Your favourite baby item?

[Squish3]

Have a few friends expecting this year and I have a small baby myself so looking for some gift inspiration as well as some things that may be good for my own DS 🙂
What’s your one favourite item that you have for baby? Open to anything - something practical that makes your life easier/a toy they adore/a decor piece for their room/something a bit indulgent that you were given as a gift?

Give me some inspiration 😊

Honestly? The best thing I got was sleep bags. I love sleep bags. Don't have to ever worry about faffing about with blankets, or if baby is too hot or too cold at night. It's also a good signal it's time to sleep at nap time. I'm gifting one each to my pregnant co-workers. Since they're both having summer babies I've opted to give them the next age group up since, if we have another scorcher like we've had of recent years, they might not use them before they grow out of them.

I love the big cushion letters from Jonnys Sister. They're absolutely unecessary, but they look nice. www.jonnyssister.co.uk/#

On a practical note, Perfect Prep Machine has been I think the most useful thing.

Oh yeah, sleeping bags like PP says. Even if you have a little wriggler, they stay warm.

Tuppence and crumble star wrap!!

GAH. Stupid fat finger!

Anyway, as for toys, imo you can't go wrong with Lamaze. DD's personal favourites were Captain Calamari and Jacques the Peacock.

Our ergobaby sling. Comfy enough to use until DD was over 1, she slept like a dream in it, and public transport and muddy walks were easy and fun.

As a gift, Sophie la girafe always goes down well.

The sling! It’s the only thing my baby will nap in during the day and it means I can get on with things while he’s sleeping. It is so useful, and it’s lovely to carry him all snuggled up to me. We use it absolutely every day and totally rely on it.

@Dinosaursdontgrowontrees

Tuppence and crumble star wrap!!

I was racking my brain but this!

These things are always so personal. DD never used sleeping bags as she coslept from the 2nd night.

I would have liked someone to make me lovely food.

Mine aren’t very exciting,
Large Aiden and anais Muslin blankets that we used for swaddling,
Infacol (was a life saver with a colicky baby)
Lovely freezer meals (either homemade or from somewhere like ‘Cook’)
A nappy caddy that I kept by me at all times. It was especially useful when trapped under a breast-feeding baby, with the obvious nappies,wipes, change of baby clothes, muslin cloths etc but also headphones for me, a book, a bottle of water, some healthy snacks etc.
Comfy hoodies and leggings so I could be comfy but also fairly presentable if I had to answer the door, and it felt like I was dressed and not in pyjamas all day.

White noise Teddy e.g. Moony the rabbit, Baby Monitor, some nice Bibs & Muslins (my baby spat up 20 times a day and we never had enough!), sun visor for the buggy.

Yes!! This is all the things I like to hear 😊 I got so many gifts for DS that I was very grateful for but if I’m honest they were completely useless to me (hello, shirt and bow tie in 0-3 months 😳). Nice to hear that some of my “must haves” are the same as other people’s! Good route to go down for gifts then 👍🏻😊

@Dinosaursdontgrowontrees I have a T&C Star wrap for my DS and I adore it!! So well made too!! I love things from smaller companies too!

@Letsallscreamatthesistene ohhh I haven’t seen that company!! I’ve got my eye on one of the big velvet letters from Bettys Home for DSs room when we get it finished 😀

@Dyra Lamaze and Jellycat are my usual go tos for toys depending on what I’m looking for 👍🏻 Captain Calamari is a hit in this house too, along with Freddie the Firefly 😀

Other favourites of mine are my “Month Of Sundays” childhood journal. Completely indulgent but I adore the thought of it documenting DSs whole childhood rather than the first year or so like a lot of baby books!
Also his Isla and Fraser cable knit blanket...small brand and just the BEST quality 😍

Morrck car seat travel hoody. Expensive. But best gift I was given. I now buy it for new parents.

Early learning Centre light and roll drum. It was the most played with toy for both my dc and one of the only things I've kept. (They are 16 and 14 now). I used to buy it for all my expecting friends.

@MissingTheMoonlight The muslins I go through in a day is unreal 🤣👍🏻 Have a friend who had a baby a wee while before I had DS. When I was shopping for mine she told me “everyone will tell you you can never have enough muslins...don’t listen to them...I bought hundreds and DS is 5 months old and I still don’t know what I need them for! I’ve ever used them” 😳😳 I have no idea how she got by with none but I very gladly took her stash of unused muslins 🤣🤣

White noise machine (portable)

Agree with the Tuppence and Crumble star wrap and the Morrck carseat blanket - both of which I bought myself off marketplace as couldn't justify the cost, would have been lovely gifts (we did get other lovely gifts!)

Starlight projector, cheapy thing from lidl but she loves it.

Those sensory toys that are a wooden hoop with ribbons hanging down, we have a black and white one and a rainbow one. She enjoyed them when she was tiny and still likes them at 7 months old.

Plastic linky things that you can use to hook toys onto pram/ carseat/ extra on baby gym or in our house currently across a laundry basket that she likes to sit up in whilst I'm cooking in the kitchen. Great teethers too.

Theres a gorgeous small company called Rosa and Bo that do lovely Russian Doll type toys. I absolutely love our set, if I'm totally honest my baby isn't particularly fussed but I think they're lovely

Honestly: a digital thermometer. They will be so disappointed when they open it, but give it a year and they will be crying tears of appreciation. That and very soft, very stretchy loungewear for the new mum.

Bigger gifts: Baby Bjorn bouncer, love to dream swaddles, white/pink noise device with sensor (eg MyHummy), merino wool sleeping bag

Smaller gifts: bundler/nightgown, sleepsuit with zip (so much easier than poppers), matchstick monkey teether (DD loves it, very easy for young babies to hold), dribble bibs with poppers (not Velcro), nice muslins

NOT teddies, we got approximately 436 of the damn things, although we did get a "breathable" one which was a good idea

Milestone cards. Obviously you take photos of the baby all the time but I like(d) having the cards to mark the weeks/months, and made extra effort to get a decent photo on those days. Then I put all the milestone photos together for the first birthday.

Massive muslins in pretty prints! I loved these - best present !!

An extra long charging phone wire. Very useful for feeds!!!

A sling. Favourite item ever!!!

This is an interesting thread as so many of these I never used! Still have a drawer full of muslins as never used them (and still not sure what they’re for!). The thermometer is a good shout!

There is a company called Poorly Boo or something similar and I’d have appreciated their first aid kit. Everything in one handy place.

Peekaboo puzzle - if you can get some photos of the baby’s family (maybe from social media) you could get one of their puzzles made. They’re the shape puzzles for babies but underneath each shape is a photograph.

I always buy the Tomy eggs toy as baby presents. They are portable, squeak, a puzzle and can be used in water/sand too.

Both of mine love (d) the hide and squeek eggs!

I always think that people who never used muslins never had a refluxy baby 😁 although I use them to wipe up the dribble too. DS2 is getting Tooth Eight atm. So...much...dribble...