I recently learned that one of my oldest friends is pregnant. She’s the first among my small circle of friends (we’re all around 25 years old) so we’re all very excited. I’m trying to think up a gift to give her that will be awesome but since I’m pretty inexperienced in this area, I’m falling up short.
Any suggestions? I’d love a gift where they could say “Wow, this is silly/cool/cute/totally not something I’d even think of” but above all I want it to be useful. She’s going to be having a boy. I’m a bit shallow in the wallet right now but I can probably go up to $100.
Any suggestions and links would be greatly appreciated!
Do you want a gift for her or for the baby?
Miracle Blanket. Best swaddle there is. My daughter slept through the night from six weeks old thanks to it. We had three so there would always be one clean.
That’s a good idea, Thanks Drain!
Manda, for the baby. They’ll probably have all the basics covered for it, but anything extra that could make it easier on the mommmy would be nice.
I’m pregnant right now, and one thing I really want is this block set. A serious block set is just SUCH an awesome toy, and while it will obviously be some years before the child can appriciate them, you start practicing stacking things by a year or so, and then you keep playing with blocks for at least the next five years if not longer (I played with my block set FOREVER). Anyway, if you think she’s got all the stuff for “right away” covered, it might be nice to think ahead to the future.
A nice baby thermometer is a handy thing to have.
A baby book, if she’s the type and you know her taste, might be well received, and will be around long after the baby stuff is gone.
Anything to do with taking or storing pictures: a nice frame, or digital frame.
A set of new smoke detectors and fire extinguishers, if theirs are sub-par or even just old.
And if you want to get something for mom: a bottle of her favorite booze, if she’s a drinker. By the time this is over, I will not have had a drink in over a calendar year, and I could really, really use one!
A friend of mine was given a certificate for a specialised “pregnancy massage”, and said it was the best thing ever. The woman who does them has special tables with “belly holes” and has studied how to work on a pregnant woman’s loosened joints and ligaments. If you could find someone who does it around your area, she might appreciate that?
These ear muffs would get a laugh, and might be useful for whomever is not on baby duty!
One of those plaster cast kits. Amazon has them. You put the baby’s hand in it to make a memento of his little hand.
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: pay for and arrange for a house cleaning 2 weeks after the baby is born.
She might have a baby registry.
Along the lines of house cleaning (great idea), you could arrange for some meals to be delivered to her soon after baby’s arrival. You could make some casseroles or lasagna or other dishes that freeze well, and bring those to her.
Do any of those “make and take” meals places still exist? A few years back, those were a popular baby gift in my circle of friends, but I seem to think they local ones have gone out of business.
Or even a house cleaning while she’s in the hospital, so she can come home to a nice clean house. A cleaning after two weeks would also be good.
I had diaper service and I LOVED it. My daughter used to get diaper rash something horrid if I kept her in disposables too often.
My standard gift is a handmade baby blanket of completely machine-wash-and-dry, stain resistant, highly durable yarn. Because babies can be messy, and mama shouldn’t have to deal with highly delicate, special-treatment fabrics.
But there are a lot of other good ideas in this thread.
I like the house cleaning thing. Along similar lines, gift cards to local restaurants that do takeout.
Be careful about the housecleaning. I’d hate it because I am such a poor housekeeper that it would just be a huge stressor to have to get the house clean enough for the service to get at it: after all, you have to pick up all the clutter and such yourself.
Oh, this is a good point. A really good point, actually. OK, I retract my suggestion of housecleaning and am going straight to the “gift cards for takeout.”
And I will second the advice for the Miracle Blanket too.
Does she have pets too? If so an automatic feeder might be an excellent gift. I am so in love with mine because even though I am only about 4 months along moving, bending, climbing in and out of bed, etc. is all starting to get a little awkward and is only going to get worse as time goes on. Knowing that my cats get fed twice a day whether or not I have the ability to bend down and put food in their bowls is awesome.
Other than that I would say a gift card for take out/delivery food or a gift card for babies r’ us. Since this is her first she probably doesn’t know quite yet exactly what she will need and having a gift card so that 3 weeks in when she says, “God I wish I had _________” she can just go get one would be wonderful.
Two words: Body Pillow. Anything that makes that last month of pregnancy bearable.
Parenting With Love and Logic.
This is a gift to yourself as much as it is to her, if you ever expect to be around her child. There’s a toddler one and teen one and several others which may be good. I’ve only read this one.
