You’ve been to the baby shower, you’ve shopped the registry, and now your friends are new parents. It’s de rigueur to send something when everyone’s home from the hospital, but often, baby gifts go to the new bundle, instead of the new parents. And while baby will undoubtedly look adorable in those outfits in a year or so, it’s the adults that may need some TLC right now.
Vogue’s Guide to the Best Gifts for New Parents:
Balloons are lovely, flowers are great, but useful gifts for new parents are a homerun for those running on adrenaline and fumes. In between feedings and getting their bearings, they sometimes forget the basics (like dinner or, er, bathing) and run out of the necessities, like coffee or snacks. These little gifts help take some stress out of those first few weeks and months at home, so new parents can spend their time concentrating on the new center of their world. Keep reading to discover what the best gifts for new parents actually are.
Food Delivery
There’s little that can prepare you for what it’s like to become a parent. It is wonderful, rewarding, and…exhausting. With so much to keep track of, feeding the baby becomes much more of a priority then feeding yourself. Not having to think about cooking can greatly reduce some of that early stress so take care of the work for the new parent with excellent meal delivery options from Splendid Spoon or try Laroot’s specialized postpartum menu which caters to the crucial nutritional requirements a new mother needs in the “fourth trimester.” Flamingo Estate offers a farm fresh box—deliverable weekly or one-time to Los Angeles residents only—so new parents can have fresh and healthy fruits and veggies on hand at all times and ready to add to any meal or snack.
Basic Necessities
Caffeine and a mug to reheat said caffeine when it has inevitably gone cold while the new parents tend to the baby are likely very welcome gifts; something that’s hard to spill is always a good idea, too. I love to give new parents a delicious and indulgent type of coffee or matcha to make those daily cups just that much more enjoyable. Or why not help ease the aches and pains of new parenthood with an at-home massager? A trip to the spa is likely a few weeks away but a few minutes of at-home bliss might be just what the new mom (or dad) ordered!
Luxurious Lifts
There’s a lot of new baby snuggles and catching a little bit of sleep whenever it can be found and faking a good-sleep-glow the rest of the time with good skin care. Be sure the new mom is ready to get back to her pre-baby skin care routine and help her indulge in those products she might have been skipping while pregnant. A lot of postpartum time is spent in pajamas so why not give an ultra comfortable and chic pair like these from one of favorite sleepwear brands, Eberjey? These luxe home and beauty goods will work just as well now as in years to come.
Little Extras
Regardless of how foolproof their registry, when the baby arrives, new parents will realize what they actually need. From an extra pair of cozy PJs for the new bundle (there never seem to be enough clean pairs during late night feeds!) to an electric baby bottle that warms milk slowly to the precise temperature needed, here are a few things that will be useful whether this is their first or fourth.
Book Club
With so much “parenting lit” out there it can be hard to weed through what might be actually helpful to a new parent. Here are a few titles that can really help new parents through those first few months from The Happiest Baby on the Block which offers fantastic techniques for soothing babies and increasing sleep to Cribsheet, Professor Emily Oster’s data driven approach to help parents easily make informed decisions to all of those early questions that are often agonized over. Help the new parents get the advice they need from professionals rather than strangers on the internet!