Second Babies - What do you give as a gift?

[Astrophe]

Its not too hard if the second baby is the opposite sex of thr first, but what do you give people who have just had their second girl (or boy)?

I think we need a "MN Best" for this topic! :)

I had another girl second time around and new clothes for her were still appreciated! Other things I liked were new socks and tights, new muslins or bibs, something with her name in it ( door letters) , I don't normally like vouchers, but they came in handy when getting things we needed for the baby , book vouchers were nice ( had a couple of those!)
if the baby is born in a different season, clothes won't normally fit them at the same time as well

vests and bibs and babygros, (these get grubby easy so you dont tend to keep them for future babies),

towels (my dd's like to have their own towels!)

books (books always get tatty quickly, a nice new one is good)

bath toys, oh i can think of a hundred things! its nice for lo's to have their 'own' things

and there are loads of things with baby names on them now, from cutlery to hairbrushes

Phone beforehand, and say you are going to Tesco's, what would they like you to bring, and what meal are they planning tonight so you can pick up the ingredients for it.You go round to their house, say hello, and lavish attention on their oldest child.

Then, you go into their kitchen, wash the pots, clean the surfaces, mop the floor, load the washer and drier/hang clothes to dry, wash bottles if they are using them and put them in the streriliser.

Then, you prepare their evening meal for them, and leave it in the oven (If an ovenish meal) with clear instructions as to what time to take it out and eat it. Wash any pots you create by doing this.

Offer to take oldest child out for an hour. take child to a wide open space and let it run like a whippet for that hour, leaving it docile on return to it's parents. Have a pick up in the living room before you leave.

This, I can imagine, would be a fantastic present for a second time parent.

Oooh yes, am expecting no.2 myself and I hope someone does that for me!

These are all good ideas here - I guess I hadn't thought how nice it is to put a new little one into lovely new clothes, even if you don't really need them.

OOOOH Colditz, what a fabulous gift, I wish you were my best mate !

I'm expecting no.2 in September and I hope someone does something like this for us, even just once would be lovely.

A keepsake box or photo album? Gift voucher for first shoes?

A pack of condoms..?

a goody box with nappies, wipes, baby bath, cotton wool, bibs and socks etc is nice i think

but i cant top the taking the older child out for a run around the park

Will definately be saving this thread for later reference - so many good ideas.

On the 'chocs for Mum and Dad' theme, I think a voucher for a nice resturant and offer to babysit would go down nicely too.

I never buy for the baby after having my own! Chocs and bubble bath are my standards and usually put in a prescription i.e. one after every feed or all at once if necessary...
I better not get any bloody poncy babygros for this new one when it decides to arrive!!!

Hi LaundryL! -Yes we have an overload of babygrows etc too...but something really pretty and special would be nice if we have another DD.

i would still like the same kind of things, we got clothes etc when ds2 was born and they were greatly appreciated, in fact maybe even relied upon!! as before baby is born you tend to focus on buying neutral plain sleepsuits and vest and its nice when baby is her to have a few nice items of clothing, brought specially for him/her.

with reagrds to making dinner, cleaning up etc, whilst it would make a nice gift for some people, dh and i value our own space too muc to have someone else come in and do all that, i don't even let my mum do the ironing, thats what dh is there for!

Some great ideas here, epecially like Colditz's.

Depends how old the older child is but I appreciated soft/cuddly toys for my second as there were was no way dd was going to share hers with the new baby.

Also a small present for the older child is often appreciated.

The church I belong to always does meals for people if they have a new baby/are ill/have family emergency. Knowing that someone is turning up at 5 pm with a home cooked meal every day for a week or fortnight is a real blessing! Don't just do it for people at church, but at toddler group, in circle of friends etc. I really appreciated practical stuff for baby no.2 - new clothes, although not needed were great. I always get a little something for the older sibling, just a comic or something, and make a real fuss of them and ask them to show me their new baby.

How about baby brother/sister and big brother/sister tops and baby gros. That way there is a present for both of them.

My dd has already been given a big sister t-shirt to open when the baby is born, she is so excited about it. She is also being given a camera to take pics of the new baby, and clothes etc to go with the baby annabell her little brother will be giving her.

For the baby (and can I add my name to the long list of people who want to become best friends with Colditz before we have our next babies) how about named items only for them, blankets, cups, door names etc. I would love someone to do us a time box for my next baby with a copy of that days paper and the No. 1 single or DVD in. Maybe a video of the 6 o clock news that day (although videos will be useless soon). Actually I might start a thread on what to put in a time box so I can make one myself for db2.

It's all a bit subjective really. We got loads of soft toys for DD but we already had loads for DS who wasn't interested in them anyway. I kept all my vests and babygros which were mainly in neutral colours anyway so didn't really need much in that line.

Obviously we got loads of pretty girly clothes. But books were good. Although we still had pretty much all the books we had for DS, DH and I still knew most of them by heart at that point.... So any new books were very welcome.