Reddit mentions: The best baby gifts

I know you said you don't have time, but making a sandbox for her (of course with parents permission) would be awesome, and they could keep it for years. Plus you could always update it each year- repaint the sides, add decoration, etc as a birthday gift.

From Amazon: A turtle that shows the constellations. My baby brother had one and loved it- and my parents enjoyed having a pretty night light that they could use as a learning tool.

Also this keepsake kit will allow the parents to make a new Christmas ornament of their girl's first Christmas, plus they can make an extra one for the favorite grandma. Yes, this isn't really for the daughter, but lets be honest; she'll play with the box and be completely overjoyed.


If you want to really make the daughter happy, this sensory tub is AMAZING. Just a tub, you say? Oh no. This can be filled with sand, small pebbles, noodles, water, beans, etc to fully engage her sensory experience. I teach with a program that has one-year-olds and they go crazy when these tubs are brought out. You can even make it into a cute basket by including things like this and this and still stay in your budget! :)

For me? I'd like this so I can sleep in a few mornings :) Good luck to you in your quest for the perfect present!

Because links rock!

Drool and Spit Up Bandanna Bibs - these were our favorite. We used them almost immediately on our son because he spit up so much (he soaked through 7-10 of these a day, which would have meant 7-10 outfit changes without them!). I thought bibs weren't needed until they started eating (ha, cute Ernie, real cute). But no - these are absorbent and catch allthespitup and allthedrool and they snug up beautifully underneath the chin, which helps keep the moisture away from neck rolls (unlike U shaped bibs that don't snug up quite as well). There are literally hundreds of prints and manufactures all over Amazon - we had +/- 30 of them total from different sellers and they were all the exact same quality/pattern/fit.

My son's daycare provider preferred these cloth bibs as opposed to the bandanna bibs. I don't know why - they were just easier for her. They're cloth on both sides with an impenetrable crinkly plastic sandwiched between. Bonus - the crinkle entertained my son and he loved to shove these in his mouth and scrunch them.

Daycare also preferred these cloth bibs over the bandanna bibs. They're cloth like above but single layered with no plastic backing. They worked better for drool than spit up, but I still preferred the bandanna bibs.

Once my son started eating we were all about the silicone bibs. I liked these - they folded up small for the diaper bag, were easy to wash, easy to get on and off, and they fit well from about 6 months to... meh... 13ish months (though my son was routinely in the 20-30th% percentile for weight at this age).

Once my son outgrew those we went to these guys. They're bigger and have a bigger trough that stays open to catch food better. I love these. We have 4 in rotation. They're perfect. I have absolutely no complaints. My son is now in the 45th% range for weight at 15 months and they're perfect size.

So, I was originally going to use a Miquelrius 300 sheet grid lined notebook for my baby tracking book. My estimated due date is December 31, 2014, so I started at Dec. 15 in case babby is early. I finished drawing in the lines for December 15-31, 2014, got half way through January 2015 and gave up. =P Then I wanted to just buy one, but I couldn't find one that had the layout inside it that I wanted, had a nice cover that I liked, had pockets for loose paper and miscellaneous things, and had good quality paper, AND sold by a merchant that knows what CANADA is. >K{

I set about making my own. They're just simple 2-staple saddle-bound booklets that are 8.5x11 sheets folded in half, then trimmed.

I used Domtar brand 32lb/120gsm ColorPrint paper from Staples. I got it because it was a lower price than the HP reams, but it's not fountain pen friendly =P The sheets are nice and thick, and great for almost any other pens. But fountain pens bleed-through and feather wildly. Sharpie markers will give you bad ghosting and bleed-through, but that's somewhat expected for Sharpies.

Something funny I've noticed: fountain pen ink will get absorbed into the printed letters or lines. I printed grey gridlines onto my paper. If I write across several squares, the ink that crosses the gridlines will run along the lines like paint runs into grooved troughs. For reference, I have an Epson Artisan 810 printer. It might be Epson ink or inkjets in general, I don't know.

But anyway, I didn't want to waste what I already got so I'm just going to use this up. With a thick paper like this, one booklet per month was a more reasonable size. If I used Tomoe River paper, I may be able to do a year in one book and it might be a (more or less) sane sized book.

I did the content in Libre Office Calc. I set the column height and row width to 5mm for the entire sheet, set all the borders to a medium-light grey for the gridlines, then set the borders of the outline for the tables to black and entered the text I wanted. The layout is largely inspired by the Hobonichi Techo, this Baby Tracker book with lots of other different ideas from everywhere, but done my way =)

I couldn't figure out the "booklet" setting on my printer properties panel, so I just made everything double-sided, and manually brained it to make the calendar and daily layouts work when I folded 8.5x11 paper in half to form the booklet.

