Nighttime with little ones

[Punchy]

We will be hitting WDW in a little over a year, when our son is 2. We'll stay on property.

We have more or less figured out what to do with him during the days, however I have no idea how we'll handle the evenings.

This is of course all very general and hypothetical, since I don't know what kind of personality he'll have at 6 months!

Will we have to be back in the room, everyone in bed at 8:00? What about evening fireworks? Did you orchestrate naps for a later night?

What do/did you do with your kids in the evenings?

 

[stace1214]

My little guy is 7 months now, we're not taking a trip till right around his first birthday, but judging by his personality if we were to take a trip right now I would probably go back to the room around 6ish, feed him, give him his bath and the head back out and have a nice sit down dinner. He can sleep through anything and is always asleep by around 7. I would guess that he would sleep in the stroller without a problem. Now that being said, no two babies are the same and that might not work for you. I'm sure you'll have a wonderful trip no matter what you do!

 

[jms531]

We took our dd last April right before she turned 2. DD has always been VERY scheduled especially at bedtime so I was expecting to keep that routine down in Disney. We also planned on coming back to the room for her naps. Didn't happen. DD who was NEVER a stroller sleeper actually took most of her naps in the stroller...we'd be walking to a different ride, get there and go to take her out of the stroller and she'd be passed out. We'd almost always still go back to the room to give her time to unwind, swim in the pool, get a change of clothes before we headed back out to dinner. After dinner we just went with the flow and she would let us know when it was time to go By the time we got back to the room and gave her a bath and jammies on she was so exhausted she went right to bed.

So I guess the best plan for a 2 year old is not to plan on sticking to one. They can be very unpredictable! Have fun!! We had a BLAST and I was expecting to be totally stressed the whole time (with waiting in lines etc.) but she was wonderful!

 

[Punchy]

Thanks so much!

I am so excited, I think Henry is going to love it. He's a very laid back, outgoing guy.

There's a possibility some family will be coming with us, so that would make it easier as we could switch off looking after him at night. I prefer the parks at night to the day, as I have sun sensitivity issues.

I've seen lots of kids crying and hiding during fireworks, so we'll have to try to prep him ahead of time. Popping ballons and waving sparklers or some such.

 

[Schmeck]

I'd plan on bringing a comfortable, reclining stroller for him, and keep him in the parks with you at night. Do Rider Swap for those attractions he can't go on, etc.

 

[roobug]

Thanks so much!

I am so excited, I think Henry is going to love it. He's a very laid back, outgoing guy.

There's a possibility some family will be coming with us, so that would make it easier as we could switch off looking after him at night. I prefer the parks at night to the day, as I have sun sensitivity issues.

I've seen lots of kids crying and hiding during fireworks, so we'll have to try to prep him ahead of time. Popping ballons and waving sparklers or some such.

I would look into getting ear muffs for him. Our boys were 19 months last time we were in Disneyland for the fireworks and they love them - other kids were crying around us, but with the ear muffs on our boys thought the fireworks and the parades were so cool. In fact they usually fell asleep during them - I thought that was pretty neat - how fun would it be to fall asleep to fireworks and lights. Also the earmuffs we got allow them to still hear it just makes it not loud - they always responded when we where holding them and talking to them with them. These also work great for parades or loud rides.

 

[Brewmeister]

So far, our little one (4 mo. next Wednesday) can sleep through anything. In fact, he slept through the entire second half of the local Cirque du Soleil that we went to last night, and it was fairly loud. The trick has been simply not worrying about keeping the house quiet during naptime or bedtime. Our dogs bark often, and that has never bothered him (he heard plenty of that in the womb), and we usually have some music on.

We are really hoping that this hold true as he ages. His first trip will be a DL drip at 17 months.

 

[polkadotsuitcase]

This is of course all very general and hypothetical, since I don't know what kind of personality he'll have at 6 months!

I think you just answered your own question! You'd probably have a different plan if you went tomorrow than you will when Henry's two. They change so much, so quickly when they're that young!

My vote is to plan as much as you can...and then plan on throwing that plan out the window if you need to! I know, I'm lots of help, right?

When my kids were that age, they were pretty flexible, so we just went with whatever seemed right at the time. If they were cranky, we went back to home base. If they had napped later in the day and were fine, we'd stay longer.

Have fun!

 

[starsweeper]

We took our DD and DS last Feb at 2.5-year-old. We hit the parks at rope drop, returned to the room after lunch each day for a nap, and returned the the parks around 4-5pm. They felt rested and had plenty of energy to stay up for fireworks, etc. BTW, my kids usually go to bed at 7:30pm. They usually fell asleep on the bus back to the rooom and slept until 6-6:30am the next morning.

 

[katied]

With DS (at 20 mo and then at 30 mo) what we generally did was head back to the room for naps after lunch - so naptime was generally 2:30 - 4:30 pm. We'd then have an early, light dinner in the room. After dinner, we'd head back to the parks and be there around 6 - 9 pm, and then back for bedtime around 9:30. So, it was a bit later, but DS is generally used to Central time, so it was actually really close to his own bedtime.

On the am side, we did not get up super early. DS normally woke up around 8 am, and after breakfast in the room, we'd get to the park around 9:30 - 10:00 am.

We found we had plenty of time in the parks, and we had a well rested, happy DS.

When he was younger, he'd take naps in his stroller (60 mo - 18 mo) but as he's gotten older, having a break seems to work well for us and allow us to enjoy evenings at the park.

 

[msmama]

When we went when my DS was 10 mos we went back to the room shortly after dinner and stayed in. (Grandma was there so she watched him sleep while DH and I went and swam). He napped in the stroller.

Our last night we did put him in the carrier and go to Illuminations. He slept through the whole thing.

We're going again in a month for 2 days and this time we plan to follow his lead. He can sleep in the stroller, but I plan on staying in the parks I'm planning on staying in the parks as long as possible.

He's heavy but we'll have a carrier if he gets too out-of-control exhausted. If he won't sleep in his stroller he'll sleep on DH and I.

 

[happymommy]

We went the first time when our kids were 2 and 4 (closer to 3 and 5). They napped in our double stroller every day (it reclined fully), but still by evening we usually just got the kids ready for bed at a fairly normal time and put them to bed (we were in a BWV, one bedroom).

Really, I'd play it by ear. I didn't want to overdo it at that age. It's no fun for a 2 year old to be overtired. They never could have handled the fireworks and neither could we! Even with an afternoon swim or nap, they didn't want to be out late.

We rarely go back to the room for naps, since when we have done that on trips, it usually backfires and it's too hard to get them to nap in unfamiliar places (but the stroller worked!).