Sample schedule for a 1 year old

[Baloosgirl23]

Greetings fellow DISers!!! We are fortunate enough to be going to the World to celebrate our DD 1st Birthday this year and I am beginning to think about her schedule while we're there. For those of you who have done this in the past, what is a sample schedule you've used? Currently, DD is 8 months old and naps twice a day and has a pretty regular schedule for bed as well. We are staying for 7 nights/8 days at CBR. Any thoughts, suggestions would be greatly appreicated!!

 

[mjkacmom]

All of my kids napped from 9 - 11, 2 - 4 at that age, 8 was bedtime, they woke around 7. Maybe you could try the morning nap in the stoller?

 

[garanorymom]

We've gone once or twice a year since we got married. Right now we have a 7yr. old and a 3yr. old. Our son would just fall asleep at any time in the stroller, our daughter won't. We have always arrived at the park when it opens. Stayed until about 11. Had lunch--love the counter service at grand flor. or poly. if we spent the morning at magic kingdom (take the monorail), then we head back to the resort cool off/nap. Head back out around 5 for dinner and park touring. We seem to do best at magic Kingdom (short wait times for the rides) in the mornings and epcot in the evenings(great restaurants).

 

[DISNEYNV]

My DS would nap in the stroller as well, but is a strict "be in his crib" for bedtime kid! We would stay at the parks the entire day and have dinner then head back early to the resort. We missed the fire works displays but that is fine and DD didnt mind as well.

Most people tend to take a break in the middle of the day. This works best if you are staying on the monorail route or if you have your own car though. Taking the buses back to the resort can be very time consuming and more of a pain with the stroller and all the other baby stuff in tow.

I would recommend doing what is best for your toddler and family, but perhaps just following her lead would work too. If she needs a break and you dont want to go back to the resort there are the Baby Care stations that you can rock her, feed her or even read her a story. They are quiet and air conditioned and there is one at each park.

Have a great trip and enjoy her 1st Birthday in Disney

 

[dana1003]

went when our girls were 3 and when we didnt go back to the hotel to nap..they napped in the carriage. we found a quiet shady spot and just all took a rest..

 

[HGD24]

We kept DD's schedule and let that dictate our day. She woke up around 7am, had breakfast and was back asleep by 9. We stayed in the room until she woke up around 10:30 and then headed to parks. She took her afternoon nap in the stroller. We usually headed back to the room around 6pm and fed her dinner. Some nights we headed back out after that, some nights, we just relaxed in the room. On the night we headed back out, she fell asleep in the stroller since her bedtime was 7:30-8:00.

 

[chrisw127]

We tried to keep our twins on the same schedule we were on at home. When that didn't work, we just winged it. Even on those days, it was not bad. They had a great time.

The best thing we did was hire a sitter one day so that we could take our older son to the parks. The service required us to have two, since we had two babies, but it was worth every penny.

Taking our twins at 10 months was really a breeze; taking them at 22 months was a few adjectives that are not appropriate for family-friendly boards.

Have a wonderful time.

 

[ShootingStarMom2]

Our DS was 11m and we let him sleep in until he was ready to wake up. That was about 7 am each day. We had breakfast and went to the parks for a few hours and had lunch. His nap, only 1 at that time, was around 1 and went until 3 or 4. It worked out for us because we usually went back to the hotel to rest/swim at that time. DH and I sat on the balcony and watched movies on the laptop or napped too. We took our monitor so we could hear him if we were on the balcony. I just looked for the typical cues from him about being tired. The only late night we had was for MNSSHP where we stayed until about 11. He had a late nap that afternoon, so we got lucky and had a happy boy later in the evening. He was half asleep on our walk back to CR and was happy to lay down once we got back. If you try really hard to keep a strict schedule I think you'll drive yourself nuts. With all the excitement, and celebrating, you'll recognize the breaking point and go from there. Have fun!

 

[Shleedogg]

Thank you for posting this! My DD is 7 1/2 mos and we'll be in WDW when she's 8 mos and again for her 1st birthday and I've been trying to figure out her schedule as well.

What I'm figuring is that we'll get up early for rope drop, she'll go back to sleep in the stroller and will hopefully be pretty easy in the morning. She usually sleeps till 10 at home. She'll wake up, we'll stop and get a snack and give her cereal.

More rides, (nurse as needed) she'll nap again after she's been up an hour in the stroller. We'll leave the parks around 1pm and head back to the resort. Eat lunch, feed her cereal/fruit/veggie, swim maybe and nap. Hopefully she'll get in a longer nap, 1-2 hrs.

Then head either to dinner reservation or back to the parks and get dinner there.

Probably around 8ish or so we'll head to a baby care center and we'll give her some other solid. I'll nurse her and let her fall asleep. She'll probably nap for another 30 min, then back out to the parks. She's usually up until 11pm. So mood permitting, we'll stay for fireworks then head back.

This is my schedule more for the 8 month trip. As you can see, she's not eating a ton of solids and is still nursing quite a bit, which I expect to change by the time she's 1. Interested to hear what others have to say!

What we found indispensable when we were there in Jan with her (2 mos at the time) were the baby care centers. While she would nap and eat while we were at the parks during the day, she just became over stimulated and cranky. 30-45 min of downtime in an air conditioned, quiet place was perfect.

OMG I am so long winded!!!! Someone shut me up now!

 

[Shleedogg]

All of my kids napped from 9 - 11, 2 - 4 at that age, 8 was bedtime, they woke around 7. Maybe you could try the morning nap in the stoller?

I am so jealous of that nap schedule!!! My DD won't usually nap longer than a half an hour. She's still sleepy, but just wakes up. Sometimes if I'm lucky I can get her to go back to sleep. But she also won't stay up longer than an hour/hour and a half before she starts getting really grumpy.

 

[Baloosgirl23]

Wow -- thanks everyone for posting such great ideas. DD's normal schedule is up at 6:30 - 7:00 am for breakfast w/ Daddy (he gets up with her so I can sleep...he's awesome like that, my prince charming!) then morning nap between 8:30 - 9:00 am usually until 10:30 am. Then lunch and down for afternoon nap around 1 pm. However her afternoon nap is hot/cold. Sometimes is great, others not so much. After that, dinner around 5 pm and off to bed between 6:30 - 7:30 pm. It wasn't always so easy to get her into this routine, but once we did it has been awesome! I'm still nursing her but that won't be an issue come time for our trip as I will be ending before we leave.

Who knows what she'll want to do at age 1, I guess I'll just see if we can follow her cues and go from there. We don't mind missing the fireworks and such especially since we'll be going back in December. Since we'll be staying at CBR and not on the monorail, I think I agree that it'll much more of a hassle to try to get back in time for her afternoon nap.

We have used the baby care centers before and they're wonderful! I suspect we'll be using them again for this trip. We get to make our ADR's on Saturday and I'm going to try my best to get a dinner at Cinderella's Royal Table for her 1st birthday. I've been looking for an infant Cinderella costume too for her to wear but don't want to get it until I know for sure if we're going there (not that she couldn't wear it to the parks too but for the $$$, I'd like her to get the most use out of it as possible!)

We're very much looking forward to this trip and I really want to make it special. I know she most likely won't remember a single thing from it, but I still want her to have a great time. Being at Disney, regardless of age, is always a great time -- this I know for sure!

Please keep posting more schedules or tips to use for us. I greatly appreciate it!!! TIA