I could have sat there and figured out what I needed to pre-print the actual dates, but I thought it would be easy enough to put in the date on the fly.

The covers are two back-to-back sheets from a pad of 12x12" decorative scrapbooking paper from Michaels (the "Seasons" themed one) trimmed down to size. It's a thin 20 or 22lb smooth paper. I couldn't find cardstock with designs I liked. The Seasons paper pad had sheets with the names of all the 12 months, so each booklet would be auto-labelled already =)

LO is 7 weeks right now, so we're right at that stage, too!

At 7 weeks, we have all the 'stuff' we need. (diapers, wipes, bath stuff, bottles, burp cloths, blankets/swaddles, etc) We have a play gym and a boppy and a rock and play - and between those 3, kid's pretty occupied and happy.

The things DH and I still struggle with: Laundry, house cleaning, meal prep. Something like a housekeeper 1x week or a grocery delivery service (amazon and wegmans both do this) would be great.

Some other ideas: Amazon gift cards (prime shipping is a godsend when we need something!). You might want to check with her about what clothes she has. my LO just outgrew newborn things - we have lots of 3mo sleepers, but barely any onesies, and no longsleeve options. She might have a better idea now of what clothes she needs and when the seasons will change and LO will need other options. Thinking/buying all the way out to 9mo sizes is helpful at this point.

If sis is pumping/going back to work/traveling around more with LO - something like a changing pad clutch? https://www.amazon.com/Cole-Changing-Clutch-Stone-Arbor/dp/B00AQ693RO, or a bag for her pump, or small cooler/fridge option for her office to hold milk, etc.

If she's sentimental at all, but doesn't want to do a traditional baby book - this is pretty darn awesome to help keep memories in order/keepsakes/ultrasound photos/etc in one spot! https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01FCUM77Q/?th=1. Also things like handprint/footprint kits.

I also have a bunch of stuff on my registry that is inexpensive ($10-$25) for friends and if my coworkers decide to do a shower here which they have done for other new moms in the past. Here are some of the things I have on mine
Sleeping gowns so you don't have to unsnap the onesie for midnight changes

A baby tub

Tub Thermometer

Baby thermometer

Nose Frieda which others have mentioned

preferred bath/care products

Cloth diaps which make fantastic burp cloths/cleanup

Nursing pillow also good for tummy time


Plus some other odds and ends. People will also buy stuff that they like, so you'll probably get stuff that was not on your list and that is ok. You can also request to have a "diapers n wipes" shower which a friend did since she was on her 4th child, and she probably got 2 months worth of diapers and wipes out of it if not more. Also, make sure you get multiple covers for your changing pad, it'll be nice to have more than 1 when it needs washing! Congratulations!

Thanks for the suggestion. I saw them on Amazon when I was searching through but didn't know if they were actually a good brand or if they were any good.

I have found these:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Burts-Bees-Tips-Toes-Hands/dp/B004EDYQX6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1421669145&sr=8-1&keywords=burt%27s+bees

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Burts-Bees-Essential-Body-Kit/dp/B004EDWMBO/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1421669145&sr=8-3&keywords=burt%27s+bees

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Burts-Bees-Tips-Toes-Gift/dp/B00E8C7HZC/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1421669145&sr=8-5&keywords=burt%27s+bees

Are any of those good as gifts?

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As a side note, as I have just looked into the range a little more from your suggestion, is this an acceptable gift for a 26 year old too (My sister)? I may get this as a gift for her instead as I am struggling to get ideas for her birthday too. She is pregnant though, is she ok to use these if pregnant?

On a final note, I found this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Burts-Bees-Baby-Getting-Started/dp/B004EDYQT0/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1421669145&sr=8-7&keywords=burt%27s+bees

Is that a nice gift for when she has the baby?


Sorry about all the questions, I know nothing about this stuff.

Honestly? My wife and I don't even have a changing station. We have 3 little changing mats (one in the living room, one in our bedroom ,and one in the diaper bag) along with a package of baby wipes in each location as well. That's really all you need. A dedicated station like that, to us at least, seems like a waste of money.

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To answer your question, though:

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1. Fridababy Bundle Each item in here has proven useful in the first 3 months so far. It's worth having on your registry if you don't already.
   
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2. Cloth diapers. Trust me, if you're willing to put the money down up front for them (they're a bit more expensive to get started with) and do the laundry associated with them, you'll save money in the long run. In the last 3 months, we have bought MAYBE 1 package of disposable diapers to use for the couple of hours she may be out of cloths while they are being washed. Over the next few years, that'll add up to being cheaper than what we paid for the cloths.
   
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3. Someone else mentioned the Halo swaddle. Those are pretty awesome.
   
