4:00-4:30–wake up. Snack. Play.
5:15–Dinner
7:30–Sippy of milk, then bedtime. In bed by 8:00.

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15 month old Pretoddler pinnable image

18 thoughts on “Brinley Pre-Toddler Summary: 15 Months Old”

  1. Hello!My 14 month old has recently started refusing to eat her table food, even her favorites. Many times she will put the food in her mouth chew it and spit it out, when i catch her doing it I make her eat it, ussually resulting in a lot of crying, but i dont always catch her. Normally if she is good at dinner (doesnt cry and eats well) she will get cheerios as a snack at the end of the meal(she is obsessed with them and it provides me high chair time to clean up properly). For awhile i thought the problem was she only wanted Cheerios and therefore would not eat her food, which is why she only now gets them if she behaves. I just cant figure out why she suddenly has become a poor eater and is refusing to eat. It has me dreading every meal as i'm never sure when it is going to be a fight to get her to eat anything. The real problem is if she doesnt eat then she wakes up earlier because she is hungry. Just wondering if you have any advice for this?

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  2. Hello! My daughter is the same age as Brinley, and we just attempted the 1 nap schedule this past week as well because she was refusing the afternoon nap. It went well for 1 day, where she slept 2.5 hours in the middle of the day. After that, she has only done 1.5 hours for the one nap, and therefore is exhausted. She refuses to sleep more than once a day, no matter what time she goes down so alternating days does no good. She has even been waking up an hour earlier in the morning, which makes no sense to me! I have read your posts on weaning to the nap and dropping it cold turkey. I guess since she won't really wean, we are dropping it cold turkey, but it just isn't going so well. Do you have any advice? Thank you!

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  3. I'm so fascinated by the huge jump in waketime that you get when you alternate between 1 nap and 2. My daughter is not naturally a good sleeper, so I am so scared to go to 1 nap. I feel like if I go to 1 nap, I NEED that to be at least 2.5 hours. I feel like she is getting close to needing to go there though. Also, my daughter has the minifits too. I'm not sure I can call them mini though. She is a drama queen already. And my son, 6,hates to see her cry and hates to hear it! He is like, "MOMMY! just give it to her!!!" lol. So, if he's around, she is much more likely to get her way! He will give her whatever she wants! I know how you feel. Also, I just had to tell you…be glad Brinley is attached to a blankie. Want to know what my little girl is attached to?? MY BRAS! Yes, my bras. She points to me and says, "bah, bah." She gets them out of the dirty clothes and sucks her fingers and rubs the straps(carrying them all around the house). She sticks her hand down the front of my shirt every time I pick her up to rub the piece in between. She wants nothing to do with a blankie or stuffed animal. Just my "bah."

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  4. Need help! I have been struggling for the last two months to figure out a schedule for my daughter. She is now 16 mo. A couple of months ago she decided she was done with 2 naps a day. Which is fine with me, however she is not always happy throughout the evening but nothing I can do all make her sleep more. She has been on babywise since birth. But now she sleeps from 10:30-12:30 and that is all. I tried for Wks to put her down in the afternoon and she will sit for a short time and then cry for as long as it takes I get out. So we finally adjusted to this and she has become more content throughout the day most times. But now she is trying to wake earlier and earlier. She has always gone done at 7:30 And slept till 7:15-7:30. But now she wakes anywhere from 6:30 on. I've tried putting her down Earlierm that doesn't help. She is also in the phase of not liking food she used to. So I wonder if she is waking earlier, but can't really get her to eat more:( I will appreciate some advice.

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  5. I've searched through all of your nap and schedule posts/comments and haven't read anything like my problem… My 12 week old son is on a 3 hr schedule. He sleeps through the night 10-12hrs. (started around 6-8 weeks), has never napped well. I've decided that I must accept the fact that he only naps for 45 mins. I've tried everything, many different wake times. I feel like this will never change. Should I move him to a 4 hour schedule? It's been two weeks now of only 45 min naps. His start time is 6am, he is usually in bed between 6-7pm, sometimes 7:30pm This varies because sometimes his last nap at 4:30 (feeds at 3), he actually sleeps- sleeps hard! Like he wants to be done for the night… I wake him up by 6:30 or 7pm to eat. Its so hard to wake him up, he will eat and go back to bed but all three times he will wake up at 2:30am. Any advise you have? I will also add that he shows tired signs and when I put him down in his crib right away- he still only sleeps 45 mins. I have reviewed your 45 min nap issue and went through every tip! Does this have something to do with his long night time sleep?

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  6. Oh, I just want to respond to Nicole if I could. I know how you feel! My daughter was the same way. It was so exhausting. I will give you hope though! I fought it for a long time, and I was like you thinking this is just how she is going to be…but things got better, so much better after she turned 6 months. She had a few relapses with the 45 minute nap, but 1.5 hour naps became her new normal, with short naps just sometimes after she turned 6 months. Just hang on! I got through the 45 minute naps by letting her "catch up" once a day by sleeping on me while I watched TV. I usually gave her the option to sleep well for the 1st and maybe 2nd nap depending on my schedule for the day. Then I would get her when she woke early from the next one and take her to the rocking chair and rock her back to sleep. That got her back on schedule. She would sleep on me for 1-2 hours like that. Maybe that's an option for you? I know that's not what you want, but it is just how I got through it. Good luck! 🙂 I totally feel for you!

