Any WDW experience with toddlers who fight sleep?

[Momamy3]

We are leaving for WDW on Friday, and my 13 month old is just now starting a phase where she REALLY fights sleep. I have to put her in her bedroom and shut the door for her to go to sleep (she whines, stops, plays, lies down, then whines some more). I thought she might have an ear infection, but the doctor ruled that out!

Anyway, now I am having visions of dh, dd, and me having to stand outside our hotel room until she goes to sleep. Have any of you brought toddlers like this? Did WDW wear them out so they stopped fighting? I swear, my first child was not like this (she slept wherever and ate whatever!!

We are planning to come home in the afternoons for naptime, too. I just hope she will sleep when we are in the room with her. She used to sleep in our room when she was little, but we had to stop that when she was three months old because she was too busy trying to see what we were doing and would not go to sleep.

Thanks...I am feeling like a new mom all of a sudden!

Amy

 

[DiaDeGuadalupe]

Our little one goes in and out of that phase, and was in it when we went to WDW in May. Trust me, every single afternoon *and* night, she was all about sleeping! We were all so shocked that we took pictures of her every afternoon and had a good laugh every night when she'd get into the room, tell us she needed her pajammies, and then would crawl into bed

WDW must have something in those Mickey bars that sucks the energy right out of the little people

 

[Belle5]

If you're really worried that her fussing will keep others awake then you might want to consider the FW cabins.
Some folks we know stayed at the Yacht Club a few years back with a daughter who would cry and cry until she went to sleep. The CM's at Yacht Club actually called their room to tell them that they were having many complaints from other guests about the crying. (I was shocked to hear that the CM's would do that. I mean, what can you really do about it when you're away from home?) But, it happened...

 

[Momamy3]

She does not have a history of being loud, but who knows how she will act once we get there!

We can't do that anyway for financial reasons. We started off going to the WL for this trip, but my dh was put on disability so we were forced to downgrade to PC. The cabins, from what I understand, cost almost the same as WL.

I hope no one has any reason to complain about her! LOL!

Amy

 

[jiggerj]

Momamy3

I sent you a pm.

 

[POOH&PIGLET]

My kids are so tired after a WDW day that they usually fall asleep on the bus back from the park.

WDW will hopefully wear your little one out so that she will sleep easily. Good luck.

 

[PrincessMommy2]

My then 3 year old daughter was the exact same way....out of bed multiple times for a drink of water, a trip to the potty, any exuse to not go to sleep! In WDW, we were up early every morning and on the go till dinner time. (she normally does not nap during the day) We would take a swim in the pool every night after dinner and she was asleep before her head hit the pillow every night. You might be pleasantly surprised!

 

[briannesmom]

We have the same problem with my DD who turned 1 during our last trip. We went in July and it was very hot so instead of taking an afternoon break we spent the morning and early afternoon at the hotel and went into the parks late afternoon and stayed until closing. Most nights she was out cold before we even got back to the room.

We tried to get her nap out of the way before we went to the parks but on the days we didn't she napped in the stroller just fine (she won't do that at home). Hopefully you will have the same luck we did.

Amy

 

[HenDuck]

My DS is a creature of habit. We keep him on his regular schedule at home, but when we went to DL, we went with his flow.

Luckily, we managed to run him ragged every morning by getting him up early, being at the gates before it opened, and then hitting every attraction we could before nap time. (It sounds commando, but it really wasn't. He actually dragged us around. )

He would fall asleep on the shuttle on the way back to the hotel at nap time. If not, I'd put him down in the hotel when we got back and told him he did not have to sleep but he had to rest and be quiet. Of course, he'd knock out immediately.

Then, when it was time to wake him up, I'd just whisper in his ear, "Do you want to go back to Disneyland?" and he literally jumped out of bed. (He's soooo my child. )

We let him take a long nap and stay up late.

It worked out great!

I guess my advice is to be flexible and do as much as you can around your child's internal clock. When the fussies set in, take her back for a nap or let her rest somewhere quiet.

Kids, like their parents, act differently at Disney than they do at home.

Good luck!

 

[Rowlf]

My 14-month-old DS would NOT sleep during our trip this week. I'm glad we only went for three nights because he was getting cranky due to lack of sleep - he was napping for maybe an hour or an hour and a half a day. His bedtime is usually 7 - but he wouldn't sleep until 9:30 or so!

He refuses to nap in the stroller; I thought getting him back to the room would be enough. But there was too much to see! and do!

 

[DWhittles]

I don't have a toddler but I do have an 8 month old who thinks sleep is completely overrated and does just fine without it. He takes short small naps and sleeps maybe 4 or 5 hours at night. I'm not looking forward to rocking him to sleep without my comfy chair! I'm going to take him swimming every day so I'm HOPING that between that and letting him crawl around the hotel room like a madman it will wear him out!

 

[ahutton]

My younger DD is not a sleeper, she wears me out! At WDW however, we did not have the trouble getting her down at night we expected we would. If you are thinking of going the "keep going until they drop" mode, consider packing the jammies in the diaper bag, and after dinner and the last snack (or just before the last bottle if still doing that) changing them into a fresh diaper and jammies. That way if they do crash, when you hit the room you can just lay them down for the night.

If that doesn't work we've had the best luck by just closing the blinds and laying down ourselves then too. Sometimes we fell asleep too, other times after all was quiet on her front we would then be able to turn the TV on softly or DH would pull out his laptop and surf or play games.

If anyone knows the magic of how to make them sleep past 6:30 I'd love to hear that one. My girls were up at 6:00 or so every single morning, I'm sure part of it was because they were hungry from all the calories they had burned, but even a snack right before bed didn't stall them except one day they slept until 7:30.

 

[year2late]

I think if you ditch the three year olds stroller - sleep will not be much of a problem.