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   That about does it for me for the SURPRISING stuff. To finish, though, I'll tell you about a couple of other things you should probably avoid:
   
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   Bottle warmers. Not necessary. My wife insisted she get one, but honestly? No. Just use hot water in a regular pan in the sink. Takes just as long.
   
   Find the right pacifier. They're all different shapes and my baby only really likes 1 brand. Got kinda pricey before we figured it out.

Man, I wish I’d seen an idea like this before we weaned off bottles. Here are my attempts to keep my house looking like adults live here:

This play mat: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0759RRLJ4/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_ZKp3BbGZ64VCQ

These canvas bins for toys: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075CXXQNJ?ref=yo_pop_ma_swf

I also loved our ComoTomo bottles because they worked great AND are aesthetically pleasing!

I'm so sorry you are going through this. First, remember that you are doing what is best for your kids and family by getting healthy. Also, that even if your child is really upset now this isn't going to traumatize them for life. It may be hard but that isn't the same as you damaging them.

For the five year old, you can give her a calendar to mark off each day until you come back with one of the adults. Having a clear timeline and seeing when you will return and how far that is should help some. If she isn't good at using/understanding a calendar maybe go over that with her now and practice. You could also plan to video call her if you want, or just talk on the phone with no video (not sure if you'll look really sick and it might scare her?). Or have dad call.

Your 17 month old is the one I'm concerned this is going to be harder for since they may not really understand. Maybe for them make a book of pictures of you and dad with them (and without them?) that whoever is watching you can look through with them when they miss you. (They make soft short baby/young toddler photo albums with plastic sheaths like this, this, or this.) I'm not sure who verbal your child is but talk to them about this and how you will come back simply and repeatedly. Also, to make sure they understand coming back you could do this when you leave the room, go to the store, go to work, ect and be like "Mommy is going to leave for work and come back after nap time/in five minutes (whenever) to get you." Then "Mommy came back" when you come back so they know.

How much time do you have to prepare? Does your 17 month old have any words? We used baby sign with my daughter and at this age she'd sign for "daddy" often when he is at work and I'd reply "Daddy is at work" and sign "dad" and "work" and then say when he would be home. She'd start to sign "dad work" to herself sometimes so I think she got that idea, or at least that it meant he wasn't there. (Recently at 2.5 I learned she thought her dad's job is playing basketball since he also goes to do that once a week. lol. She also thought he left for work as soon as she went to bed since he was gone in the morning.) Anyway, having her have some way to ask about you and then having a comforting answer they can give planned out with them might be helpful. Also empathy. Never forget the "you miss Mommy and Daddy" type of things, without any concept that this is bad. As Daniel Tiger says "it's okay to be sad sometimes". So it's more like "you miss Mommy and Daddy. That's really hard. Do you want a hug? Do you want to look at your Mommy and Daddy book?"

I'd try asking if you could size up, or ask for diaper doublers.

My favorite creams are Butt Paste and Aquaphor. However, since you're using a service, check with them regarding creams. Sometimes creams can leave residue on the diapers.

How long does he sleep through the night? If he's still getting up every couple hours, just plan on changing him each time. If he's sleeping for longer periods of time (6 hours +) at night, you could try using wool covers in addition to the fitted diaper (I'd bulk up the diaper a little with prefolds or doublers). I like EcoPosh wool covers. You do have to lanolize wool covers so they become waterproof, but I loved using them with my daughter.Learn to Cloth Diaper has step by step instructions on how to do that. Hope it helps!

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Oh, sorry I misread! What if you made footprints/Handprints using ink pads? They can made into ornaments or special keepsake. There’s Kits on Amazon.


Ultimate Baby Ink Handprint Footprint Kit & Frame - with Premium Picture Photo Frame, Safe Ink Pad Stamp, Paper & Bonus Stencil. The Perfect Personalized Baby Shower, Newborn Gift Idea & Memento! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DNKKCFY/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_7JCVDbFPHTGTN

I bought this one. I know you said no photos but every mom I spoke with told me they never took the time to write things down in baby books that asked for a lot of detail. This one has a picture + the same questions each month as well as a handful of other things. I have yet to print photos to put in it but I plan to print them all out before her first birthday to have at the party, that way I do it all at once. You might not be good a printing photos but you will surely take them of every occasion. I love the simplicity of answering favorites, dislikes, and new achievements every month. Just my two cents.

I think it's so individual. I received 3 knitted blankets but didn't really use them, although I saved them in my son's baby box. What I love are those cute knitted outfits everyone is using for their newborn's pictures, for example this one https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01DNKFYRW/

I got this one on Amazon which I love. At 3 weeks out, I haven’t put anything in it yet haha. But the quality is nice!

• Oh my god Becky look at how buttsy she is!
  
  
• SO MUCH BUTT...that is all.
  
