a friend has just had twins; best present for £40-ish?

[BellaBear]

one boy, one girl. what do you think would be a lovely present to get (not clothes)? any input gratefully received, don't want to spend more than £40.

(usual baby present is a personalised small taggies blanket, could get two of these perhaps)

what about those footprint/handprint plaque things ? Don't know if they do double versions etc.

Whatever you get, make it something different for each child, not two identical items (speaking as a twin, here!). It doesn't matter too much if it's two similar things in different colours, but just enough to treat them as individuals.

Oh, and getting one item between them would be worse!

I would get a small tgoken present and then food for her to heat up.

sorry, should add I need something that can be sent direct and ordered online!

Thanks for suggestions. She isn't really a handprint type person unfortunately. Def wouldn't get one item to share!

I like the personalised blanket idea. My twins had those and loved them! If they have their name on will always know whos is who.Let you know if I can think of anything different.

The one object I loved the most when my twins were babies was the EZ to nurse pillow! But not very gift-like...but if she doesn't have one, and she's breastfeeding, could be a godsend...it's about £40. A big foam pillow you strap around you. was sort of my best friend, I could feed the kids and eat supper with my plate on it as well...

Just thought-Hotel Chocolat or Flying Flowers do new baby gifts which can be ordered online and sent direct with a message if you wanted to send the mum something too!

try www.babyfish.co.uk - do v nice personalised gifts - had a canvas bag for my DD1 and we used it everyday for nursery as it had her name on it.

The best present I had when my DTs were born was 3 frozen Sophie Conran pies. Could be cooked from frozen, so DH and I only needed one hand to turn the oven on and throw them in .

PS - got boy and girl twins of 11 weeks and nobody bought them the bags which i would have liked!

best present i got was a nursery/my room wall clock which meant i could look and see how long it had been since the last feed as i staggered out of bed!!! that and the twins loved the ticking sound. practical AND pretty. a nice night light was also a great present. anything that makes those nighttime feeds more comfortable

great, thanks for all suggestions!

slow cooker

Great for keeping food warm all day (and night!) so she can grab some when she can.... also good for weaning foods when they get a bit older.

The most brilliant thing we got when the twins were born was vouchers for Blooming Marvellous - it was soooo nice to be able to choose lovely things.

If you don't like the idea of vouchers, you could buy a biiiiig playmat - we made the mistake of buying a normal size one which was fine for all of about 4 weeks. Then we had to buy this and it's lasted us right up to 13 months (the twins refuse to sit on it now - too busy crawling).

Vouchers is a good idea so then your friend can choose what she really likes or needs. Or the taggies blankets is a lovely idea, my DD has one and loves it.

I bought my mum that playmat too when she had her twins 3 years ago they used it up until they were about 18 months it is big enough for twins and it ahs lots if interesting things for them to do!

It was then passed on to me and I used it for a year and now my Aunt has it for her twins so is very durable!!!

Conveniently, is just under £40 too

Honnestly, the best thing anyone did for me when the DTS were tiny was, like tkband3, provide easy meals! Difficult to do from online, though. As a second choice, Boots/Mothercare vouchers were the most useful thing.

The best thing I got was cake. Seriously, the flowers (heaps of them - the babies were IVF and I'd had a scary pregnancy so people were really kind and generous) ended up lying in buckets as we ran out of vases and we got given tonnes of babygrows and tiny socks that barely got used. However, the cake was a godsend - really useful for breastfeeding as I craved carbs. I'd also really recommend dropping round some food (a nice lasagne, fish pie, cottage pie - anything easy and wholesome). When my friend's (singleton) baby was born I sent her cakes and dropped around a vat of homemade soup and a shepherd's pie for her freezer as I remember how thankful I had been for wholesome food that I didn't have to cook. You won't have time, and there's something fairly depressing about a ready meal when you're trying to get over birth/caesarean and caring for newborn twins.

Congratulations to your friend.
Kx

Cake? Did someone mention Cake!!!

Well, I've sent off baby blankets for now, as I am not going to see her for at least a month, and I'm not close enough (geographically) to just pop round - it's a whole organised day of travel! But I will take food when I go to see her and her family