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  7. I also am struggling with going to one nap. my little girl will only sleep 1.5 hours and then cries and cries. she was sleeping 15 hours total until I started this now she sleeps 13.5 hours. she is 14 months.

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  8. Thank you Stephanie Kirby. I have let him sleep in my arms a couple times just to give him some rest. Especially if I don't have a lot to do around the house. But I don't want to make a habit of this. After he gets that 2hr rest in my arms he again shows tired signs 1 hour later. I never know what to do. I've been thinking about this…. He is sleeping 11-12 hours lately at night. Can I really expect him to take four more naps (3hr schd) all 1.5hr min like the book says? that would mean 6 more hours of sleep on top of the 11-12 hours he is sleeping at night (17-18 total hours of sleep). But at the same time, after the first wake/feed at 6am- he is already showing signs of being tired… But doesn't sleep for more than 30-45 min. He seems to be happy with this, "playing" in his crib for about 30 min before he gets to sleep and 30 min after he wakes. I hope I am not starting a bad habit of "cat napping" during the day. I am always feeding every 3 hours but our days are crazy with sleep and wake part. Sometimes I will get him out of the crib for more wake time out of the crib, then put him back down when he shows tired signs again (but has never went to sleep again- just more crib playing). Nothing is ever consistent and its driving me crazy! He is such a great sleeper at night though 🙂 I need to remind myself that its a very wonderful thing to have baby in bed by 6-7pm and not waking at all until 6am.

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  9. Hey again, Nicole! Since Valerie still hasn't responded I thought I would add something else! I see that you're wondering if you are expecting too much sleep. I wondered that too! It sounds like so much sleep!! I think that depends on the baby. But, as a guide, I went back and found Brinley's baby summary for her at 15 weeks. here is the schedule she was doing then:This is our daily schedule. 7:30–feed8:30–nap11:00–feed12:00–nap2:00 or 2:30–feed3:00–nap (one hour after waking)5:00 or 5:30–feed6:30–nap (one hour after waking–sometimes she does one hour ten minutes here)7:30–feed, then bedtime9:45–dreamfeedAs you can see, her waketime was only an hour or so at that age. So, I feel like if your son is showing tired signs after an hour then you aren't crazy to lay him down. Obviously reconsider if he doesn't go to sleep for you! You can also see Brinley was still doing 4 naps, and her total sleep in a 24 hour period was upwards of 19 hours!! I am not one to write things down so specifically, but I bet my daughter was a good 2 or more hours or so less than that, so it depends on the baby! I think you asked about doing a 4 hours schedule too? Notice here that Valerie had Brinley on about a 3.5 hour routine. So, kind of a transition, I think. I found this Baby summary for Brinley by clicking on "baby summary" on the right and just clicking "older posts" over and over to get to this far back if you want to look. Once I got to 15 weeks with Brinley's summary's though, they changed to McKenna's at 50 weeks or something…so I didn't find the 12 or 13 week summary for you. Maybe you can? 15 weeks is still really close to where you are at though! Good luck!

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  10. Lisa,Initially I was thinking it was probably just because she is getting older and they don't eat as much when they are older. But when you say she doesn't sleep well after not eating well, then I would say that isn't it. Do you think she needs more variety? She might be sick of "old favorites" and want to try something new.

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  11. Unknown, The cause for her waking earlier in the morning would be because she is overly tired. I would do an earlier bedtime if she doesn't take a good nap.Try adjusting what time her nap starts each day. She might need one nap but for now it be at 11 AM. If htat is the case, give her a snack just before nap time so she won't wake up hungry. It is a hard age to be at one nap because they still need a lot of sleep at this age.

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  12. Stephanie, I know that is a huge leap right! I think it is because she is so young still.And HAHAHA about the bras! That is so funny. I will take blankie 😉 I don't know if this fits your personality, but when my kids get upset about Brinley (or themselves) wanting something she can't have, I break out into the song that goes, "You can't always get what you want! You can't always get what you want! But if you try sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need!" They don't always find it amusing but I do 🙂

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  13. CoryApril McTague,I would slowly move her nap back later. So start having naps at 10:45 this week. Next week start at 11:00. See how that goes.

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  14. Nicole,Stephanie has given you some great advice (thanks Stephanie!). I agree–waketime length is so important to getting good naps in. Make sure it is the right length. You can also see the summaries by going to the index and going to "baby summary"–I have them for Brinley and McKenna.Some babies are just short nappers. But waketime length is a good bet. As is warmth of the room/layers of sleeping.

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  15. Hi there!Super love and appreciate your blog! My little girl is 15 and a half months and I'm having trouble getting her to switch from a bottle to sippy cup. I found the one she likes best, but will only drink water out of it. Baby no. 2 is due in March so trying to make the switch. I have done a sippy cup at lunch now for over a week, with no progress, she just skips the milk altogether at that meal. Any thoughts? Thanks so very much!-Brittany

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