Best first time mum to be gift

[BlueBalloon18]

So my best friend is expecting her first (don't know the sex). I'm looking at doing her a hamper for gifts for her baby shower but I don't want to get her the same old rubbish as everyone else.
What was the best gift/ buy you had for your newborn? What could you not of lived without? If you were to do it again what would be your first and most essential buy?

Klorane under eye patches were used immediately
Cachemire baby blanket was used every day
after that, all I wanted was food, cakes and more cakes :)

You could do a newborn survival kit. I've done this for a couple of friends having their first baby. Basically, it's a few things that you don't know you need until you need them.

Braun ear thermometer
Metanium nappy cream
Calpol (for the first vaccinations)
Plug in night light
Sudocreme
A big bar of the new mum's favourite chocolate
Lansinoh nipple cream
V cushion (bog standard cheap one, I borrowed a fancy breastfeeding one for DC3 and thought it was rubbish)
Karvol
Bath thermometer
Big cotton wool pads
Hand cream (always had really dry hands due to all the extra hand washing)
Lavender and tea tree essential oils (12 drops in a shallow bath aid healing stitches)
Flash wipes (to bring to hospital and for the loo at home)

I give all this stuff before the baby arrives then after the birth bring home made lasagne, meatballs in tomato sauce and chilli for the freezer and a home make cake.

None of this is particularly cute or pretty but the parents will get loads of that from everyone else and these things are not thought usually thought beforehand but will be far more valuable in the long run.

Not sure what your budget is, but a sling is a must have for a newborn ime. Maybe go halves with someone if it's more than your budget.

Other than that, something like tea suggests but I'd add a thermos mug, dry shampoo, nice BF friendly pjs.

You sound like a lovely friend.

YY to thermal mug. Or she may never drink hot tea again. Make it a good travel mug (I would regularly chuck mine under the buggy on the way to a baby group and smugly drink it when I got there). Yummy chocs. My HV maintains that some good quality chocolate at 4pm is proven to help milk production so I always took my medicine... Ditto flapjacks, oats are supposed to help with milk but are also genius for energy levels. Hand cream and hand sanitizer. Giant muslins. If you can stretch to it, some beautiful loungewear as I spent most of my days on the sofa receiving visitors/feeding so it was nice to have something PJ-like that wasn't actually PJs to wear.

Also I had a CS both times, and a good nursing cushion plus peppermint tea for the awful wind and arnica for the bruising were godsends.

For a spring summer baby a giant muslin has sooooo many uses.

I always give new parents vouchers for housecleaning. . .

Don't get any johnsons rubbish. I have enough to last ds until he's about ten. Plus loads of babies are allergic. I'd say sleepsuits and vests, bibs, nappies, muslins...all the boring essentials that nobody else wants to buy. She'll be thankful!

She'll get so many presents for the baby so maybe get something just for her too. I loved having really luxurious shower gel, L'occitane mama et bebe lotion which I used on my bump and my favourite chocolates. I think people sometimes forget to spoil the mum-to-be when she's the one doing the hard work of growing and then giving birth to the baby.

Get her vouchers for a cleaner, or some Cook meals, or a laundry service. Far more useful than yet another sleep suit or muslin

My friend did me a mini toiletry bag, filled with travel sized toiletries - was really nice to have a bit of luxury when staying over in the hospital, and i've used it loads since.

The gift I always remember with awe and gratitude was an enormous, delicious chocolate, cherry and cream cake. It was from a proper seriously good cake-shop, and I think it could have fed most families for about 6 months... but since it was made with fresh cream, I had to eat it in about a week. Which made the through-the-night feeding much, much nicer

By far my best gift was a camelbak water bottle. Breastfeeding makes me very thirsty and it's terrible to be pinned to the sofa for hours by a feeding/sleeping baby without being able to fetch yourself a drink. The camelback doesn't spill so you can have it beside you on the sofa no matter which side you're feeding on without having to worry about having tables in the right places for glasses of water.

We got inundated with clothes for DD. They were all very lovely but to be honest with young babies all you really need is a couple of packs of sleepsuits and not really fancy outfits (they only get poo, sick on, etc).

Things that I really appreciated was food. Cooking felt impossible with a baby that didn't want to leave my side so some decent ready meals were a life-saver (double bonus if you can get things that can be eaten with only one hand). Also I appreciated the people who bought cake! I was bf and bloomin' hungry.

Oh and I love the cleaning voucher idea mentioned up-thread.

Nice thermos cup- the only way for a new mum to enjoy a hot drink!!

Tea tree oil or lavender oil are a great idea. I was hugely thanked by a friend for giving her some at her baby shower. Chocolates & a lovely bunch of flowers went down very well here!

Chocolate, cake and more chocolate. Best presents ever.