Baby at WDW - How Young Is Too Young?

[cjparker0110]

This all comes down to everyone's plans for the trip. For starters I would ask if this is the first baby for this particular person. Seems like the first child is always the hardest because it takes a while to figure out you don't need everything except for the kitchen sink when you go places. We carried more stuff when we had one child than we do with 4 (our oldest is 4, youngest is 3 months).

Second: what is the plan? Are you trying to rush through the parks and get as much done as possible? Or are you planning to just enjoy time together? With a young baby there will be a lot of stopping for diapers and feeding. It will depend on if she is planning to nurse or bottle feed as well. Much easier to bottle feed in line or even while walking than trying to nurse while doing the same.

Third: Would there be a benefit to postponing? My wife and I just had child number 4. We are going in 2017 regardless of whether or not we have another child. Part of that is because it is a huge family trip (parents anniversary). Part of that is because at the rate we are going, we can't guarantee not being pregnant (yes...we know what causes it. No...we don't want to use birth control). If you postpone because of baby, you will have to figure out at what age it becomes manageable...and then you won't know for sure that they (or someone else) won't be pregnant again.

I'd suggest talking to mom-to-be and seeing how she feels about it. Does she want to go to WDW with a three month old baby? Does she want to spend the money knowing she might be nursing/changing diapers/soothing a baby most of the time? It is all relative and all personal preference. Let her make the decision and rejoice in the blessing of new life!

 

[dspud]

Ok, Ill be honest. We just got back from a week long trip over Halloween. 3 girls. 6months, 2.5 years, and 5 years of age. The baby wasn't the problem. It was attempting to deal with the 2.5 and 5 year old! It wouldn't have been a problem, but having to simply keep an eye on the 6 month old during meal times, pool areas, ride lines naturally allowed the older ones to be a little more, how do I put this, rowdy. Thinking back on the trip now, we had a great time. During the time, every day seemed completely exhausting. I wouldn't do it again without extra help like extended family or friends willing to help out. Good luck!

 

[StitchesGr8Fan]

For me it would depend on the time of year as well. We are debating going the same thing if/when we get pregnant again and I don't think I would take a baby that young if it was flu season. I would ideally want to wait for the baby to have its 6 month shots of possible.

 

[kohlby]

Agree that leave it completely up to the mom. I went with a 2 month old and barely 3 year old. The 3 year old was a LOT more work. I did have to stop quite often for nursing and diaper changes - and I had to drink so much water since I get excessively thirsty while nursing for the first few months. I had a c-section and I don't have easy recoveries. However, it went well. If it had been after my 3rd child, I could have handled it but barely. I had complications from the c-section with the incision ripping over a little over a week after and was on blood thinners making my healing go more slowly. I couldn't handle going up a single step until 6 weeks after. 2 months would have been too soon - but I could have handled 3 months with patient people.

As for sleeping through the night, none of my kids were anywhere close to sleeping through the night at that age - but they slept well at night. Meaning, they woke often but nursed and fell right back to sleep afterwards normally. I co-slept and it wasn't a big deal even with my first who was an every hour waker. (My second was every 3 hours like clockwork - so she slept much longer blocks). I used a sling in the park - I had a stroller too but my 2 month old stayed in the sling the entire time.

*It was an extended family trip - I would have never thought to plan a trip with a 2 month old otherwise. Also, though we had been to Disney several times, we had never been with kids - not even our oldest so it was a totally new experience. When my in-laws started planning the trip, I found out I was pregnant but did not tell them right away due to my history of loss. Once we did tell them, they instantly expected us not to go and told us they always purchase trip insurance and we could back out. I figured a baby at home or a baby at Disney didn't really matter. We didn't do things perfectly, as we weren't used to touring with children. (Again, it was the 3 year old that was the challenge but he was a challenge at home so his Disney challenge was actually better than the at-home challenge). We learned a lot and had a good time - and went back 6 months later since we wanted to learn some of what we figured out to have an even better trip the next time.

