Sleeping Arrangements with a 2.5 year old

[zuzu310]

on our travel day with DD 21 months, she barely napped on the plane and managed to stay up until midnight, our flight landed at 9pm and it was that late until we got settled into our hotel room (had to wait awhile for the pack n play to be delivered and set up). She was great and didn't fuss at all. She was also one of those "dont want to miss a thing," kids. She went to bed pretty easily and woke once during the night, but DH said a pat from him and she laid back down (amazed to hear that!). For that trip on a cruise, she did nap for an hour during the day and we were in bed about 8:30pm every night and I was out just after she was. We had to get up early for excursions so I wanted to keep her on an early bedtime if i expected her to happily get up early. For her next trip we didnt need to get up super early, but we did stick to her normal schedule since she stopped napping. She won't nap unless she falls asleep nursing, so she goes without a nap. One day she did sleep on my shoulder at a restaurant. So if she's tired enough, which only happened once during the week, she napped. For Disney, i'm planning on having a late morning if we want to be out late, like for MVMCP. If she doesn't nap then we will head back early. My DH would be online and that doesn't bother her, but i think a tv would. Don't forget that the air conditioners make plenty of noise. I bet since the buses are so quiet and dark going back to the resort from the parks, and a long ride from MK, that she'll fall asleep there... and hopefully not turn into a monster when it is time to get off the bus!

You can rent a toddler bed from A Baby's Best Friend for the week.

Good luck! Have a great time! Our DD will be going in 3 months, and she'll be almost 2 years 4 months.

Yeah I am crossing my fingers that my son (also 28 months) will nap since we will be getting up about an hour earlier each day than he normally does. I WISH he would nap in his stroller but I guess I never did either. I actually remember fighting to stay awake when I was younger and he is just like that. On our way back last year, he had a cold and we had gotten up at like 5am for our flight. He was sooo tired on the flight home and fought sleep the whole way even though he didn't feel good. Five minutes before landing, he fell asleep and was awake a few minutes after. I am hoping he is so exhausted at night he just zonks out. My DH quietly uses his laptop and we don't watch much TV at night on vacation anyways.

 

[disneypolybride2008]

Yeah I am crossing my fingers that my son (also 28 months) will nap since we will be getting up about an hour earlier each day than he normally does. I WISH he would nap in his stroller but I guess I never did either. I actually remember fighting to stay awake when I was younger and he is just like that. On our way back last year, he had a cold and we had gotten up at like 5am for our flight. He was sooo tired on the flight home and fought sleep the whole way even though he didn't feel good. Five minutes before landing, he fell asleep and was awake a few minutes after. I am hoping he is so exhausted at night he just zonks out. My DH quietly uses his laptop and we don't watch much TV at night on vacation anyways.

it is so crazy how some kids fight sleep.. like my DD2 who just cried after i tried to lay her down from nursing, in which she fell asleep. She should sleep on her nap mat instead of crying and wanting to stay awake if she is already sleeping. Wow, your son does sound like a sleep fighter if he stayed awake like that on the plane. On her first trip she didn't fall asleep on the airplane either, but on our second trip she did and on the way home she was asleep before take off and slept about 2 hours.. she woke up before we landed. Just make sure to wear him out good, give him lots of excercise and that should help zonk him out for bed. The long dark bus ride may do it too!

 

[wallskm]

We went last April and, although I am pretty strict on bedtime and nap time at home, we just went with the flow at wdw. Most nights one or both of the boys was asleep by the time we got back to the hotel and it was late enough that DH and I were tired too and weren't awake much longer either. I tried my best to just not worry about sticking to our normal schedule and honestly both boys did fine. If they were tired they would fall asleep in the stroller. There was really only one night when the youngest was just worn out and cranky and on that day we did get him back to the hotel early. Just going with the flow worked really well for us!

 

[AZMermaid]

We have a strict 7:00 bedtime at home. Neither of my kids had ever been up past 8 and only past 7:30 a handful of times, including Disneyland. We own DVC so we always stay in a suite style room. But, we just went on our first Disney Cruise where 7:00 (even 8 most nights) was not going to happen and we were all in one room for the first time. The kids were 17 months and almost 3. They were really good with the later bedtime (but still only slept past 6 once). There is a curtain between the two areas, so we read books but other than that, just sat in the dark- the TV was on their side of the curtain!

 

[kastoney]

We r headed down next month with our 2.5 year old too. I don't think much "advice" can be offered cause as we all know kids are all different. I would however suggest a test run to a hotel ahead of time. We did this last month and it was well worth it. I'm now glad we have a tiny preview into what disney sleep will look life like and I'm thankful we won't go at it from disney the first time.

 

[Crystal824]

Every family works differently.... we are going in February with our ODD6 and YDD (then 2.5 year old). We went away in May just before she was 2 and have traveled several times since ODD was born.

We don't go back to the room for bedtime unless we REALLY need to. If we want to stay in the parks or the pool or DTD we do. The kids will fall asleep in the stroller or just play (say at the pool). When we are ready for bed, usually all of us are ready! We put the kids in their bed and sometimes one of us lays there and the other watches TV.

Once we have a sleeping little (the big one will just lay there till she is asleep no matter what we are doing) - I usually empty and repack the park bags, hang bathing suits to dry etc.

Worst case scenario we pull a few chairs outside of our room and hang out (POR) and chat.

Seriously though after a day going hard at the parks chasing my 2.5 year old (who doesn't nap anymore) I imagine I will LOVE to go to bed at 8pm!

This is what we do too. We just stay in the parks. DD is only 3 so she can easily fall asleep in the stroller if she is tired. When we come back to the room, we are all ready for bed.

 

[BeckyEsq]

We just stayed at POR with our DD who is almost 3. We got bed rails for her and she slept great in the big bed. She usually went down around 8:30-9 which is at least an hour later than she goes to bed at home. We turned out the lights and both just played on our Kindle Fires for about an hour and then we conked out too. We were always up at 6 to get to the parks early so we were pretty ready for bed by then too.

 

[Happyjen27]

We just read or played cards while the kids fell asleep. My pair are such good sleepers!! When mine were 3 yo they were still in pack n plays when we traveled; thank goodness for small kids!!