Gift Ideas - Pregnancy Survival Box

I’m one of those people that love coming up with cute, fun and different gift ideas. Whether it’s for a birthday, an anniversary, Christmas, Easter, a new baby or just because – you will often find me jotting down ideas I’ve come up with late at night and browsing through Pinterest for inspiration! So I thought it might be nice if I started sharing on here some of the gifts I put together, so that if you’re also looking for ideas, you might find some inspiration here.

In today’s post, as I’ve just become an auntie for the second time, I thought I would show you one of the Pregnancy Survival Boxes I have put together for someone. We did do one of these for both of my sister-in-laws with very similar products in them, but these pictures are actually from one I put together for a friend of mine. When someone is first pregnant, they may experience a whole range of feelings, emotions and symptoms, so I thought it might be nice to receive a box of goodies from a loved one to help them through the next nine months. People will often start buying things for the baby and conversation often centres on the baby, so it’s nice for the Mum to feel like she’s being taken care of too.

To start with, you will need to find a nice box to put everything in. This can either be done right at the beginning, or it might be better to wait until you’ve bought everything so you know roughly how big a box you need. If you know the gender of the baby, you could get something to tie in with that, but it’s just as nice to get something neutral, or something that you think the Mum will like. We found this particular box in Homesense, where they have a brilliant range of all sorts of different gift boxes, but any nice box will work fine. The Mum-to-be that I gave this to now uses it as a memory box for her little boy, so it’s nice to know it’s been put to good use. 

Now, moving on to what I decided to put in the Pregnancy Survival Box. I actually started by asking around a few friends who already had babies, about what types of things they really wanted while they were pregnant. Obviously everyone is different, but it gave me some good general ideas for what a mum-to-be might appreciate. The first thing I wanted to get was some sort of pregnancy journal, as a lot of Mums I spoke to said they liked being able to look back at what they’d written once their baby had arrived, or when they went on to have subsequent children. I chose this Bump to Birthday Pregnancy and First Year Journal, which is beautifully presented and has room for so much information. It’s nice because it has a lot of prompts throughout the book, allowing the parents to write about things they may not have thought about. For each week, there is also some information about how the baby is growing, as well as spaces for scan pictures. The great thing about this journal is that it goes right up until the baby turns one, so the Mum-to-be will have details about the pregnancy and her child’s first year all in one book.

As well as the pregnancy journal, I wanted to put some sort of book in the box for the Mum-to-be to read before the baby arrived. There are so many factual books available that try to prepare someone for pregnancy (and they’re great in their own right), but I wanted something a little more fun, that would make my friend laugh. I had heard great things about The Unmumsy Mum and about how real it is (it includes everything about motherhood from the mess to the hilarious moments and how it’s totally fine to not know what you’re doing!) so after lots of research I picked that book to include. Other good motherhood books that you could look at putting in include Why Mummy Drinks, Happy Mum Happy Baby and How to Grow a Baby and Push it Out.

Once I’d sorted out which book to include, I knew I also wanted to find a good DVD for my friend to watch when she just needed to put her feet up for a bit. I wanted to try and find something related to having a baby, and a friend of mine recommended ‘What to Expect When You’re Expecting’, so I thought that sounded pretty apt! I still haven’t had a chance to watch it, but have given it to a few people now and they’ve all told me how brilliantly funny it is, so I definitely made the right choice!

Something else that I thought a Mum-to-be might like was a pregnancy/baby magazine to flick through. Sometimes trying to read through a huge book on pregnancy/having a baby/childhood just isn’t possible, and it’s much easier to spend a few minutes, while you drink a cup of tea, flicking through the pages of a magazine. So I went to my local shop and picked up Gurgle and Mother and Baby magazines to add to my box. 

One thing that most pregnant ladies will have to deal with at some point is morning sickness. And when I was doing my research for what to put in the box, so many people said that they would always have been grateful for things to try and help the nausea. This is obviously quite a personal thing, as some women can’t stand the sight or smell of certain foods, whilst others will find they have cravings for things that help with the sickness. So if you know the Mum-to-be well, it can help to do a bit of digging to try and find out what foods they are going for and which foods they are trying to avoid. The friend I made this box for had a real craving for Hula Hoops, so I bought a big multipack bag to include in the box. She also found that sucking mints helped with the nausea, so again, I found some mints to put in too. 

Alongside some food items, I also thought it would be nice to add some teas that are known for helping with nausea and sickness. Again, this will depend on the person you are making the box for. One of my sister-in-laws couldn’t stand hot drinks when she was pregnant, so there was obviously no point in putting tea in for her. But for this friend, I included some peppermint tea to help with nausea, and some camomile and honey to help her relax.