They might have a copy they can watch at the hospital or they may see it as part of their birth class, but The Happiest Baby on the Block DVD along with a swaddle set-- there are a ton of ready made swaddles out there. Our favorite has been the Summer baby Swaddleme that they sell at Target for $20 for two. The Woombies also look like they might have been ideal for us, with the zipper instead of any annoying velcro and no way to get the arms up. We had the Halo Swaddle sleepsacks which were great in the very beginning but somehow he manages to bring the thick swaddle pad up over his face. I woke up in the middle of the night to look over and see only his closed eyes above it and I freaked. He was fine, but still. You can swaddle with regular blankets, but we found most receiving blankets to be too small for our lanky baby, and the readymade swaddle things have the ability to change the diaper from the bottom without undoing the swaddle on the top, and for our boy, it was always his devil hands that would be waking him up, so it was really helpful. Plus, we ended up with a ton of blankets but ended up buying the swaddle things ourselves, so it’s possibly a unique-ish gift.
Another thing I love that I wouldn’t have expected to even tolerate in the house is the swing. It’s another of The Happiest Baby 5 Ss. It’s a great safe place to be able to set him down where he can see things and be part of the action. I end up moving it all over the house–when I plunk him down in it in the bathroom for my shower he always falls asleep. Sometimes he’ll be fussy in arms and I’ll set him down in it so I can go get something set up to try a different soothing tack amd he’ll calm down and be happy. It’s good for getting gas out too. ;). He can also get overstimulated in it, so it depends. I’ve been surprised at how useful it has been though; I was really reluctant about having this big piece of plasticky battery powered crap in my house, because I was going to be holding my baby all the time when he wasn’t sleeping, not letting him be babysat by a machine. Yeah, well, sometimes it’s nice to have a safe spot to set him down where he’ll be happy for the moment you need to pee, get water, food, a stretch…
How crunchy is your friend? Babywearing is really a sanitysaver. Most babies love it. The Moby is a popular present, but it’s actually a bit of a pain to get the hang of, especially in the beginning when the baby is floppy. We like the Sleepy Wrap better, of the stretchy wraps, and I would never have thought to buy it if it hadn’t been a gift, but it was great. We did about 14 miles of walking one day when our son was 5 weeks old, my husband wearing him in the wrap and just pulling him out to nurse and change him (you can nurse while wearing him in the wrap as well). He sleeps great after an initial (brief) period of protest. For ease of in and out and adjustment for nursing though, it’s hard to beat a ringsling. I love my linen one from Sleeping Baby Productions. I love that I can put it on and adjust it without having to put him down. Even easier are the soft structured carriers like the Ergo, Pikkolo and Beco (to name a few). They can be pricey but the Ergo shows up on Craigslist and Babysteals and similar sites all the time, and Quirkybaby’s having a sale on the Pikkolo that brings it down to $99. Don’t get the Babybjorn; everybody says it kills your back.
Another present I got that I didn’t expect to need but found really useful was a breast pump. It’s a Lansinoh double electric, used, but since it’s a closed system I didn’t even need to replace any parts and it has been really helpful for relieving engorgement and building up a freezer stash of breastmilk, just in case. If she has any problems, she’ll probably need a more industrial grade pump, but for me this pump has been awesome. It can be set up to be a single and putting the baby to one breast and the pump to the other makes it very efficient–I’ll get about six ounces. Otherwise, as a double, I’ll get six combined. Anyway, so if you know she’s planning to breastfeed, you could set her up with a care package of pump, Mother’s Milk tea, Brewer’s Yeast tablets, breastmilk storage bags, maybe a bottle system as well, although there’s the whole “wait until six weeks before introducing artificial nipples” school of thought. And nursing pads. I hate to admit it, but I like the Lansinoh disposable nursing pads way better than the very sweet and thoughtful homemade washable ones I was given. I hate the waste, but they are thinner, more absorbent and don’t seem to irritate my nipples the way the reusable ones do. Also, lansinoh hpa lanolin. The tube lasts forever and I don’t think I would have made it through the first few weeks of nursing without it.
The frozen/delivered meals thing is a great idea. Maybe set up a rota among your friends. It’s fun to see what people make, it’s fun to eat what you didn’t have to go out and get/prepare, and it makes you feel loved that people cared enough to do it for you.
Oh, and instead of a Babies R Us giftcard, if you go that route, do Amazon. The money will go farther–and BRU freaked me out. Just too much stuff. Amazon is nice because you can read reviews and put stuff on a wishlist to buy later. If she enrolls in Amazon Mom she’ll get fre prime shipping (2 day ground), so for us, it’s often faster than putting something on our list to get when we go to the store.
Oh, and Triple Paste, if you end up doing a gift basket. My little angel was never going to get a diaper rash because we were going to be hypervigilant with the diapers and doing elimination communication. He still got a rash, and living out of town, it was a few days before we got in to get him some cream–plus I wanted the ped to look at it and confirm it wasn’t yeast or allergy. Anyway, Triple Paste is the best there is. Not crunchy really, but it works. If she uses cloth diapers she’ll need to use liners-- cut up old tshirts work great, just wash them separately from the diapers. They make inexpensive flushable liners as well.