Sometimes choosing a gift for new parents is so hard. With
such bountiful options out there, it really is so hard to narrow things down.
Even choosing gifts for yourself by registering is a daunting task. I remember
spending days with suggested lists of products from Babies R Us, Target, and
Walmart. I made an Excel spreadsheet with columns for items I’d chosen,
different patterns for the linens, a column to categorize according to level of
need, and one for what store they come from. I called family and friends to ask
for suggestions as to products that they love, wish they’d gotten, or bought
and never used. It was traumatizing. What if I didn’t get the right swing?
Should I get a walker, a stationary activity station, an activity mat? All
three? None? I think it took me half an hour to decide which pacifiers to
register for.
Sometimes I wish I were more like my husband. His “hey, this
one looks good” method is too quick and easy for me. Too stress-less. Every
time I try to follow is quick pick lead, an endless stream of questions come to
mind: “Do I really need this? Do I need more than one? Is this too expensive?
Is it too cheap? Does this have the best color design? Will the baby like it?”
Will the baby care what design it on her bib? Absolutely
not. Does that stop me from spending longer than I’m comfortable admitting
picking them out? You know it doesn’t.
Now that I’ve been through it, buying gifts for our friends
who are new parents has become a whole different experience. Now that I’m a
mother, I have experienced a sampling of the plethora of products out there; I
should just give them my favorite, the one I couldn’t live without, the one I
never would have thought to buy had it not been gifted to me. There are still
too many to choose!
Do I go with Sophie, la giraffe? Arguably the best baby
teether out there. She was one of the first toys Lily could hold on to herself.
She has lasted the test of baby chewing, pulling, throwing, and squeezing. To
top it all off, she’s French! What more could this maman ask for? We actually have two: one that still squeaks, and
one that I accidentally messed up by submerging with water and ruined her
squeaker. (This is now our church Sophie.)
What about the washable liners that lay out on the changing
table? On those days when we had 3 blowout diapers, and my washing machine just
couldn’t keep up, these pads could easily be tossed in the laundry basket and
changed out without having to replace the cover for the changing pad and
without breaking the bank. You could have a pack of three of these changing pad
liners for less than the price of one extra changing pad cover. A definite
necessity.
Or maybe I should give the swaddler? I was always a terrible
swaddler. When I was post-C-section and relying on my husband to change diapers
and even after we’d come home and I was moving around a little more, I was
never very good at wrapping Lily in a blanket and getting it to stay wrapped.
He was a master. The nurse showed him how she did it, and he could always get
it to stay wrapped nice and comfily. I, on the other hand, relied on the
swaddler – the one baby product that we made fun of during the registering
process. “How silly looking! It makes the baby look like she’s in a cocoon.”
For a parent of an infant who won’t sleep unless tightly swaddled, the swaddler
was one of the best gifts I received! Swaddling is also the safety way to keep
babies warm while sleeping as it’s not recommended to leave them with loose
blankets in the cribs as infants.
(This is Lily in her swaddler and her way too big hat at about 5 days old.)
Decisions decisions…
One really cool thing that we did at school for a coworker
who had a baby this month is a dinner calendar. Everyone took a day (or two)
and signed up a certain meal to provide for dinner for their family for the
last two months of school. New parents have SO much to worry about; the last
thing a mother needs to spend time thinking about is what she and her husband
will eat for dinner. Cooking for me was one of the BEST ways my family and
friends supported me in the weeks after Lily was born. So we all signed up, and
4 days after his baby girl was born when our colleague returned to work, he was
greeted with a calendar and the following poem:
Congratulations
to your family
on your
beautiful baby girl!
No doubt she
will be the center
of your
forever-changed world.
So you can
focus on sweet ________,
your
adorable beginner,
and to make
your lives a little easier,
we are
preparing several dinners.
We send you
lots of love,
and we wish
you little fatigue.
We hope
you’ll enjoy these meals
prepared by
your friends and colleagues.
Much love,
your friends
at _______
What is your favorite thing to give as a baby gift? Or what
was your favorite gift someone gave you when you became a parent?
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