Sometimes a “new” mom isn’t afirst time mom, but her life is changing all the same. The transition from 1 to 2, 2 to 3, and so on can make a parent feel like they’re starting over again. Adding just one more child can mean a simple adjustment to your routine, a moderate rearranging of your home, or purchasing a larger car to accommodate your bigger family. Parents adding to their family may not need a slew of baby items, but appreciate a thoughtful gift all the same. More children often puts parents on the go more and these gifts will make those trips easier for everyone!
You’ve probably heard the expression that trying to get multiple children to pay attention and follow directions is like herding cats. Take them out in public, add a parking lot, 
and it can feel like herding, well, feral cats. We have a minivan and four kids, including an infant. Before the baby seat, gathering kids to go into a store was comparatively easy. Add a baby seat and this requires additional planning. What door is everyone going out of? Where do they go while I gather the baby and his things? Is one of them walking toward the store without me??
This is where the Parking Pal becomes a simple, yet very helpful, solution. I like that my kids can get in and out of their seats independently. I even appreciate that they can gather while I prepare baby, especially in the cold weather. We strive for consistency and they are pretty great about not running off, but they don’t always remember to wait right by me. The Parking Pal jobs their memories.
I decided to place our Parking Pal magnet on the minivan door closest to the baby seat. This means that I wait for my kids to get out of the car on my side, then we walk together to the other side of the car. At this point, they know to place their hand on the Parking Pal and wait there next to me until I’m prepared to go inside. It takes a few times to build the habit and a sneaky toddler can remove the Parking Pal magnet and play with it, but it ultimately becomes a useful reminder.
At an affordable $8.99, the Parking Pal makes a great gift and an easy way for “new” moms of larger families to teach parking lot safety.
Snacks, crayons, sandwiches, fruit: Moms on the go often have one or more of these stashed in the diaper bag or car. Disposable snack bags are a quick solution, but costly and wasteful. The spbang provides a safe, reusable solution that is probably the easiest to clean and use daily. This little sandwich-sized bag is made of food safe material that contains no lead, no BPA, and no phthalates, so families can feel comfortable using them.
To envision what spbang material feels like, imagine a hard food container made into a soft bag. This means you can use one and clean it daily by simply tossing it on the bottom rack of your dishwasher. No rinsing, hand washing, waiting for it to dry, or putting it in a laundry pile. Truly simple and cost-effective because you can purchase a few and have them clean and ready every morning.
spbang bags come in five bright colors that I love, with an attractive embossed fruit design, and a name plate to personalize. They come in one pocket style at 7″ x 7.5″ and have an arrow-type closure, so no dealing with aplix that wears out. I like using the spbang, so I’m hoping that additional sizes come out in the future to accommodate larger sandwiches and better hold some fruits without squishing them. I can imagine purchasing a set of three in different sizes for each lunchbox in our home.
Where’s the pacifier? If I had a dollar for every time I’ve asked this question in the past eight years, I’d be a millionaire. Our oldest had a pacifier addiction and I am not sure 
how many we purchased until she finally put her last “packi” inside a Build a Bear. I do know that it was far more than the $12.99 it costs to purchase one Wubbanub pacifier or $25 to have two for safe keeping.
Traditional Pacifiers are sneaky, like socks in the dryer. No matter how many you buy, you’ll only know where one or two are at a time. They end up behind cribs, under couch cushions, hidden beneath car seats, and at the bottom of diaper bags. The Wubbanub helps eliminate this issue by attaching a small stuffed animal to a medical grade, latex free pacifier.
When I first saw the Wubbanub, I wondered how it would work weight-wise, but the concept intrigued me. Our red dog Wubbanub arrived and the construction impressed me. The animal is carefully created to be just the right size and weight to attach to a pacifier. The little animal, which comes in a variety of options such as giraffe, dragon, and lion, is easy for baby to grasp and keeps the pacifier near baby’s mouth, whether lying on side or back, the car seat, sling or stroller. Plus, you can easily clean the Wubbanub by tossing it in the washing machine on gentle cycle in a mesh bag.
My older kids are intrigued by this pacifier and spent many confused minutes trying to figure out how to separate the animal and pacifier. Their persistence proves that the Wubbanub is well-constructed. We love our little red dog, but only wish the pacifier came in other options, as our baby became attached to a different style of pacifier first. This is a minor issue, however, and I think this item belongs on every baby registry.
The last time my baby had a serious diaper rash, a physician friend told me that he needed a thick diaper cream – and a lot of it – to help the skin heal and to protect it against wetness and further rash. Unfortunately, the only solutions I could find in my local pharmacy contained chemicals or were a very expensive natural option. This time around, I wanted to be prepared with a natural solution that would meet our needs.
Majda Ficko created Baby Butz Cream out of necessity. Her son has a rare medical condition that keeps him in diapers 24/7 and the only effective diaper cream for his rash came from the hospital pharmacy. When the pharmacy closed, she found herself unsuccessfully looking for an alternative. Majda decided to work with a consulting research chemist to create an all natural variation using the pharmacy’s formulation.
Baby Butz Cream is unique because it feels and acts like popular name-brand diaper rash creams, but it uses 100% natural ingredients and is licensed as a Natural Health Product in Canada. A 4 oz jar is $14.99 at Amazon, but one little jar will go a long way. One dab of this thick paste will protect baby’s bum, as well as heal and soothe diaper rash. I put this cream on my baby in the morning and it was still going strong the next morning when I went to bathe him, even after multiple diaper changes. If you cloth diaper, you might need a liner to protect the diapers like with many creams, but this should heal rash quickly.
So, why do I add this cream to the “on the go” category? A baby who is comfortable is better on the go. A rash cream that needs to be applied once and really lasts until the next change and beyond can make a world of difference for a baby nestled in a car seat or snuggled in a baby carrier. Put this in your bag and your covered.
Parking Pal, Wubbanub, spbang, and Baby Butz Cream are all awesome sponsors of The 4th Time Around Event, with Gift #1 and Gift #2!
Disclosure: I received product to review for this post. All opinions are my own.
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