A great friend of mine is expecting her first child, a precious baby girl, in a few short weeks. For a shower gift, I wanted to give her something useful. I remember back to our baby(er…babies?) showers and the ridiculous generous amount of gifts that we were given. (We had 5 showers in total…it was crazy.) But somehow, after the babies were born, we were somehow still sending family members on multiple trips to Wal-Mart to pick up some must needed items. Those were the things I tried to think about giving to my friend to prepare for Baby Girl’s arrival. So I themed the gift, “Top 5 for the First 5,” and told her these were the top 5 things that helped us survive the first 5 days, or less specifically, the transition to first-time parenthood.
1. Kiddopotamus SwaddleMe blanket. Mandy mentioned these in an earlier post, and I just have to back her up on this one. This was the only swaddling blanket that worked for our two. And we tried several. We ended up buying 6 in total of these so we’d always have clean ones, because we surely weren’t putting the babies to bed without it! And actually, when our little man was fighting some serious gas and reflux, swaddling him in this blanket was the only way he’d eat at times.
2. Infant Gas Drops – Speaking of gas and reflux…these gas drops were our saving grace. Once we figured out they existed.
3. Hooded Towel – those baths (especially sponge baths!) can be traumatic for a newborn! Okay, maybe traumatic is too harsh of a word, but mine hated them. Well, really they hated at the end when they were wet and cold. A hooded towel and some snuggles from Momma (and Daddy, in our case) went a long way.
4. Lanolin cream – for any mom who intends on nursing, this is a must-have. It can be hard on your body, and this makes that learning process (and all you who have done it know it’s definitely a learning process!) a tad bit more….comfortable.
5. Books – On this one, I told my friend that really this wasn’t a necessity for the first five days. But it surely is never too early to start reading to your little one(s) and building that love for language at the earliest of days. And in my opinion, there is not many things I enjoy more than grabbing one of my babies, pulling them in my lap, and reading them a book. (Now my daughter is at the age where she brings the book to me! Over….and over….and over….)
What would you give to another mom (or MoM!) as your “Top 5 for the First 5?”
Jenny
One of my friends gave me the best gift before the girls were born. She has two adopted children, and she had a very short notice (like 2 or 3 days!) before she got her first son. She filled a bag with “must-haves”. She noted that you will not be running to the store in the middle of the night for matching curtains for the nursery, but you would certainly make that run for GAS DROPS! And boy, was I thankful (once we figured out what all the crying was about) that we had those on hand!
I could definitely add a lot here. I’ll just get started, before I have to go feed my little ones.
Slow flow nipples- inparticular playtex rubber (slow flow) . They work will if you are nursing or doing a bit of both. I had no idea there were so many kinds.
Nursing pillow- I recommend a very firm one like from breastfriend. It makes a work of difference.
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