  
• My mom always had this when my siblings were babies, I giggled to myself every time I read it, Butt Paste really?! Hahaha
  
  
  I'm a butt, he's a butt, she's a butt, we're all butts, hey!

I keep trying to post this as a separate post, but for some reason it won't show up when I do. So I'll just post it here instead:

So when going through lists of things for our hospital bag, I came across the suggestion of a Baby Book so you can get your baby's footprints right in the book at the hospital. That reminded me that I wanted to have some kind of book or scrapbook of at least my baby's first year, since I am terrible at documenting stuff like this! I've been looking around online at a few, but it can be really hard to decide.

Basically, I know I need to pick up a pre-made one that I'll just fill in the blanks. I am a terrible scrapbooker (I've tried in the past, it just doesn't come naturally to me), so I need as much guidance as I can get. I also don't like to write a ton, so I'd prefer one that is mainly focused on pictures and just little tidbits about milestones and stuff, rather than big pages to write a lot of text.

These are the ones I've found so far that I like: 1 2 3

What do you guys think? Are any of you planning on getting a Baby Book for your little one? Have you already bought one? And if you have, (or have looked through some others) how did you decide?

Also, as a side tip: I found this little journal for documenting your child's medical past (vaccinations, past illnesses, etc.) while I was looking at Baby Books on Amazon. I thought it was a really great idea to have all of that in one place, so I think I'm at least going to pick up that one :)

I bought the All About Me Baby Book And love it so much! Modern typography and graphics. Very easy to use. I've just added a few pages in between to be able to write more if I want.

Here's one I got at my shower that I really like! I haven't started filling it out, but I leafed through it and it looks great! http://www.amazon.com/C-R-Gibson-Bound-Keepsake-Memory/dp/B001AL7GOQ/ref=br_it_dp_o_nS_nC?ie=UTF8&colid=2NRR6KUK9KNXP&coliid=I3TDP9IXLKJE0Q

Thank you! I looked around for a while but decided on this one from amazon. It's cute!

I'm a butt, he's a butt, she's a butt, we're all butts, hey!

I also really like butts in a comical way.

My cat is very buttsy, as she is a total dickwad and bites the shit out of everything she sees.

BUTT PASTE

I got this one. It has space for the big stuff without a ton of random fluff (I’m not really a scrapbook-y person either, and wanted something not too cutesy). I really like the formatting, and the price is reasonable.

Lucy Darling Baby's First Year Memory Book: A Simple Book of Firsts - Little Captain https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01F4L2O62/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_kAHDAb2QEPMQV

https://www.amazon.com/Boudreauxs-Butt-Paste-Diaper-Ointment/dp/B0009RF8G0

For the butthurt.

Order a seven year supply now and receive 10% off! Always good to plan ahead, and save a few bucks.

I got this this one! It's so cute. I've already filled out a lot of it - it has a section for pictures, ultrasound photos, "tell me what you (mommy) are like and how you met daddy" etc. It's really cool. The back has a section for birthday photos up until age 10 I think!

"Nope" and "sure thing" is all he could say as he sullenly meandered away to sulk while tending to his wounds.

Try this buckaroo; it might?? help.

http://www.amazon.com/Boudreauxs-Butt-Paste-oz-Jar/dp/B0009RF8G0

I have this one and it’s gorgeous! And simple. It doesn’t ask a lot of frivolous info and has lots of room for pictures.

Not preg, but I bought this one in the past! It only has a few pages where it references "parents" but nothing actively referencing a "dad." Hope this helps!

https://www.amazon.com/Boudreauxs-Butt-Paste-Ointment-Original/dp/B0009RF8G0

I hope this helps "your friend"!

I bought this one and i like it. It has space for everything you mentioned plus extra pages for whatever else you want to include.

My 3 yr old got ahold of Butt Paste and I used EVERYTHING I could think of to clean it up and nothing was working. Until I started using wipes. That cleaned it up quickly.

On that same note, I like Butt Paste

I always recommend this notebook to any new moms or soon-to-be new moms that I bump into for this very reason. It takes less time to put a quick symbol on paper than it does to unlock my phone or try to write down the actual time. Has a place to jot down notes, to-dos, etc. too.

boudreaux' butt paste.


http://www.amazon.com/Boudreauxs-Butt-Paste-oz-Jar/dp/B0009RF8G0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1291999214&sr=8-1

do not buy from amazon plz.

Boudreaux's Butt Paste Diaper Rash Ointment | Original | 16 Oz https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0009RF8G0/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_zuGWCbFSNB2KQ

Congrats!

protip: Desitin is shit, get butt paste

1. Jill decided she no longer wanted to speak with Jane because of her Buttsy attitude towards everything.
   
   
2. Buttsy - When a person is always an over being a stubborn or rude butt head
   
   I'm a butt, he's a butt, she's a butt, we're all butts, hey! Butt paste