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OK gang-I have older kids and I HATE to admit it but I guess I am out of the loop as far as what is trendy for baby showers. My daughter (14) and I are going to make a baby clothes flower bouquet but I want to add on an amazing gift that will be of great use and my cousin will remember us by. Can any of you newer mom's enlighten me as to what your favorite gift(s) have been, what did you really appreciate or use a lot? Any help is really appreciated, tia...
never had a baby shower for either, but as far as awesome hifts go, i got a mobile that that was amazing. and i bought a swinging chair for DS and it was honestly the best thing I ever bought. It would have been nice if it had been a gift... ummm.... also toiletries like baby wash and stuff is great to have lots of, and since you are going the clothing route.. pacifiers, pacifier holders, nail clippers, thermometer... accessories basically are awesome.
No one had a baby shower for me :shrug:
There were two pregnant girls at my workplace, and on my last day the manager had told me. "oh I wanted to throw you a shower, but everyone else was having one for *so and so* I didn't think anyone would come to yours"
The other girl had her baby taken away at 4 weeks old, so she really didn't NEED a shower anyways. :lolsign:
My favorite was from my neighbor that worked at mead-Johnson at the time. You guessed it 3 cases of large size powder formula and 20 fpc!!! And they said to just let him know and he will bring some more cases home...once we know what kind the baby will be ok with!!!! This was the best news for a teen mom going back to school before her baby was a month old :). My favourite gift to give is a foldable high chair(so u can leave it in the car). My friend had a sleeper party for her sister...we came in our pjs!!! And we all gave her sleepers all different sizes!! I think she got 50 sleepers from birth to 24 months!!! She loved it!!
i was very fortunate and had 2 showers for my first daughter. i think for me, the best gifts were diaper cakes and these really big flannel blankets my husbands cousin made..they were (and still are) fabulous. the swing is also an awesome idea, especially if you can get a few ppl to chip in on one. ive always found stuff like fitted crib sheets, diapers, tylenol, thermometers, humidifer - i'm kind of practical - to be some great gifts. as stinkin' cute as new baby clothes are i think everyone tends to give those as gifts.. so maybe try something different?
Well, it was nearly 10 years ago that I had a baby shower (yikes! LOL) but when I did have the shower, this was my best gift ever:
http://www.thefirstyears.com/product...1?locale=en_US
It was a little portable-like change pad thing that you could lay down on a public change table. It has a pouch for baby wipes and another side pocket to store a fresh diaper or two. Awesome. I loved it so much that whenever friends became newly pregnant, I always bought them one of those. :)
At my shower my favourite gifts were:
-baskets of meds etc (Infant Tempra, orajel, gripe water, ovol, etc). As a first time parent I NEVER thought of buying that stuff. It's nice to have it on hand just in case!
-crib sheets! At the time I didn't think much of it but my mom bought me about 5 really cute crib sheets. They have been well used! Of course you think of buying lots of clothes, burp clothes, swaddling blankets but not sheets. So handy to have extra's in case of accidents (pee, throw up, etc).
-Homemade Quilt - so cute, warm and a great keepsake for later
-Womb bear, my son LOVES his.
I went to a shower this past weekend for my SIL and she got a wooden rocking chair! GREAT idea. It was by far the best present. My other SIL is having her shower next month and is now hoping she gets one too. lol.
My favourite was my Angelcare monitor. It has given me a lot of piece of mind and the ticking sound it makes puts me to sleep at night.
Large flannel receiving blankets, medicines and a high chair that straps to my kitchen table chair (impossibly small kitchen, total space saver) make my list of great shower gifts I received.
i have one of those high chairs! :top: best ever! it was my daughters and my son uses it now. best thing i ever boughtQuote:
Originally Posted by Pinkflowergirl86
Oh WOW-lots of great ideas guys!!! Thanks so much for contibuting, keep the ideas coming if you can...
my favourite gift at my shower was the baby bjorn - my kid lived in that thing... more expensive then most gifts but well used and stood up to its quality.
