What's the best gift you received after giving birth?

[ReasonablyIntelligent]

Very good friend of mine has just had her first baby.
I'm sure she's been overwhelmed with baby blankets, muslins etc and I really want to give her a gift that is going to be really helpful.

I considered some kind of home help thing (12 hours of a local cleaners time or something) but that would require her having to take time to book it and she may not like someone being in her house.

Any suggestions?
Budget is maybe £100-200 but could go higher for something really handy!

A massive tray of brownies, honestly. It kept me going for a few days when I’d get starving in the night.

My Mil bringing is up tea for the first week! She was a godsend

Apart from a healthy baby (!) my best gift was a Sainsbury's bag full of pate and brie that my mum brought me!

Maybe you could send her round a takeaway a couple of times a week for the first few weeks? I know that would have been a godsend when mine were newborn. If she has a partner currently on paternity leave, do it when he goes back to work ...

A massive bar of chocolate and a copy of OK.
Brie, pate and a baguette. All for me.

A food hamper. I reminisce fondly about it months on and might buy myself one

I’d filled the freezer with healthy meals but for the first week after we got out all I wanted was grazing food. It had shortbread, posh popcorn, cake, crisps, amazing tea and coffee, all sorts of amazing things. I left bits all around the house and it saved us!

I’d absolutely hate having a cleaner but everyone’s different.

On muslins, we had loads but someone gave us a giant one that I used for swaddling for ages and was a god send.

Resist the urge to buy clothes, we had so many tiny beautiful dresses she’d grown out of them before I got a chance to use some of them.

Food. Get them posh snack food

Two weeks of home cooked meals.

My friend brought me a copy of Cosmo then she looked after the baby whilst I put my feet up and read it - one of the things I always look back and smile at :)

A homemade lasagne and coffees. My mother also stocked my freezer with easy cook meals.

I usually make a huge thing of flapjacks. Good for milk supply if she's breastfeeding, just a delicious snack if she's not. Either way it's a win! I really appreciated meals that people brought to us. Even better if they were in foil containers that we could just bin, rather than having to wash up and return dishes.

I think the cleaner idea is a fab one, but you know whether she'd be comfortable with that or not. A year's subscription for Netflix or Now TV if she doesn't have them already? Coffee shop vouchers? A Kindle? I wish I'd bought myself one as I spend lots of time breastfeeding at night with the lights off to encourage DS to go back to sleep easily, but no lights means I can't read my book so spend far too much time on my phone. If I had a kindle I'd read that instead. Alternatively, an Audible subscription if she's into books? Sometimes it's a good way to occupy yourself even if your hands are full.

I love my Tuppence & Crumble star wrap that someone bought me. They do a towel version and it's the handiest thing ever when I take DS swimming or to keep him snuggly post bath when the weather is cooler.

It would have been either food or a cleaner - both would have made me cry with gratitude

If you're wanting to spend a bit more I love our Baby Bjorn bouncer if she doesn't already have one. It was the only thing that enabled me to eat a meal without jiggling a baby on my knee for the first 3 months.

I'm a reasonable cook just can't be arsed in my own house so I was planning to either cook meals at my house and bring them over, or go around to hers and batch cook for her (her kitchen is new and bigger than my tiny galley thing).

I really wish someone had bought me a pare set of bedding for our bed. I feel like I can’t spend the money on me but I’m washing it way more often as I have milk sweats, leaks and the occasional bit of baby vom to contend with

Spare

Extra muslins (there were never quite enough) or decent meals we could just bung in the oven.

Rarely time to eat, let alone cook, and I was so exhausted that when I had a blessed moment of peace I just wanted to sleep!

And maybe a hand holding the baby while I went to the loo

My most useful present was a massive box of pampers size 2 nappies and a 20 pack box of Johnson’s wipes.

The gifter was a childless single friend in his late 20s and I was well impressed with how he got something that would absolutely get used and not another impractical frilly outfit.

The things I would have liked were;

Someone bringing me nice home cooked meals.
Someone trusted to help with housework.

Sadly I got neither!

Seriously, a meatball sub! My dh asked me what I wanted!

A thermometer! You don’t think to buy one until your baby is sick and then it’s the middle of night.

A spinner wheel that had half mum & half Dad round the segments. It solved all the whose turn is it for this nappy/feed/bath rows! (I eventually chucked it out after spinning mum 7 times in a row...)

My brilliant friend arrived at 7 every night with dinner. I don’t think it gets bette than that

A costco carrot cake. All for myself.

Food. Nursing pads, I had no idea how much I'd leak.

Not sure anyone will agree with me here but. My best friend is pregnant and I'm going to buy her a cocoonababy!

I only found out about these when my baby was about 3 weeks and HATED his Moses basket. As soon as it came it answered all my prayers and so much more. It's a genius invention and the one thing I rave about to anyone who will listen.

Bet my friend won't even know what one is