 

[cjparker0110]

Ok, Ill be honest. We just got back from a week long trip over Halloween. 3 girls. 6months, 2.5 years, and 5 years of age. The baby wasn't the problem. It was attempting to deal with the 2.5 and 5 year old! It wouldn't have been a problem, but having to simply keep an eye on the 6 month old during meal times, pool areas, ride lines naturally allowed the older ones to be a little more, how do I put this, rowdy. Thinking back on the trip now, we had a great time. During the time, every day seemed completely exhausting. I wouldn't do it again without extra help like extended family or friends willing to help out. Good luck!

This is what I kind of figured. We are going in 2017 and will have 4 kids (6, 5, 3,18 months) at that point and I am picturing the real challenge coming from handling the three year old who will probably not be big enough to ride most of what his two older siblings can, as well as the two older ones who can be quite the handful if they want to be!

Agree that leave it completely up to the mom. I went with a 2 month old and barely 3 year old. The 3 year old was a LOT more work. I did have to stop quite often for nursing and diaper changes - and I had to drink so much water since I get excessively thirsty while nursing for the first few months. I had a c-section and I don't have easy recoveries. However, it went well. If it had been after my 3rd child, I could have handled it but barely. I had complications from the c-section with the incision ripping over a little over a week after and was on blood thinners making my healing go more slowly. I couldn't handle going up a single step until 6 weeks after. 2 months would have been too soon - but I could have handled 3 months with patient people.

As for sleeping through the night, none of my kids were anywhere close to sleeping through the night at that age - but they slept well at night. Meaning, they woke often but nursed and fell right back to sleep afterwards normally. I co-slept and it wasn't a big deal even with my first who was an every hour waker. (My second was every 3 hours like clockwork - so she slept much longer blocks). I used a sling in the park - I had a stroller too but my 2 month old stayed in the sling the entire time.

*It was an extended family trip - I would have never thought to plan a trip with a 2 month old otherwise. Also, though we had been to Disney several times, we had never been with kids - not even our oldest so it was a totally new experience. When my in-laws started planning the trip, I found out I was pregnant but did not tell them right away due to my history of loss. Once we did tell them, they instantly expected us not to go and told us they always purchase trip insurance and we could back out. I figured a baby at home or a baby at Disney didn't really matter. We didn't do things perfectly, as we weren't used to touring with children. (Again, it was the 3 year old that was the challenge but he was a challenge at home so his Disney challenge was actually better than the at-home challenge). We learned a lot and had a good time - and went back 6 months later since we wanted to learn some of what we figured out to have an even better trip the next time.

I feel better reading this. None of our kids sleep through the night very well (once in a while, but not regularly). I am hoping they are much better by time we go in 2017, but I also know our baby will be that perfect age of not wanting to sleep just like his brothers and sister! Haha. The extended family trip is the only reason we are willing to go at this point. My entire family will be there to celebrate my parents anniversary! But we are also taking my sister-in-law (wife's sister) who is the favorite aunt of all of the kids and spends the most time with them of all of their extended family. It's a win win for us as she will be able to help us with kids and she will get to experience WDW for the first time!

 

[daisygirl902]

I took my kiddo at 10 week and again at 14 months - on the last trip we did a combo Disney Trip and cruise. I would do it all again in a second! We did stay in a villa, which i highly recommend, and took it pretty easy at the parks, and went at his pace, not ours! The only part I would wait for if given a second chance is the cruise. Although he loved WDW at 14 months, he didn't love the cruise as much. The dinners were too late for his usual 7 PM bedtime, and you can't wear swim diapers in the pools. Overall though, we had two fantastic trips, and the pics of him are amazing keepsakes!

 

[CindySwims]

We have annual passes so YDS pretty much went to the parks from about 8 weeks onward. I just put him in the baby carrier and he basically just nursed, slept and needed a diaper change every so often. I'm on the go with my kids though, so it wasn't anything new for me.

 

[MNDisneyMommy]

I echo the comments about make sure its refundable and its up to the mom.

My first - never could have done it. She had issues, feeding was complex, she was an awful sleeper and I just cant even imagine...at 3 months I could barely make it to work let alone Disney.

My second - could have easily done it. We actually took him as a one year old, and he was pretty easy then, too. He's always been a good eater and sleeper.

I would just say - if they do end up going, sit them down and ask them for ideas about how you could be helpful. We went with my extended family with my 4 year old and 1 year old, and I don't know that we would have had nearly as much fun without them. We made sure I had my special mommy moments while making sure we didnt go crazy!