I know I already covered what we pack for Disney with a Toddler HERE. Now that we are a family of four, we had to readjust our packing. Baby D requires a special formula and not of the Nutramigen kind that we had with EV, but of the Elecare kind. I do not know if any of you mama's out there had a child on Elecare, but boy oh boy is this formula hard to acquire and not to mention a mortgage payment. Barely any stores carry it and by barely, I mean none by us. This forces the Hubs and I to order three at a time and overnight it from Walmart. It was slightly less expensive to do it this way, but more importantly it kept us from getting into trouble if for some reason it went out of stock (which was common at Walgreens). We did try to put him on Alimentum when he came home as I had read MANY reviews stating that it was basically a dupe for the Elecare. If this worked for other mama's hats off to you. We never should have done this. In the beginning, he ate like a champ, but shortly thereafter (and by shortly I mean by the next feeding) he was regurgitating and spitting everything up. He also developed a horrible case of cradle cap and baby acne. I am not saying that the two have anything to do with the formula, but it is important to note what occurred after the new introduction of the formula. Because the formula is so hard to acquire, it is important to have what we need when we travel (this will be especially important when we do our Disney Cruise as well).
I try to pack with a system, so if I am packing formula, I try to pack everything we need that is in conjunction with it (there is less likely a way for me to forget something this way).
Included with formula are; 2 bottles and the caps, a travel bottle warmer (our digital one stays at home) and travel formula containers (these are essential when in the parks). I bring 2 of these containers since we can spend all day in the park and this will assure that we have enough formula. We also bring a couple bottles of bottled water (our baby bag as an insulated cooler in it so everything stays cool). Dasani is $4 in the park and it can add up quickly so bringing our own bottled water for the bottles helps a lot. Many of the baby center's in the park have filtered water so we use the water there and fill up what we can.Many of the baby center's in the park have filtered water so we use the water there and fill up what we can. Many of the baby center's in the park have filtered water so we use the water there and fill up and we also bring a gallon of nursery water which we leave in the hotel room.
We pack two different cups for EV. A sippy cup for her Pediasure and an aluminum travel cup that she uses for water and/or juice. We bought THIS particular one at Target because Spirit Riding Free in our household is life.
At this point we pack up all of our kitchen baby supplies. Included here are; snacks as well as travel snack cups (again, two of these). The snacks are more or less for the hotel room and the car ride. Disney is the epitome of snacking headquarters so we munch on all the park goodies. Items that we take from the kitchen might include a cooler (one of the babes always seems to be on amoxicillin, so the meds need to be refrigerated), med syringe dispenser, back up binkies (yes there are multiple #momlife), tylenol, etc.
Items from the kitchen also include any other medicinal things that are kept on our kitchen countertop in a basket (polyvisol, neosporin, benadryl bug bite stick, caladryl, insect repellent, etc.). Recently I added a first aid kit in my backpack...yes it is excessive since every park has first aid, but its compartmentalized enough that we can also put insect repellent in it, sunscreen, travel size wrinkle releaser, hand sanitizer, children's flatware, etc.
I have come to realize, that although both kids came from my body (or so the hospital tells me), they are two completely different people and thus I have no idea how Baby D will respond to anything, like too much sun (she is olive skinned like me and he is fair like the Hubs' side) or bug bites (I am deathly allergic to red ants), so it is better safe than sorry and have everything on immediate hand. Lately, EV has become quite clumsy and is not as inclined to go in the stroller with the exception of naps, so having bandaids and neosporin has become commonplace (as well as that darn monkey leash backpack I swore I would never get). We also pack pedialyte packets for the park. They are perfect as they mix into water, come in a variety of flavors, taste great and keep EV hydrated.
After the kitchen, we go into our bedroom (minds out of the gutter lol) which has all the items we use on the daily, such as diapers (we make it easy for Baby D and EV and just take the entire package for both that way we don't even have to worry about it), wipes (both the large and travel size), baby lotion, travel size baby wash, clippers, a suction thingy, Aquaphor (we use this instead of typical diaper rash cream), Honest detangler (it smells like a creamsicle aka heaven), a couple of kids WET brushes. and blankets for Baby D. Since everything is on one of the rolling carts, it makes our day to day and packing a breeze since we just empty the cart into our traveling bag. As you know, we use a really large grand Weekender from Vera Bradley and let me tell you, this sucker fits EVERYTHING and then some. The bag is probably a HUGE reason why we get so excessive, but we have also never had to run to Walmart or Target during any of our trips, so there's that!