I know from speaking to friends and family that, when you’re pregnant, it can sometimes be hard to feel nice about your body. Everything is changing, your clothes don’t fit any more and you might be feeling uncomfortable. So I thought it was also really important to include some self-care items to help the mum-to-be treat herself and feel a bit pampered. I started with some pregnancy specific products from Cussons. I’m not sure if the individual products I bought for this box are still available now, but you can get a Mum and Me Bump Gift Pack from Amazon that includes Body Lotion, Bath Soak, Shower Cream and Stretch Mark Cream, which would make a nice little gift for someone. We actually gave my sister-in-law one of these, and she commented how much she loved the Stretch Mark cream, so it’s a nice way for someone to try the products before they decide if they want to buy bigger ones themselves.

I also thought it would be nice to put a selection of face masks in, so the mum-to-be could perhaps enjoy relaxing with a cup of tea whilst pampering her skin. Places like Superdrug and Boots usually sell individual sachets of face masks for all different skin types and reasons, so I picked up a few different ones to give my friend a few to choose from. 

Next up, I thought I would include a can of Batiste Oriental Dry Shampoo, mainly for those days when they’re not feeling brilliant and don’t feel up to doing a full hair wash. Obviously you could go for whatever fragrance or brand you fancy – I just chose this one because it smelt nice! 

I also thought, as part of the pampering side of things, I should include a candle, as I know how relaxing it can be to light some candles of an evening. And, of course, as it was for a pregnancy survival box, I chose the Baby Powder Yankee Candle, which smells incredible whether you’re having a baby or not!

Finally, for the mum-to-be, I decided you can’t have a pamper without painting your nails. As we didn’t know the gender of her baby, I picked one pink nail varnish and one blue, just to have both eventualities covered! I also found a cute card to include in the box, which said ‘And so, the adventure begins…’ on the front. At the time, it was very difficult to find a card that said ‘Mum-to-be’ on it, but more recently I’ve seen more of them cropping up. However, as the card I chose shows, you don’t need to get a specific pregnancy card for it to fit with the theme, and it will be the words that are inside that matter most. 

Although I didn’t want to make this box particularly centred on the baby (it was more for the Mum after all!) I did decide to put a little hat and booties in it that I’d found in John Lewis, just because they were cute! 

And that was everything I put in the Pregnancy Survival Box for my friend. She seemed to really love it when I gave it to her, as did both my sister-in-laws, and I like to think it helped to make them feel a bit special at a time when everything was changing. I hope this has given you some ideas for making your own box for someone you know that may have just announced a pregnancy. I had so much fun putting it all together and it was nice to spoil my friend with a few treats.

Have you given anyone a box like this before, or have you received one yourself? If you’ve been pregnant, what would you need in your Pregnancy Survival Box?! 

Follow me on Bloglovin, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+ and YouTube

Organising a Baby Shower

I’ve been doing a bit of blog admin recently, and realised I have numerous folders full of photos I’ve taken for blog posts, which I’ve never actually got round to writing. Whether it’s been that my health has got in the way or I had too much work on at Uni, they’ve just been left sitting there, which to me feels like a real shame (especially as I put so much time and energy into taking the photos in the first place!) So, as well as my goal to start uploading more new posts to my blog now that I’ve finished university, I also plan to dig some photos out of the archives and finally get my posts written to go alongside them. I’ll only share posts that are still relevant today (I don’t think there’s much point in me writing about a ‘new’ product launch that came out three years ago!) so hopefully you will still find my archive posts useful and interesting. And don’t worry – I also have plenty of new blog post ideas in mind, so I plan to do a nice mixture of old and new.

Today’s post that I want to share with you comes from photos I took about a year ago when my sister-in-law was still pregnant (can you believe ‘little’ Noah is now almost one!) Most of my friends and family know how much I enjoy planning and organising a good party, so when I was given the opportunity to arrange Lisa’s Baby Shower, I was over the moon! Pinterest soon became my best friend – I spent every spare minute I could find browsing pins for all sorts of Baby Shower related things (you can check out my Baby Shower board here) and things gradually started coming together. Obviously everyone’s tastes are different, so what we came up with may not be to everyone’s liking. But I thought I would share some of the things we did to make it a special day in case you’re just starting out with your planning and are feeling a little bit overwhelmed! 

Apart from sorting out the location (we booked a cosy room in a local church) the first thing I had to do was come up with some sort of theme for the party. We didn’t know baby’s gender at the time, so we wanted something neutral yet colourful and fun. Richard and Lisa had just had a beautiful mural of an elephant painted in the nursery, and so the idea of an elephant theme began. We complemented this with pastel rainbow shades to bring some colour to the event. Before we went any further, I wanted to check with Lisa if there was anything she either really wanted us to include or absolutely did not want to happen on the day. Luckily for me, she was fairly happy for us to go ahead with our own ideas, so it was able to be a nice surprise for her when she arrived on the day. The one thing Lisa did have a say over was the invite list – she sent over names and contact details so we could send out the invitations to the right people.

