Best present you got from a friend after having a baby?

[ovumahead]

My friend gave birth today to a much wanted baby. I'm so so happy for her. She lives over 2 hours away, so no chance of popping round once she gets home (not that she'd necessarily want me to!). I want to send her something special to mark the occasion but don't know what... Any suggestions? What were the best gifts you received from friends? I know I don't have to get her anything but I want to..

I liked practical presents best, things like a grobag, a nice changing bag etc and I loved some vouchers that we got, one for the first pair of shoes from a really good independent shoe shop, one for a ceramic shop where you can get baby footprints etc and one for a newborn photographer session, it was a deal so included a couple of prints x

Oops apologies for the x, I don't normally do random kisses but you do seem nice lol.

If she is breast feeding then the best present is cake! Lots of cake.

Was going to say that our best present was a full cooked roast dinner for the family, delivered piping hot. Bit hard to do from 2 hours away though.
All of Amandatanen's ideas sound lovely though the ones that last would appeal to me, especially the footprints one :)

Food. Send an online shop?

Do not get clothes!

A really good breast feeding pillow.
Vouchers for bigger ticket items.
Meals they don't have to cook.
Books for the baby- some classic stories.

Lovely ideas all!

What is a really good breastfeeding pillow?

My friend sent me a make-up bag filled with tinted lip balm, vaseline, body spray, moisturiser, hand cream, shower gel, headband, toothapste and toothbrush anf miniature perfume.

It was like heaven in a make-up bag. Love her

A small bottle of gin and a can of tonic. I received lots of lovely parcels but that's the one that sticks in the mind the most (and was greatly appreciated ). Chocolate will go down well too. Breastfeeding requires a lot of chocolate IME.

Chocolate and an Amazon gift voucher... for the first time I was in when they delivered and you can get ago much stuff on there, for mum and baby! I was given a lovely breastfeeding top too that I wore to death.

I'm normally an intensely practical person but the loveliest present I got was a fleece blanket, on which my friend had had a picture of my dogs printed.

Sounds weird but we are both dog mad and my mutts are quite elderly, so DD will probably only just remember them when she's older. It made me sob! I didn't use it for fear of wrecking it, but DD is now allowed to have it occasionally and she absolutely adores it (mutts still with us, and she loves them to bits).
So - impractical but personal meant the world to me.

Best present I received was a bottle of Bacardi!!

An online shop: mini bottles of wine, a takeaway style meal for 2, pudding, chocolate, magazines, bread milk and loo roll is my idea of the perfect present.
Lin reality the best thing we had was stacking cups. Played with every single day and still going strong 2 and a half years later. Whatever you buy, don't buy clothes and think ahead to six months plus.

I got some Aden & Anais muslins and loved them, I'm still using them 2 years later. So pretty and really nice to get something that is a bit of a luxury, that you wouldn't necessarily buy for yourself.

Also got a lovely dummy pot that I used forever and loved.

What on earth is a dummy pot??

Like a little pot you put a dummy in when it's in your bag...dummy holder? Not sure what the correct term is

We got so many lovely gifts for dd when she was born but the best one was the box of posh chocolates with a little note on that said "Just for mummy"

A good pillow is a boppy or a breast friend.

Sushi and champagne!

Gorgeous Clarins handcream was another great gift.

For the baby, a Little White Company sleeping bag and an Imprints vouchers for John Lewis

Please avoid anything relating to breastfeeding until you are certain she is successfully managing it and planning to continue. As someone who tried very hard but couldn't manage to breastfeed (and was pretty emotional about the whole thing) such a present would have been like a kick in the teeth! Lots of other lovely ideas on here, though.

I did a little hamper for my friend recently;

Chocolate, sweets, cake & popcorn
Lip Balm
Hand Cream
Nice Shower Gel
Dry shampoo

For baby;

Dummy
Infacol
Hairbrush and nail clippers
Metanium
Nice all in one type body wash
Hand made blanket

I think that an M&S dine in, COOK meal or a cleaning voucher would all go down well too.

Do not get clothes!

Shit, I always give clothes for new babies. I always get the size up from newborn though, thinking that they'll have loads of newborn stuff and mine will come in handy later.

Have I been pissing off all my friends with babies?

My fried organised meal drops for me - someone brought around dinner for us and the toddler every day for 2 weeks. They didn't stay and chat or visit - they just dropped amazing food and left.

Best thing ever.

Give them a Cook voucher if you're not local enough for this?

Lots of people buy 3-6 months clothes and it's mainly impractical outfits rather than practical sleep suits.

One of my friends made up a kind of hamper with fresh fruit, chocolate, smoothie and a bottle of wine, as well as a lovely handcream. That was brilliant.

Best gift we received for DD2 was a small thermos flask for food. So thoughtful. We used it from newborn for hot cloths during night changes and now that the baby is on solids it's great when we're travelling.