I’ve just been invited to a baby shower for one of my co-workers. She has a 3-year-old daughter, so she already has a lot of toys and furniture. Can anyone recommend a good baby gift in the $20 range? Was there anything as a new parent that you found particularly useful or fun?
DanielWithrow has suggested a case of beer for Mama to enjoy once the kid is born. 
I tend to fill a small laundry basket or some other container with essentials like a small pack of newborn diapers, travel wipes, disposable bibs, ointments and baby washes and then add a couple of fun things like a book and rubber duckie and maybe a blanket or hooded towel. You can customize this according to your relationship with the recipient. The basket I gave my cousin was so full I could barely carry it! Baskets for co-workers tend to be smaller.
I’m still a new enough mom that I remembered all the things I never seemed to have enough of and so I tend to give those. Too many toys just clutter up the house and most clothes picked by non parents are cute but woefully impractical or do not fit when the season comes (many people only buy 0-3 month clothes… you end up with so many that baby never wears them all. Then people who do buy 3-6 or 6-9 tend to not consider how the weather will be different then and baby will need lighter/heavier clothes)
I do think it is odd though that she’s having a shower for her second child or is this a work thing?
Yeah, usually showers aren’t done for second kids…
I say give her two bottles of wine in a nice basket w/some crackers and/or chocolates. They’ll need it. Yellowtail Merlot or Shiraz or Chardonnay is great stuff and it’s only around $8/9 bottle.
Please be sure that your co-worker likes beer or wine if you intend to go that route. I find both revolting and if she plans to breast feed she can’t really drink much as it will get into the milk.
You could give her a gift certificate to someplace fairly nice that delivers food so she can have a nice dinner she did not have to cook 
I’d go with disposables and books, or with something to make Mom feel good after the baby’s born. A manicure or something, maybe.
Gee, Ididn’t know I was gonna be judged on my suggestion.
I presumed she would ask or find out that information first. Further, I agree on the nursing part however that’s her decision as the mother…
There were times when I wish I wouldn’t have found it an issue when nursing my daughter…she was a very interesting baby to say the least…she could have used something to calm her down.
I wasn’t judging you personally Eilsel I was just suggesting that before giving alcohol one should be sure the recipient will appreciate it. The OP even suggested beer and I included that in my post.
I don’t drink because I don’t like the taste of alcohol not because I think drinkers are morally repugnant or anything. I was just giving my opinion and playing devil’s advocate as when people bring wine or beer to my home it sits unopened waiting for company to drink it but usually it ends up poured down the sink if not opened in over a year. Also when I came home from the hospital after giving birth, I had a large batch of prescriptions that also did not mix well with alcohol.
My apologies. I’m used to people jumping down my throat (as well as several others) on this one site…so I guess I just presume…
I do love a good glass of wine tho, so that’s where I was coming from. I look at it as a treat…
In any event, I’m off. Gotta get ready for work.
Ciao!
I think the gift certificate idea is a good one. If she already has a three year old, she probably still has all the necessary equipment. With a gift certificate she could pick up essentials at Babies R Us, or (as I would much prefer if I were her) get a pedicure at a local salon.
Baby books (that is, books for babies). You can’t have too many books, and hardly anyone gives them as new-baby presents. If she has a 3 yo, she’s already got enough clothes. Especially onesies.
–genie, who is drowning in onesies
Good suggestions, y’all! I know she’d appreciate the booze, but I’ll probably opt for something else–I didn’t even think about the prescription thing, tanookie. Thanks for pointing that out.
I know that showers aren’t SOP for 2nd babies, but [shrug] what are you going to do? She’s had a rough time of it the past few months. Her husband is a reservist who was deployed to Kuwait in February. They’ll hope he’ll be back by the time the baby’s born, but, of course, no guarantees. So given the circumstances, I really don’t grudge her a party.
Photo albums or scrapbooks are very much appreciated.
Towels and hooded towels and face-cloths and all those things needed to clean up a baby when they get messy! I am not a mom, but I have seen some pretty messy kids, and I know clean face-cloths would be appreciated.
Perhaps not suited to this particular shower, but for all of you “drowning in onesies”, may I suggest selecting some of the nicer ones (perhaps with a cute pattern) and having them made into a baby quilt? Even if they have buttons, it would make an interesting quilting square. You could even keep the back, and make a pocket on the quilt… mnemos drifts off into baby-quilt-making day-dreams… Even if you don’t know how to quilt, I’m sure you can find someone who’d be willing to do it for a good price, and it would make a great memory!
So many good suggestions so far. If it was me(I don’t have kids though) I’d want something for myself, like a massage. Or you could get something for the baby, and then give the momma a “coupon” book, with four or five “coupons”, each for a couple of hours worth of babysitting. She may need that kind of help, especially if her husband may not be there.
I’ve seen a lot of second kid showers that were much more tailored to the Mommies, not the babies. How about a pack of disposables, and something for her freezer to give her a night off of dinner duty?
When my daughter was born, I always wished that someone had bought us some infant medicines.
Little Miss SeGate has had lots of colds, and medicines are so expensive (we were strapped for cash). Put them in a cute little basket or something. Even kids band-aids, ouch-free antiseptic, cute little icepacks (ours looks like a pig), and Johnson & Johnson has some vapor bath and vapor rub stuff for little ones who are all stuffed up – all are thoughtful items that you want to have around BEFORE the little one gets sick/injured. (I hated driving to the drug store when my little girl is home miserable and crying.)
The gift certificate is a good idea. She may need basic clothes if the baby turns out to be a boy. (That’s what happened to me. It was sad getting rid of all the favorite little frilly outfits from my daughter–and my son still wears flowery pj’s sometimes. Who’s going to see him in the dark, right?)
You might also spend part of your $20 on a little gift for the 3-year-old. It will take the sting out of Mommy coming home with armloads for presents for that darned baby.
Our traditional baby shower gift is a bundle of two dozen white washcloths from Sam’s Club. When my brother and his wife had twins, they got four dozen. They weren’t too thrilled when they opened them up: “Yay. Washcloths.” However, when they got home from the hospital with two newborns, it was more like “YAY!!! WASHCLOTHS!”
That, and lottery tickets. Those are always fun.
Or a little rear-view mirror you can clip onto your sun visor so you can keep an eye on the kid in the seat right behind you.
We got so many clothes for our twin girls that we didn’t need to buy a stitch of clothing. That was a very good thing.
We also got one of those bottle warmers where you put in a thimbleful of water, pop in the bottle, hit the button and in a couple of minutes have a bottle ready to go. We liked it so much I bought three more. Smaller ones, though.
Lots of burp cloths/cloth diapers are always good to have around.
About medicines - we’re using infant Tylenol drops - it’s almost $9 a bottle, so two of those would be nice.
Did you go to Mrs. Gaffer’s baby shower!? We got these and had both of those reactions. One of the most useful gifts we received. It has now become our standard shower gift as well.