The Ultimate Baby Shower Gift - First Time Mommy Must Have Items

The first three months of parenthood can be exhausting and may be described as hell. Mostly because when you add a baby to your family, you also add stress, guessing games, sleep deprivation, and a transition like nothing you have ever experienced.

Most people get new moms clothes or toys for their little ones. While these baby shower gifts are great for the short term and a wonderful thought, they don't stand the test of time and prove to be less than functional for a new mommy in her transition with getting used to the baby in her life.

When you buy clothes for a newborn, you buy based on size and season, most don't give any thought to a baby's development after those first few months and parents are left with having a ton of clothes that baby will quickly grow out of and few clothes for when the baby gets older.

The same is true for toys. Most newborns and infants don't need much to keep them amused, so most of the toys you give at a baby shower are cute to look at and fairly good thought for the short term, but given too many toys, the mom ends of giving the unused toys away when baby outgrows them and finds interest in something else as they grow.

Instead of being predictable, I decided to design a baby shower gift that was perfect for the moments when your kid is screaming and you don't know why. All the things that you don't really know you need until you are in the moment.

Introducing the First Time Mommy Survival Kit.

These are only from my own pediatrician's office and their recommendations in dosing for Tylenol and Ibuprofen. Along with some extra information about caring for your sick child when you are in a frantic bind with a baby with a fever.

**I'm not a medical professional**

Caring for Sick Child

The first time our daughter got a fever, she was three weeks old. I had no idea what we were supposed to do. They say that the pacifier thermometer or the thermometer under the arm are great. But, well, it's really not with a wiggly, cranky infant combined with a stressed out new mom.

So, while my child was burning up with fever, which by the way, is apparently not very worrisome, I raced to pharmacy. According to the pediatrician in our practice, we didn't need to be concerned until our baby is running at least 106 degrees.That sounds counter-productive to me. However, I raced to the local pharmacy to get medicine. My stepmother assured me that children's Tylenol would diffuse my daughter's very hot face.

In the middle of the local pharmacy, I started freaking out. The children's Tylenol bottle says for 2-11 years only. Oh boy. I started to worry. I paced up and down this children's medicine aisle looking for the infant medicine. Even the infant Tylenol says not to give to a child under 2 years old. I settled for the children's Tylenol and the Fever Bugs and went back and forth from the register and the aisle, putting it back and getting it again. Fretting about how much time I was spending in the pharmacy debating on whether to buy it.

If it wasn't the right stuff, I'd be wasting my money, if it was the right stuff, I needed to make sure that I got it for my baby.

Come to find out, my pediatrician gave us a dosing regimen they recommend for children under 2 years old. However, from that moment on, I really was concerned that other new moms would have to go through the same anxiety and panic I did standing in that pharmacy aisle in the middle of all those children's medicines.

When I was just starting out with a newborn on my hip, I decided early on I wanted to breastfeed. I didn't know what I needed and I wasn't sure how to start, other than latch the child on and hope for the best. In the end, I learned that I needed things. Extra things. You can adapt your survival guide to fit the needs of the new mother. You can do bottles and a can of formula for mothers not breastfeeding. It doesn't have to be specific to breastfeeding. So far, I have only had breastfeeding mothers that I have given the survival kit to.

All babies need to eat and regardless of how the new mom to be decides to feed her child you can add it to the survival kit. Any new mom will be thrilled with a head start on her supplies to help feed and support her newborn in times of exhaustion in those first three months.

This section of the survival kit is really based on the preferences of the child, so you have to pick things that may or may not be used. I personally picked things that my daughter did use and found comfort at any given moment.

All the items in the survival guide are things that I have personally used and loved for our daughter. The comfort items are no exceptions.

• Most babies like to be swaddled, so I pick up a few nice swaddling blankets.
• Some babies, depending on their temperament will enjoy a good pacifier. We breastfed our daughter for the first three months of her life, but a pacifier was a great comfort when I went back to work and wasn't available for comfort nursing.
• Nurses at the hospital will show you how to use receiving blankets to swaddle your child, but in reality, they are too bulky for the task and really don't work well. In the same token, traditional burp rags are worthless when it comes to trying to catch spit up and baby vomit on their small pieces of cloth. Receiving blankets make GREAT burp rags and changing pads.

• Make it personal
• Use things you know work
• You don't have to spend a lot of money
• Save up the items in advance
• Most items can be gotten at a local pharmacy or Walmart
• Write up a how-to guide on items that may not be common (things like Gripe Water, I usually put in with a warning label or add a dosing guide with the Tylenol provided from my pediatrician's office)
• Decorate the box with your own unique flare
• The homemade feel to your survival box really puts the 'thought that counts' into your gift and can make a great impression on the new mom.
• She may not know it at the time you give it to her, but when she needs the things in the survival kit, she will thank you tremendously.