So, Your Bestie’s Having A Baby…

This weekend we’re headed to my bestie’s baby shower, and to say that I am beyond excited about the impending parenthood of my bestie is an understatement. After thinking that perhaps our Mothering journey’s would be years apart, and our children very different ages, low and behold we somehow ended up pregnant together (albeit not as closely as we planned, those pesky timed pregnancies can be tricky to co-ordinate!) and our little pikininnies will in the end be only about 3.5 months apart. But the best bit? This is obviously my second bambino, so I get to share all of the things.

Upon finding out said bestie was indeed expecting a mini-me, I promptly set about putting together a little care package for her. All the things which I would’ve found handy, some things just for fun, and some things needing explaining and a list included. Behold…

In my little (ok, big) bag of goodies I included basic things like toweling jumpsuits (ain’t nobody got time for cute outfits with a scrunched up newborn who needs changing every 20 minutes: jumpsuits jumpsuits jumpsuits), hand sanitiser to have on the change table (a little thing that you’ll probably forget in baby nursery set up, but I found handy) and Pigeon brand breast pads (always Pigeon brand). Little tips like that I like to pass on, things my older sister or friends with babies told me. Kate has no sisters and not too many friends with babies, so I was like “Here, you’ll be needing this…”

Also in the pack were Bonds snap under singlets – always with the snap under. Eleanor still very rarely is not wearing a snap under singlet or snap under long sleeved suit. The one difference is that Kate’s baby will be a Summer baby, in a northern climate, Eleanor was a Winter baby in chilly Gippsland. I don’t know Summer babies. I was all about the fifteen layers, knitted bonnets, crocheted blankets and don’t even get me started on jumpsuits without feet or baby socks – useless! But…a Summer baby is a different beast obviously. Bonds feeding singlets are just a must, bras never worked for me, after my milk supply calmed down and got itself sorted I was basically back to a B-cup anyway. Singlets are so easy, keep your tummy covered, and I always preferred to lift my top up rather than down for minimal exposure. Singlets. Need ’em. And the Bonds clips are one handed operational = a must.

I gave my bestie some breastfeeding tips, especially in those first few weeks where it’s all arms and mouth and milk and hormones. I found Hydrogel breast discs to be great for popping on before a feed, when your milk had come in and that poor little mouth was just up against a brick wall of milk. A warmed face washer will do the same thing too.

A set of stroller clips because I never had any and wish I had’ve (I nearly kept them for me!) A fun little board book of faces, I remember well when Eleanor started recognising that certain shapes were ‘a face’, apparently a major developmental leap, I saw this book and thought it would’ve been well loved! Somebody gave us a rear-view little clip on mirror for the car and it was brilliant, another handy little thing that you don’t think much of, but I lost ours for awhile there and it was like I’d lost an arm!

Finally, some handmade goodies. Of course. I couldn’t walk out of Spotlight without these sweet muslin unisex prints (the sneaky buggers know what they’re having but aren’t telling) which I made into some big 1.2 x 1.2 m blankets. I never used muslin blankets very much with a Winter baby, but I think Kate will with a March bubba. The one great muslin I had was 1.2 metres square. Bigger the better.

I’d love to know if you have a standard baby gift you love to give?
Or what was the most valuable baby item you received when you were expecting?
Did you have Winter or Summer bubbas?