Our daypack for the parks is the UpSimple Backpack and I sing its praises HERE. I go into a lot of detail about the bag there, so I will just show a little bit of the interior and talk about what is in it briefly. I will say the only down side is that with two kids, the bag is more packed and with a tandem stroller, the bag is underneath both the baby's and EV's seat, so you REALLY need to want something (like a bottle) to get it. Honestly, I was kind of wishing we had her umbrella stroller and just our normal day to day stroller for him. The stroller is quite large and heavy (but that is a whoooole other tangent post I can do). I normally have a stroller organizer on the bars of the stroller so there is additional space for drinks, our charger, phone, EV's snacks, etc. However, the way that this particular stroller is designed, you do not have space for the organizer and you are also restricted to only one cup holder on the stroller itself (not a fan if you and your significant other are both having cocktails at the park and want to put them down). Additions that we have had to add with a new babe (or more so what I have altered since having a babe/newborn) include; adding an additional clip-on stroller fan, an extra charger pod, travel noise machine, and a couple of extra mommy hooks. I also found having baby headphones was important as EV can fall asleep anywhere doing anything (her stint in the NICU has her so acclimated to noise that it never bothers her) and Baby D needs to have complete silence and to be submerged into darkness in order to sleep. The headphones were particularly helpful at restaurants where it was loud (here is looking at you Storybook Dining). Putting them on his ears allowed for the noise to be drowned out, the carrier cover provided just enough darkness for him, and in conjunction with the travel noise machine (does multiple sounds and was pretty much our most important piece of equipment for him this trip) the trifecta put him to sleep almost immediately (#momwin).
Because we found ourselves going into the bag way more than we thought we would, the mommy hooks came in handy to hang our backpack from the stroller handlebars. There are clips on the backpack (seen below) that are intended for this purpose but because of our additional stuff it was quite heavy and we felt more at ease using the mommy hooks. There is also access to the backpack from the top as well as the back of the bag (as seen in the 2nd photo). I put the diapers and the wipes in this area so I was not digging around from the top and could just easily grab them without causing an uproar throughout the whole bag. More than once I was applauded by the security at bag check regarding my stellar packing job lol. The third photo shows the insulated cooler area for drinks and bottles and you can see the package of pedialyte togo packs that I keep there as well. If your babe loves noise machines, I highly suggest the one shown below as it clips onto the stroller or baby carrier.
Above: Plenty of Suncare, Insect Repellent, Stroller Mosquito Net (I keep this in a small bag so it doesn't catch on anything), Mommy Hook, Travel Changing Mat (Its a large size both for EV and Baby D), Wet Pouches (I have oodles of these), baby headphones, a super small umbrella (both for the intermittent rain and Florida sun that we have here at any given time) and the Tangled bag has a bunch of EV's Hair Stuff (leave in conditioner, hair ties, travel WET brush, etc.)
I have THIS hip bag, that is lightweight, easily adjustable and has enough room for my phone, wallet (I use a slim card wallet, not a big one), lip glosses (often more than one), a wireless remote shutter for my phone and anything else small I might need. Having these things easily accessible means that one, I am not digging through my bag constantly, especially during food and wine where you are constantly reaching for your wallet and/or phone to take pictures and two, I am not leaving anything of importance in the stroller while we are on rides, going into stores, etc. I never thought a "fanny pack" was such a necessity until we had a stroller and we had to keep bending down to get stuff that we needed. Especially with this stroller, but I said that already.
I know it is excessive and not something NEEDED, but EV and I love ears and I am totally in love with the PARC travel bag for ears. Again, I talk about it at length HERE. But just to show you how we use it...
The above bag I pictured from Cakeworthy and I do not believe they sell it anymore, but really any cute makeup or small travel bag will do. I use it to carry our magicbands, a fun clip on disney keychain, a minnie mouse headband that I use to pull Ellie's hair out of her face when the ears become too much and too heavy and that turquoise thing is for t-shirts circa the 90's and I love it. I'll put any small Disney accessory in here that I do not wanting getting tangled up in our regular luggage and then put this bag in our ear bag so everything stays nice and together. This is the last thing I pack and the first thing I put in the car as it would be the one thing I forget, so it is just easier to make sure we do not forget it, especially since our magicbands are in it.
As each bag is packed, I put it by the door and the last thing I do before the end of the day is count the bags. With so many bags it can be easy to forget something so when we pack the car the next day, we can count off and we are not spending time running around the house seeing if we forgot anything. I like leaving nice and early and doing this keeps us on track and leaves us time to have a nice breakfast, get the kids dressed, allow for any meltdowns and prepare the movie selection for the trip (it is almost ALWAYS Moana).
Again, we live about three hours away so we have the opportunity to take what we want and not be as selective as we would be if we were flying, but honestly, with the exception of packing the ears differently ( I wouldn't travel with our PARC bag via plane or train) and not taking the actual packages of diapers, not much would change.
Hope the helps and Happy Packing!