The holidays are upon us and most would agree; this year has been quite the rollercoaster ride! We thought we would help take some of the stress and pressure off of your shoulders and put together this gift guide for all of those new parents on your shopping list. After all, gift giving should be fun!
So for any of your friends, relatives or colleagues that are expecting or have recently had a baby, below are our top gift ideas for BOTH parents and babies. You can trust us. Babies are our business and we know what works and what is best left on the shelf.
Best Gifts for Baby
1. Lectrofan white noise
If you’re unfamiliar with the benefits of white noise, I encourage you to check out our blog post: Is White Noise Safe? In a nutshell, white noise is super helpful and helps babies and parents get into deeper levels of sleep.
Use caution though. Not all white noise machines are created equal. Some make looping sounds, others don’t get high enough. The Lectrofan is a client favorite and has RAVE reviews on Amazon.
2. Swaddles
Swaddling and babies go hand in hand, for good reason. If you’d like to learn more about why we swaddle babies for sleep and neurological development, please check out our post: Top 3 Reasons to Swaddle Your baby.
In a nut shell, there are a million swaddles on the market. Here are a couple tried and true, tested swaddles that we love:
SwaddleMe – best for parents that need a quick, straightforward and fairly effective swaddle.
Halo – Best for babies under 4 months that need arm restriction, but like room in the legs to move. This is also a great swaddle to use as a top layer for double swaddling.
Posh Peanut – for parents that are good at manually swaddling, this is the best fabric swaddle you can buy, hands down! Manual swaddling yields some of the best swaddles. A lot of colors and patterns to choose from.
Nested Bean – best for babies needing to transition out of an arms in swaddle. Typically around 4-5 months of age.
Magic Merlin Sleep Suit – best for babies needing to transition out of an arms in swaddle, usually beginning around 3-4 months of age. This sleep suit is super helpful with swaddling transitions and babies that still have their startle reflex.
3. Red light
When it comes to helping babies and parents sleep at night, lighting is crucial. When lighting is needed, the conventional go to is usually just to turn on a bedroom or hallway light, maybe even a lamp. The trouble is that these white and blue hues are detremential for melatonin production in both baby and parents. Red and Orange lights are best for night. We prefer to have multiple options for different areas of the home.
Red Night Light – best for hallways, bathrooms and large rooms. Manual on/off switch.
Hatch Baby – multiple white noise and light options. Level of sound and brightness of light are adjustable. User has the ability to control from their phone as well as on the device.
Best Gifts for New Parents
1. Sleep
It is estimated that the average new parent loses roughly 350 hours of sleep during the first year of their child’s life. Sleep deprivation is by far the hardest and most underestimated aspect of new parenthood. Whatever you can do to help the new parents in your lives get more sleep, do that! It may be offering to pay for or contributing for the services of a sleep specialist or newborn care specialist. You may offer to provide some night relief yourself. You could offer to take the older children for the day (or a few) so that the new parents have more time to rest. However you contribute here will be so helpful.
2. Paying for services
After sleep, working to reduce the load of everyday household tasks is numero uno. If you think about it, a lot of time is dedicated to these daily tasks. Grocery shopping, food prep and cooking, laundry, cleaning, caring for pets and older children and now a newborn.
Here are some ideas:
- Laundry
- Grocery shopping
- Meal delivery
- House cleaning
- Walking the animals of the house
- Services for care. Night Nanny, Newborn Care Specialist, Postpartum Doula for the newborn and Nanny or Babysitting Services for older children.
Ultimately, all of the little things that need to be done daily add up and having some help with them is one of the most requested gift ideas. Also, many of these services are generally considered “luxury” items that new parents don’t often splurge on for themselves. Go ahead, treat those new parents!
3. A pampering or entertainment service
For moms, the most requested items are massages, manicures, pedicures, wraps, scrubs or hair services. Anything relaxing and in the “spa” category . Dads tend to like entertainment splurges. Golfing, going to the movies, a new video game or gaming console.
All of these items help men and women generally, relax and unwind. Combining one of these pampering or entertainment services with a care service or meal (think date night out, dinner and a movie), is sure to be a double win for the new parents in your life!
It’s probably pretty apparent that most of the gift ideas for new parents listed above aren’t the typical baby rattles, books, toys or clothes. It’s not that these items aren’t good gifts, they can be great gift ideas and very much needed! We just wanted to help all the wonderful gift givers out there understand that the needs of sleep and care (baby and parents) for new parents are HUGE, especially in The Early Weeks and months of a baby’s life. Everything listed above will help with those two things in some way, big or small.
Would you like to gift the new parents in your life some of our services? Do you have questions about your baby or newborn?
www.TheEarlyWeeks.com or contact us HERE.