Now im expecting my second and my sis is throwing a shower again for my family and im having a hard time knowing what i need... (well find out gender hopefully tomorrow) so that could change, but i would love supperworks gift cards to help the ease with two young ones
I had a high chair like that too, it was great. I've also made a diaper cake (if someone non-crafty like me can do it, anyone can!), and the recipient was thrilled, thought I'd bought it like that! They're great if you mix up several brands/sizes of diapers so that the new parents can try several to see what works.Quote:
Originally Posted by krysta lynne
Best thing we received as a gift - Robeez! I would never have spent $30 on little shoes, but after we tried them I realized these were amazing little shoes. The knockoff ones aren't nearly as good, and the real deal is durable. When my DS outgrew them they were still in fabulous condition, so I sold them on Kijiji for about half the value of new ones. Most importantly, they stay on the kid's foot so you don't lose them easily.
Funny story about Robeez. One day in winter, I got home with DS in his stroller and was missing one of the darned shoes (I think it was actually in a pocket and it fell out). I never did throw out the other, hoping that it would get found. At least a month or two later, we'd had some rain and much of the snow had melted. As we're walking home, DS start pointing, excitedly saying, "Shoe! Shoe!" I was like, what the heck are you talking about? Sure enough, on top of a partially melted snowbank, there was the shoe! I took it home and washed it up a bit, and it was as good as new. :)
I'm expecting our first child, due in September. I added a few things from this list to my buy for baby list. Thanks
My fave was definitely a homemade patchwork baby quilt made by one of the university students I was tutoring.
Others - 'large' flannel blankets my mom made; hand-knitted bonnet and sweater (not made by the giver, but the ladies from the hospital auxiliary at a hospital where my sister worked - our son looked SO sweet in it, it was mint green and white, such soft material).
A bunting bag (what we called it anyway) - like a little sleeping bag, kinda. Our son was born just as winter started, so this was plenty warm and easy to take him around in. Didn't need or use the furry tiny snowsuit we got... but it sure was cute!
LOVE the idea of the assorted basket of things which lola mentioned - I'll definitely use that in the future as a gift idea.
Oh oh, something else! My brother gave me a book called, "The Happiest Baby on the Block." Had SO many great tips, the biggest one for us was how to swaddle. You don't need a fancy, expensive swaddling blanket with velcro to do it, you need a really big receiving blanket or two good-sized ones that are overlapped on the edge to make a big one.
mine are much older now but i know alot of young moms and the word on the street is the following
'jerry/jenny' the giraffe a plastic $$ giraffe that kids can chew on
mei teis' (not a drink) a wrap mom can wrap babies in til they are toddlers
photo shoots for that special occasion
maid for a day/week whatever
meals provided that mom or can pop in the oven (maybe a GC from a company in your area)
a swing (thats open at the top)
btw for the mom who said crib sheets. great tip.. put two on . one on each side. if baby has a blow out or is sick. take off sheet throw in wash turn mattress over and voila new fresh sheet. great especually in the middle of the night. (hubby can help out here if necessary to turn it over)
an RESP started/ bank account in their name.
IMO, easier if you just put on another mattress pad and another sheet on top of the first set. When a mess happens, just peel off the first layer and you have a clean second layer.Quote:
Originally Posted by MrsSunshine
We have Sophie the giraffe and DS loves it. They are pricey at $20-$25, but the kids love them. Although they do squeak like a dog toy and it drives our dog nuts! lol.Quote:
Originally Posted by MrsSunshine
Great tip on the crib sheet! Never thought to put one on each side. Much easier than changing it in the middle of the night, generally with only one hand! :top:
I love the meals idea too! My Step MIL made meals for us for a week after we got out of the hospital and it was sooo helpful not to have to worry about dinner or eat fast food. I loved it!
my favourite was a set of small watercolour paintings made by DD's godmother (good friend of mine who's artistically inclined) with pregnant me and toddler-imagined DD dressed and drawn as fairies :) I'm still looking for the right frame for these so I can properly put them in DD's room. Same person also gave us a Star Trek onesie, perfect for our geeky family :)
In terms of a store-bought gift, it would be the Fisher Price Ocean Wonders light-up seahorse. DD uses this every night to go to sleep (we love it!). Also our BabyBjorn, it'll get a lot more use once the nice weather hits.
when I've given gifts at showers I always do an assorted basket of practical stuff (diapers, wipes, toiletries, an outfit etc.) unless I really know the mom well and know something more particular she'd want.
