When a child is born, a mother is also born. Although it’s fun and special to shower the new little bundle of joy with gifts, there is something equally meaningful about showering the new mom with something special. After all, she’s just gone through 9 months of pregnancy, delivery and recovery. She’s probably not getting much sleep. She’s perpetually tired and doesn’t have time to focus on herself. Why not give her a little lift by surprising her with a treat that’s just for her?
Time is at a premium in a house with a newborn, so one of the best things you can give a new mother is the gift of time to herself. This can be something as simple as a DVD of her favourite TV show that she can watch at her leisure, a gift card for a cup of coffee, or her favourite magazine – something she can do just for herself in those fleeting moments she has to herself.
With a newborn in the house, it can also be challenging to find the time and energy to cook a meal every night, especially if you have other kids to take care of as well. A nice gift idea is to prepare some meals for her freezer, so all she has to do is take the meal out and pop it into the microwave or into the oven when dinner time roll around. Knowing her freezer is stocked with homemade, ready-to-go meals will be a weight off of any new mother’s mind.
If the mother is not nursing, you can offer to take the baby out for a walk for an hour or even out for the afternoon, to give mum some time alone at home. Better still, offer to stay at home with the baby so mom can go out for some me-time alone. (Why not hand her that coffee-shop gift card on her way out the door?).
Keepsake items are always a good choice, too. New mothers often want to keep track of all of the precious moments and milestones that come with watching their baby grow, but all too often there simply isn’t time to stop and write things down. While you can’t capture those memories for mom and baby, what you can do is make it easier for mom to do it herself. Purchase an app for her phone that allows her to jot down a line or two a day while baby naps, or purchase one of the many “line a day” journals designed especially for this purpose. And don’t forget to include a fun pen! Such a gift isn’t convenient if the mother has to always scramble to find a pen.
If mom enjoys scrapbooking, why not put together a gift basket of baby-themed paper and stickers, an album and some adhesive so she can scrapbook those memories she has been capturing on camera?
When someone close to you has a baby, it’s of course customary to bring a gift for the little one. But don’t forget mom, too. She is going through a huge period of adjustment and would no doubt appreciate these small gestures. Check out stores like isabellesdreams.com for ideas.
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