Best gift for new parents

[LuckyFlash]

Hello! Not a mum here (yet) but one of my best friends is about to give birth and I want to canvas some ideas of the best gift to buy. She has told me that she’s dreading an influx of clothes the baby can’t wear so I want to steer clear of that. They live in a small flat so want to avoid toys or anything too big.

Ideally I’d like to get something little for the baby and then focus on something for her and her partner to make them feel special. Budget is around £50.

What would you have really wanted post birth?

Hand cream (you'll never wash your hands as much)
Flowers
Lasagne/shove in the oven dinners x 5 or as many as you can carry
Soup
Cake
Nice drinks (whether breastfeeding or not, thirst is wild)
A special teddy
If you do want to buy clothes, 3-6 month envelope vests and baby grows are always useful
Nice jammies for Mum? Bed socks too. Great for the early am feeds

PS you sound like a lovely caring friend

I always give a baby cushion - name and dob on the cushion. Costs around £30 and I still treasure my 2 cushions. Other really useful present is a washbag for the baby - Cologne and Cotton do lovely ones.

I agree with the clothes - babies grow so quickly. I saved some clothes for "best" - "best" never happened and then DC had grown out of the clothes!

Bottle of wine
Nice biscuits/chocolate
Nice PJ's for mum
Cook/hello fresh box or voucher for takeaway

I genuinely appreciated vouchers more than anything for baby - we were swamped with clothes and baby blankets. Vouchers came in really handy at about 6 months when we needed new clothes and the gifts dried up! I'm not sentimental so anything like that is wasted on me!

I got given a Proud Mama box from a friend and I thought it was fab. It is full of sensory things for the baby like rattles, ribbons, feathers, light wand and bubbles. They are all brightly coloured, and different shapes and textures so when DS was really young he just like the colours and noises, and now he is 6 months he can actually play with the items. They all fit nicely into a smallish box which is even better as we are short for space too

Also agree with either food pre-prepared or some sort of voucher or food box!

www.cookfood.net/menu/meal-bundles/new-parents

Best gifts I received were... ready meals or meal vouchers (Cook), personalised items like teddy/towel/blanket/bib with baby's name on, and memento things- babygro with 'born in lockdown' on it and a book of 'letters to the baby' that you write in once a month or once a year (can't remember). My fave was a combination of a lasagne plus a personalised item. But really, after a baby (I'm 2 weeks post partum) all I really wanted was sleep... so offering to hold the baby while they nap or shower is a good shout too. You sound like a really good friend.

We got given these for each of my Dc, which I liked www.notonthehighstreet.com/elizabethjane/product/baby-hand-and-foot-inkless-print
We also got some pretty night lights.

Anything edible! Honestly 99% of people brought stuff for the baby when he arrived but the best gifts were those who came over and cooked us food or turned up bearing nutritious meals we could just chuck in the oven.

We ended up eating so much rubbish because we didn't know how long it would be before the baby woke up agian, so having meals which involved no prep work was amazing.

If someone brought round a lasagne or similar to me now I would love them forever! Hello fresh etc vouchers is also a fab idea. I completely underestimated how hard it is to cook with a newborn. I know it’s not a fun ad baby clothes shopping but it would probably be more appreciated.

We got loads of outfits and at 4 weeks I haven’t used any of them because I can’t face wrestling DS into anything more than a vest.

Someone bought me a White Company dressing gown before I have birth and it was such a wonderful gift.
I had a winter baby and having a really fluffy, luxurious dressing gown meant a lot.
Someone also happened to give me Jo Malone body and hand wash they didn't want - the lime basil and mandarin one. It wasn't a baby gift but baths were about the only thing I was able to do for 'me' for a while and it felt so good to have a bright, fragrant grown up scent to use.
I don't think clothes are the best gift for a baby. The Galt pop up toy is sweet and they play with it at lots of different stages.
Someone gave me a Duplo trainset that was obviously useless for a newborn but the gift giver said there would be a rainy day when baby was older where it would come in useful and she was so right.
I've never known anyone do this in real life but I've heard a story about someone who booked a cleaner to do a deep clean of the house when baby was about 8 weeks old as a gift and mmmmm that sounds dreamy.

Oh and COOK company do a week of meals for new parents! Great idea.

White company cellular blankets are brilliant

Any idea if she’s planning to breast feed? Someone made me a “birth and breastfeeding survival kit” which had things in it like soothing compresses for after labour, hot and cold gel breast compresses, a water bottle you can flip open with one hand, an insulated cup for hot drinks, lanisoh cream, beautiful Aden + Anais muslinS, some nice chocolates etc. It was such a lovely thoughtful gift and it was for me, not the baby, which was also lovely.

Thank you so much for all your suggestions, what wonderful ideas! I’m definitely going to look into lots of these (and get batch cooking 😀). Much appreciated x

One Line A Day: A Five-Year Memory Book www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0811870197/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_D8fhFbHH6Y9XH?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

I was given one of these when my twins were born and have written in it every day since. I’m now on book 2, and love looking back at all the memories It holds. Best gift ever.

One of my favourite friends turned up at the door with a homemade quiche and an M&S meal deal with wine, the best thing ever was that she didn't expect to come in and snuggle the baby she just wanted to drop at the door. (We did insist she came in for a quick visit) Same friend brought a lovely book for DD at the same time which seemed pointless has been read affectionately many times now that said baby is nearly 4
Nice hand cream and soap is also a luxury, my hands were red raw after all the washing and sterilising after expressing.

A friend sent us a box of fancy different flavoured chocolate brownies (delivery service to our door), they were amazing and definitely the favourite gift we received!