I like the basket of meds idea, when I had DD I had to scramble to buy infant tylenol, gripe water, nasal aspirator etc.
We didn't have a shower for either LO (didn't want one) but one of my favorite gifts was a wipes warmer. We hadn't bought one as we thought it was too much of a "splurge" item but it was great to receive as a gift (and it was easy to sell on kijiji when we were done with it). Also, we received lots of clothes but one friend bought an outfit for DD#1 that was size 2. It was neat to look at the outfit and think "I can't imagine her ever fitting into this" and then look back on that day when she did fit into it! She did the same for DD#2.
I did receive some toiletries both times but I was pretty particular about what brands I was using so those eventually got tossed. Something to think about!
The last time I bought a baby gift I filled a gift bag with my favorites and will do the same with the next one (with a couple changes). Some of my ideas are:
bibs, sleepers (Costco ones are great and cheap), wash clothes, hooded towels, receiving blankets - you can never have enough of this stuff!
white noise CD
Sophie the Giraffe (and a "sophie leash" from etsy)
Winkle Ball (from TRU - best toy for little hands)
a favorite children's book (Sandra Boynton ones are fun!)
crayon roll (with paper pad inside), mitten clips (more etsy finds) - for when they're older
Hmm well I'll share some things that we loved having for our boys, and some things I wish we had. I second Sophie the Giraffe, she's a bit expensive, but a lot of kids really enjoy her, I know both my boys loved her and she was great for teething too.
One thing that is hard to just go buy at the store is proper soother clips. The only ones I've found at most stores are ones that attach to the soother with velcro. So as soon as baby gets a bit bigger, they are constantly ripping the soother off the velcro. But there are a lot of Etsy sellers who sell nice ones that snap on!
Also "leashes" to keep toys on! When you've picked a toy off the ground 10 times and you don't want to take it away because it'll result in the meltdown of the century, you start to really wish you had one of these! lol
Oh also someone bought me a little kit for baby with nail clippers, thermometer, nasal aspirator, etc. (I know Wal-Mart sells these) - it was great! Especially with the first baby, you don't really think you'll need to get this right away, but boy it comes in handy when sickness suddenly hits! It's great to throw in some baby Tylenol too, I think everyone needs that sometimes, and it sucks if your baby gets sick in the middle of the night and you don't have any!
hmm maybe thats what I did.. put two sheets on one side instead. been awhile i just remember things being easier as I had somehow had two on it.
i bought this for myself but loved it. not really having a regular babysitter for evenings, if we went out for dinner we took the kids. this kept baby happy and occupied for long enough for us to enjoy a *quick* meal :) the great thing is they cant throw the toys on the floor. i dont think this model is available new anymore but im sure there is a replacement. i even used it at the cottage and friends houses.
http://www.netbaby.co.za/product_ima...749__98899.jpg
also with both of my boys i bought nice soothing sounds alarm clocks. they switch between thunder, heavy rain and waves. it worked so well with baby #1 that we bought another one for baby #2 so now they each have one.
UPDATE-Here is a pic of the "bouquet" of baby clothes. I chose 2 little shirts, 2 pairs of flared leg pants and a pair of velvet pink skinny jeans. They are rolled into the buds along with some fake roses. I ended up getting the Sophie Giraffe and will give it along with this. Thanks so much for all you suggestions, it was a hard desicion but all your wonderful suggestions were truly appreciated -thanks again!
Wow, that looks gorgeous!!! Fantastic job, and I am sure they will love it (those clothes sound SO adorable, makes me pine a little for a baby girl lol!)
oh that's gorgeous :) I'm sure it will go over well, I would've loved to get something like this at my shower :)
My fav gift was a caddy for the change table. I love how everything we need for a diaper change is within reach and organized.