Ideas please for very special pamper box

[Toooldtobearsed]

My lovely DiL is due to give birth to a little girl just before Christmas. It seems as though everyone is buying them baby things for Christmas gifts this year, but I want to do something just for her.
She plans to bf, so booze is out always the first thing I buy
so up until now all I can think of are lovely smellies (I am not a smellies person, so recommendations please), posh chocs, glossy magazines - should these be baby related, or a world away from babies?

I really want to make it special for her, so any new mums, what would you have loved? And anyone who has done this before - help!

Bubble bath, moisturiser, smelly candles, a lovely wrap/pashmina, a hot water bottle (for cold night feeds - I used to leave a hot one wrapped up in towels so I could just pick it up already hot when the baby woke), warm socks....please can I be your DiL???

Oh you sound so lovely. I would go for really lightweight non baby magazines. I loved using my thermal mug so that drinks stayed warmed when I made them at the start of a feed and forgot until the end. Maybe an iTunes voucher for a trashy programme or film to watch? Or a hard copy version of the same. I loved a little bit of nail varnish when I could get the time to do it. Made me feel less like a feeding machine! And I liked something nice to keep my hair back when feeding. Any of these work as suggestions?

I love Hotel Chocolat Christmas chocolates :)

Fabulous! Thank you so much! Am eyeing Flop and Only suspiciously.....are you my DiL?

She does feel the cold, so hot water bottle and pashmina brilliant and she does have long hair which will need tying back.

Socks, thermal mug and Hotel Chocolate will definitely make an appearance. And, as I suspected, none baby mags

Thank you - you are stars

This is such a lovely idea.. you're so thoughtful
I was in asda today and in the baby toiletry section they had a range of coco butter products for mums..one of them was tummy lotion and it looked good. Mamas and paps also do nice fancy new mum gifts and gift sets and they wrap them up lovely for you.
Good idea about the nail stuff Guru.. made me think maybe you could get her a voucher for a nice manicure that she can use when the baby comes to make her feel good..somewhere near by if it was possible. Same goes for a voucher for a wash and blow dry...she can always keep them for the first time she goes out after she has the baby.
With regards to smellies...just go into lush they have it all worked out.
Boots have their 3for2 pressies in stock now too so you could also get some smellies there. Hope this helps

If I could make one suggestion looking at others' comments, perhaps get one of those microwaveable warmer thingies rather than an old-school hot water bottle - so much less faff and you can do it with one hand which is always helpful when you have a baby.

Will have a think for other suggestions.

Off the top of my head, does she have a kindle? If not that would be a great gift for the breast feeding days. A kindle and an amazon e voucher would have made me very happy as a new mother.

Of course she needs the mumsnet book on parenting, what's it called? Apologies if not knowing the title makes me a terrible mumsnetter

My bffs did something similar for me and part of it was a pair of tiny silver stud earrings that I could just leave in all the time while too distracted and knackered to think about jewelery. I've still got them 14 years later and they'll always have that nice association with a special time.

What a lovely idea.

I recieved a Sanctuary Mum To Be smelly set which is lovely leaves my skin so soft.
Maybe some decaf coffee and tea and some nonalcoholic wine. I buy sainsburys brand Rose its actually quite nice and I like to pretend hehe.
Some maternity feeding tops maybem they have a 2 pack in george Asda and all of the above of course Hotel Chocolat. Yum!
I bet she will love everything in her hamper.

Brilliant ideas, thank you!

I have been out this afternoon, and been online and so far, my haul is;

Lush gift set (luscious you), microwave hot bottle, Hotel Chocolat gift box, fur lined slipper socks, a pashmina.

I will buy some decaf coffee and some special hot chocolate, and closer to the time buy some magazines.

I have rung her hairdresser, but they do not do gift vouchers, so have arranged for her to have a cut, blow dry and manicure when she is ready and lovely hairdresser will ring me to pay

We are delivering meals to them for the first two weeks (stocking my freezer now) and are delivering a four course Christmas dinner for them both.

Now I need to think of DH.... After I have 'done' the dogs

Thank you all so much for the help, much appreciated!

• Luscious Spa, not You!

I'd also add some warm pjs, toasty slippers/socks and dressing gown.

Lovely idea

She has approximately 900 pairs of PJ's

Might suggest a lovely cosy dressing gown to my DS2 ( her BiL) would be a lovely present.

I wish you were my MIL. That is all.

I love this lady! My MIL is wonderful too as is my mum x

I would suggest anything from the white company, they do lovely wonderful smelly things, comfortable things and I bet they will go down a storm!

Forgot - I got 2 thermal mugs too! Just looking at something for hair, then I am done!
And broke

I'd do baby stuff too to be honest, that was absolutely all I was interested in for the first few weeks, I wouldn't have wanted candles in case I was so tired I left them burning and nothing on earth would have made me leave him to go for a manicure or similar. I remeber bursting into tears when someone gave me babysitting vouchers (after they had gone home, not to their face). Yes to homey stuff like thermal mugs, non-trip slippers, short dressing gown (long was a trip hazard on the stairs carrying baby).

The Espa soothing candle is beautiful.

Hello! re dressing gown - i bought my DD a soft fleecy bed jacket to wear in in bed to bf.

You are just wonderful OP X

if your looking for hair things if she straightens there are hair straighteners run by batteries there amazing for quick fixes

Or anything keretese x try I'm fabulous they have so many deals online you get amazing amounts for your money x they usually have freebies

God sorry lookfantastic

I hope to god look fabulous did not result in an awful amount of something

Add the 'fat ladies' books. I think the first one is called fat ladies club and second one is Called facing the first 5yrs. Very funny and poignant stories from a group of NCT friends. I read both on first may leave and laughed loudly.

No! Is that the one with the tragic twist? I was devastated reading that after DC1 was born, it gave me nightmares, I so regretted reading it. Ignore me if that's not the one.

I would like some vouchers for naps and baths etc - e.g., you'll come over for the afternoon while I took a long bath or while I had a sleep, and no need to make conversation.

I would also have liked some vouchers to buy clothes that weren't mat clothes - though this is better a couple of months later (for her bday maybe).

Also I totally hate in theory all those 'I love my mummy' baby clothes etc but actually when my mil bought some for newborn dd it melted my heart.

And I would have loved something to mark the birth that was jewellery - e.g. a necklace or jewellery box or something with baby's name and dob - not on the high street have lots of this kind of thing.

And a boxset of something that didn't require a brain to watch - I got through the whole set of gossip girl which is shite but did the trick.

In the second book they talk about a tragedy that happens to one of them, yes.
Maybe just buy her the first book then?

It's not a twist as such as its all a true story. Very very funny and I found the second book good to read as a new mum. I think at least one of the group was a mumsnetter at some point.