Back in 2022 we welcomed our daughter into our lives and in the first couple of months spent a lot of time on Amazon buying things we didn’t know we needed! So, I thought it would be a lovely idea to create a gift list of things that we, as parents, found really useful in the early days for those looking to purchase a gift for a new baby! I should preface that some of these links are affiliate, meaning that if you purchase something I get a small kickback but at no cost to you!
1 - Ewan the Dream Sheep
We were lucky enough to be gifted this wonderful white noise machine dressed up as a cuddly toy and it is by far my daughters most prized possession. In the early days, if she started to stir we’d play one of 4 of the noises that Ewan sings and it would help her drift back off to sleep. These days we’re not allowed to leave the house without it and she LOVES the lullaby it plays. If anything happens to it, or if she loses it or it breaks, I’ll 100% without a shadow of a doubt buy it again!
2 - Rockit
We were on the fence with this one when we first discovered what it was at an NCT class but within weeks of our daughter arriving we had committed and it worked SO well! Essentially, the Rockit is a device that gently rocks the pram when you stop walking around to help keep the little one asleep. Although we did go rogue with it, and attached it to the moses basket stand so that when she stirred in the night, rather than getting cramp in our arms rocking the basket the rockit gently rocked her back to sleep.
3 - Homemade food or food delivery
We had no idea how much we would appreciate this until our friend rocked up at our door with a giant homemade lasagne! Now whenever we have friends who have babies, we always try to take over some food because those first few weeks are overwhelming and having something you can just warm up really takes the pressure off!
4 - Reusable wipes
Once we had gotten through all of the packs of free wipes we had accumulated from baby shows and trial bags we moved on to reusable wipes. We got through so many that it just made sense for our pocket (and the environment) and they felt so much nicer than some of the thin disposable wipes on the market.
5 - Doing odd jobs around the house
This is another ‘free’ thing that you can do that we didn’t realise just how much we’d appreciate until it happened. One day my Mother in law came over and hoovered the house! We didn’t ask her to but it was such a nice gesture and again, another thing we could take off of the already heavy mental load.
6 - Electric nail file
The electric nail file was an absolute godsend! Trying to cut those tiny nails with scissors is such a task especially when they don’t keep their hands still. But with this device you don’t have to worry about cutting their little fingers! There are different grade sanding pads depending on their age and it will stop rotating if you push too hard. This made filing down our daughters nails an absolute breeze and it was twice as quick! Since having this for ourselves, we have gone on to purchase it for friends and family who have also had babies.
7 - Playmat
This is a gift that we were given that we completely underestimated. It’s one of those toys that can grow with them. When our daughter was tiny she would lie underneath, kick the piano and generally wiggle around to the super catchy songs. And then you can remove the toys and attach them to the pram if you like. And then once they’re done with the mat you can detach the piano for them to continue playing with and use the learning modes instead. We pretty much used it as a ‘baby docking station’. It was a handy place where we could put her down when we needed 5 minutes to do a job that needed to be done. We had the pink version but there's also a unisex version too.
8 - Baby bottle cool bag
This was another purchase that has continued to be useful since day one! Our daughter was born during a heatwave so keeping the expressed breastmilk cool when out and about was super important and this did the job perfectly. The ice pack is shaped so that it nestles against the bottles of milk meaning that more surface area is cooled than it would be if you were to use regular flat ice packs. Now we use it to take her night bottle of cows milk to her grandma’s house every week and during the summer we’ll use it to keep packed lunches cool too!
9 - Spiral Pram Toy
This soft, spiral pram toy was something that my mum managed to find in a charity shop but it was invaluable for keeping our daughter entertained in her car seat or when she was out in the pushchair! It’s really simple to move from the car to the pushchair as well.
10 - Dummy clips & teething toy
This was a genius hack shared with us by one of the mums in our NCT group. Babies have the tendency to drop or throw everything even if it isn’t intentional and you find yourself having to continually pick things like teething toys off of the ground and clean them off. BUT! If you attach a teething toy (the matchstick monkey was our daughters favourite) to a dummy clip and clip that to the child's clothing or pushchair straps, then they can throw them as much as they want because they won’t get far! And it also means that they can easily pick them up again themselves should they want to and it saves the parents having to clean them every 2 minutes!
Bonus - A card!
Once you’ve chosen a gift you’re going to need a card too and that’s where I can help! I have a few available but this one by far has been the most popular and works for both little boys and little girls! But if this one isn’t your cup of tea feel free to check out the others I have available!
