Every week, I take a Mom’s question, publish it and ask the rest of you to help! Don’t miss any posts! Subscribe to our new RSS Feed or subscribe via email.
Questions don’t have to be cloth diaper related, just email maria at change-diapers.com with “Mailbox Mondays” in the subject, or fill out my contact form for readers, which you will always be able to find on my Contact Page.
I didn’t get an “official” Mailbox Mondays question this week, so I’m using a Facebook question!
“I can’t remember if we’ve talked about this before or not. Did you have a baby shower for each of your children? We’re saving all the big stuff from Monkey, so all we would ask for (if we had another shower) would be clothes and stuff.”
The general consensus from the Facebook comments was that a get-together is always fun (who doesn’t love to talk pregnancy & babies?) but that an informal “sip & see” after baby comes, a blessingway etc. is maybe more appropriate.
I’ll be honest that I really didn’t understand the whole gasp “you can’t have a shower for a second baby!!” thing. I suppose I don’t see baby showers as gift grabs, plus…I love giving gifts! So, shower or not, I’m usually going to be looking for a gift for the mama & new baby. Particularly as my littles get bigger, it’s fun to look at all the new stuff!
Whether a family is having their second or seventh baby, chances are they need a few things. The new baby may be a different gender, same gender babies may be born in different seasons, clothes may be worn out etc. So how do you know what to get them? Usually baby registries are for the first baby, but lately I’ve noticed some registries for second+ babies. They’re usually just a few items, and I suspect mamas may just get tired of answering “what do you need” questions, LOL.
The first “gift” that comes to mind is the gift of you & your time, but if you’re close enough to the mama to take her older child to the park, wash a load of laundry, bring her food etc., you probably already know what she needs.
When I’m buying gifts for a first time mama, I like to choose something from the registry, and add in a couple things that I loved for my babies too. I like to include a gift receipt too, just in case! If I know a mama uses or is planning to use cloth diapers, that’s a no brainer for me! Especially if they are having a girl. Hee hee. If she is breastfeeding, consider making a breastfeeding gift basket with goodies like reusable nursing pads, Soothies, Lanolin, a nursing necklace, lactation cookies, snacks, drinks and maybe an activity for her older child. Consumables like baby wash, diaper cream, teething tablets & Tylenol are good choices (I realize not everyone uses all of these things!) or some new baby washcloths…anything that might be used up or ratty after the first baby!
When my babies were born, I struggled a little bit to keep everyone fed and had done my best to freeze meals before the baby was born. If you are close (physically and friendship-wise) to the new mama, definitely bring her a meal! I have considered buying restaurant gift cards as gifts, but then someone still has to go get the food (we are an hour round trip from anything but a pizza joint!) and said food is usually junk.
My new favorite business is MomMe Meals…a D.C. based business that will be expanding this year. MomMe Meals makes fabulous, fresh meals & snacks with organic ingredients, and recipes are created with a dietitian’s help to meet a nursing & pregnant mama’s nutritional needs. What I love about these healthy & nutritionally complete meals (delivered to mama’s door!) is that they’re frozen. The family can stick them in the freezer & pull them out when they really need them, when those first few weeks have passed and all the help has gone home!
Do you have a favorite baby gift? What would you like to receive as a second time mom?
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Maria wants to live in a world where cloth diapers are the norm and moms can make parenting choices without judgement. When she’s not chasing her 18, 14 and 11-year old kids around, you might find her checking out the latest gadgets, organizing something (again) or exercising in the fresh air. 
I had showers for my first, second and third and fifth. I know some people look down doing that but I’m not sure how to turn someone down without sounding ungrateful. Besides, with the exception of my second, we needed baby stuff because my husband would throw out or give everything away and say we were done every time. My mom threw my first shower, my friend threw my second, church family my third and fifth. With baby #6 we hunted down lots of deals- thrift store and yard sale finds and thankfully some friends from church gave us their old car seat. My mom gave me several monetary gifts so I was able to buy baby a new cloth diaper stash. Yup, hubby had thrown the last stash out too. :/ Thankfully I also won some diapers so I actually have a full sized stash this time around rather than a wimpy one like I usually do. 🙂 I was worried because she’s just about to outgrow her infant diapers/small covers but just in time I’ve got swagbucks to spend.
Anyway, my favorite shower gifts tend to be home made. Cloth diapers would be amazing. I guess that’s essentially what my mom did but she gave me the cash. My MIL gave me a very small amount for cloth too, so that was nice.
I love giving homemade gifts! Yes, the gift of cloth is always nice, but so are personalized burp cloths, bibs or fun decorated onesies. I treasure the blankets people gave my kids and I think every child in the family should have a stash of their own car/lap and bed-top blankets.
Now that I am having my 3rd you would assume I have everything I need, right? Well, this Summer baby will not fit in any of the Winter baby clothes from his older brother. We also gave many beloved items away to friends when we thought we were stopping at 2. Lol.
Clothes and diapers are always good ones to give! I’d ask the mom if she wants cloth or disposables though. I know personally, with number three on the way (boy, girl, and now another boy), that’s all I really need.
My favorite things to receive were baby books, because I love to read to my son and it is fun to see what other people like as their favorites. I also really enjoyed the bath-luve my friend bought for my son which is a cloth ducky body rag that keeps him warm in the bath. He grips onto it so tight it is adorable. And well of coarse, my cloth diapers. I wpuld get new ones all the time if my fiance would let me. But my soon to be mother in law loves to buy them for her grandson.. and I do not mind 🙂
I totally forgot to mention…I love the trend of giving an inscribed children’s book instead of a card. Though you might end up with a bunch of the same!