I always buy 6-month sized clothing and books.
I just had my baby and the best thing I got was my Woombie. It is so easy to use and is the only swaddler my baby doesn’t bust out of. It is also nice that it is so easy to use. This is key in the sleepless nights when my brain isn’t quite working.
Is it her first baby? If she has other small ones, she might already have a lot of the equipment type stuff. If it is their first, or other children are older, they most likely need more of those things.
Look around on the major sites for a registry ( I think the big three are Target, BabiesRUs, and Buy Buy Baby - which I wouldn’t use because I find the name appalling, but it’s a big one). I was a little surprised (this is hard to say without sounding dismissive of people’s generosity) at how many duplicate items we received of items that people were convinced were the perfect gift, even things that you only need one, and then maybe another one as a back-up, but certainly not four or five. The baby thermometer is a good example. If you are not sure if something is on the registry, I would get things that you really could go through endless amounts, like burp cloths.
Bigger clothes are good, but maybe stick to things that are less seasonal. My baby was born in winter, and we received a lot of lovely 6 month summer things, makes sense, right? But she didn’t hit a big growth spurt before the summer and then we couldn’t use them. She fits into them NOW, of course, that we’ve already had snow. The opposite could also happen. Things like onesies, pajamas and socks that got more year-round use worked better.
The most useful gift certificates were amazon.com and diapers.com.
Thanks for all the great ideas - I’m really leaning toward books…!
I never got diapers for anyone unless I knew what kind they were going to use. If I knew that, I’d get them various sizes but no newborn sizes because they always seemed to get a bunch of those.
Usually my baby shower gifts consist of:
Diaper rash cream
Baby sized toenail clippers
Spit cloths
A pacifier or two
Baby socks
Diaper Genie bags (if I know they will be using one)
The rest of the gift basket would be filled with other random and inexpensive baby supplies - the kinds that aren’t usually glamorous or cute enough for a baby shower gift but end up being something the parents really need.
I have noticed that at baby showers, my gifts usually get the, “oh, thanks” followed by the quick move on to the next gift. A month or so after the birth though, I’ll usually get a call telling me how helpful my basket has been.
The most useful things for our son when he was an infant (that haven’t yet been mentioned) are little square waterproof pads. Put one underneath him, even if he’s got a diaper on. You’ll be glad you did.
Also helpful are CD’s of soothing music.
Cloth diapers, the unfolded plain kind. Or some casseroles. Put the casseroles in disposable pans. Even better is food packaged in one serving containers, sort of like homemade TV dinners. Some Dr. Seuss books, or cardboard or cloth books.