what did you find the most useful in the first few weeks after giving birth?

[ellymae]

I'm going to be catching up with a soon to be first time mum next week (she's currently 36 weeks pregnant). I haven't seen her for a while and although I plan to get something for the baby after its arrived I thought it would be nice to take something with me for her that she would find useful in those first few days/weeks after the birth.

My 15 month old DD spent nearly 2 months in SBCU due to surgery and complications and so my experiences of being a new mum were very much coloured by hospital visits, industrial type expressing machines and occasional nights where I was able to sleep through!

So could anyone recommend anything that she might not already have bought or even thought about that would come in really useful? She's not a close friend so I was looking for something inexpensive and not too personal. Thanks

A bottle of lavender oil.

cake

casserole for the freezer

I used a bath support for both children which was fantastic and very useful.
Basically it allows you to bath even a quite young baby in a normal bath and leaves both hands free.
Kind of like a hammock for the baby which is used in the bath!

DVD Boxsets(!) for those long endless days of feeding feeding feeding. I stayed in bed with The Sopranos and it made it all a wee bit more bearable.

Thermos mug - a lifesaver, enabling the new mum to have her drink hot when she finally gets to it.

Mothercare vouchers for those bits and pieces you inevitably have to send dp out for in the first days of the baby being at home.

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A friend turned up with some instant hot chocolate powder and an insulated mug. Was a bloody lifesaver, it takes two minutes to make and stays hot two hours (long enough for even a newborn's mum to get a drink).

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agree with chocolate.i found getting up at 3am to make a bottle was slightly more bearable when there was a box of malteasers in the kitchen i could munch on while waiting for the kettle to boil.

people bringing freezer food or easy stuff to nibble on to save cooking.

yes something for the freezer
and nice easy and healthy snacks for her hospital bag eg dried fruit, seeds and nuts covered in chocolate

Ooh and plate covers - I never managed to get a hot meal when DD was below six months - it's rare I do now tbh but it's slightly better.

Plated meals were lifesavers for me. Also generous single portions of complete meals frozen in takeaway-type containers, so I could just shove one in the oven and even eat out of the tub.

But this doesn't sound like the sort of thing you're looking for!

This OTOH is not a pretty present, but incredibly useful to have when the baby is bunged up and miserable at 2am and she's struggling to feed.

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Another vote for DVDs - for those nights when the baby just will not sleep unless held and rocked.
Another vote for chocolate - accept that I was expected to share mine with everyone. I was gutted!

Lovely hand cream, Clarins is my favourite, for dried chapped hands due to all the nappy changing.

I have a bread maker and when my BF had her second I appeared every couple of days with a freshly baked loaf and she said that was fantastic.

I echo cake writ large,I also wish I had had an insulated mug,may go and buy one tomorrow! I think a box of chocs and some mags would be very welcome-something to flop down with while the baby is asleep and you don't quite want to sleep too.

I was given one of those floppy cushions you can put in the microwave (the kind you get from chemists), fab if you're aching from bf or just holding a baby for hours! Practical, and v.cheap! Muslins btw are a fantastic cheap and impersonal present which are hugely useful.

these are pretty good and on offer at the mo

Food food food. A friend of ours brought round loads of wonderful wholesome casseroles etc for the freezer. was a complete godsend.

thanks guys some great ideas!! I'll take a cake and magazines with me definitely and look into insulated mugs and plate warmers as they sound pretty good. I had also heard of lavender oil from someone else so thats another good choice

I know I definitely appreciated home cooked meals when DD ws in hospital but now that she's a toddler and charging around on only 2 half hour kips a day I struggle to cook decent meals for us let alone someone else!

thanks again

there's always waitrose as good as eating out range... yum!