After a lot of planning and one or two minor breakdowns (!) things came together perfectly on the day. I was lucky to have a lot of help from my other sister-in-law, Emma, and my Mum, which made life so much easier. When it came to decorating the venue, there was only so much we could do to transform a slightly dated church hall into a room fit for a baby shower. But I think we did a pretty good job! The main part of the decoration was a range of different balloons. We found some rainbow pastel balloons, which we blew up and hung on the door so that our guests knew where the party was happening. We also found a couple of adorable foil balloons – one with an elephant in a bath and a giant baby, which we took to a local balloon shop to be filled with helium. Lastly, we found some latex rainbow balloons, which matched the elephant on the foil balloon. These were also filled with helium and placed up the length of the hallway entrance to the room. 

Above the door, we hung some beautiful personalised bunting, which we discovered on Amazon at a really reasonable price. Emma and I had also made Lisa a nappy cake (our first attempt at making one – we were really pleased with the result!), which we sat on a table just by the door. When Lisa came into the building, you could tell what a lovely surprise it all was and she seemed really pleased with all the little touches.

We had decided to base the party around an afternoon tea (because everyone loves tea, scones and cakes right?!) so we set out tables and chairs, and then covered the tables with pretty cloths to try and make it feel less like a church hall! We managed to gather together some beautiful tea sets between us, which looked perfect sat on the tables next to the lovely IKEA lanterns. Around the room we also hung lots of vintage-style bunting and fairy lights to try and make it feel as much like a cosy tearoom as possible. 

As well as the tea and cake, we also wanted to include a variety of activities to keep everyone entertained. This is where Pinterest came in very handy – I got so much inspiration browsing through pins from other people’s baby showers! The first game we played was ‘Pin the Dummy on the baby’, which seemed to bring out rather a lot of cheating behaviour! In the end, we concluded that players shouldn’t have the opportunity to feel the board too much before sticking the dummy on, as we ended up with a lot of dummies very close to the baby’s mouth! 

There were also some quieter activities that people could do as and when they fancied it. One of these was called ‘Baby’s First Alphabet Book.’ It was basically a pile of white card, with each piece having “A is for..,” “B is for…” and so on written at the top. The idea being, that each person at the baby shower would draw and colour in a picture (or two!) that matched the letter of the alphabet on the card. Once they were all completed, the pile could be joined together to make an alphabet book for the new baby (and a lovely keepsake for the Mum-to-Be). For another game, we had a couple of baby bottles filled with sweets (counted out by my Mum!) Everyone then had to place their guesses for how many sweets were in each bottle and write them on the chart against their name. The person whose guess was the closest would win the bottle (and the sweets!) to take home.

I always think photos are a brilliant way to create lasting memories, but I know it can sometimes feel a bit awkward when you’re in a larger group and you don’t necessarily know everyone. So we decided to have a photo booth corner with some cute new baby related props to encourage everyone to take some funny photos. These pictures could then be shared with Lisa, meaning she can then print them out and make a keepsake album or add them to her pregnancy/baby book. 

I don’t think you can have a baby shower without asking everyone to dig out a baby photo or two! We decided that, for another game, we would ask people to guess which baby photo matched to each guest. So, before the party, I contacted everyone and asked them to send me over an old photo of themselves. I then arranged these on pieces of card and make some little forms that each guest could fill in. It was so much fun looking through all the photos (some more embarrassing than others!) and trying to guess who was who. It definitely helped to break the ice a bit too. 

Another guessing game was to ask everyone to make their predictions about the new baby – I always think it’s fun to see what sorts of things people go for, and I know it’s quite interesting for the Mum and Dad-to-be to look through once baby has arrived to see if anyone was correct! Again, I just put together some paper forms so guests could record their predictions for date and time of birth, weight, length, hair colour, eye colour, gender and name suggestions. Some of these were easier to guess than others – for example, none of us really knew how long a typical baby was!

I was really conscious of making sure that Lisa had some keepsakes from her special day, and I found these beautiful cloud-shaped advice cards, which I thought would be nice for her to look through after the party. On Pinterest I also came across a lovely ‘Wishes for Baby’ printable and again, thought this would be a nice keepsake for the Mum-to-be. 

Our final two games definitely brought with them the most laughs! Firstly, we did a blindfolded nappy changing game. We split into two teams and the winners were the fastest team to all change a nappy blindfolded. We had some rather interesting nappies, which I'm pretty sure wouldn't have lasted long on a real baby!

For the other game we covered a selection of baby food jars with numbers, and then everyone had to guess what flavour/meal each one was by smelling and tasting each jar in turn. Eating baby food isn’t something any of us had ever really done before, so it was interesting to say the least! All I can say is, some tasted a lot nicer than others did! 

We did a bring and share with the food to take the pressure off us providing everything. We ended up with a yummy selection of sweet and savoury foods, and there was plenty to go around. My sister-in-law, Emma, made some delicious cupcakes and we found these cloud toppers to match the cloud-shaped advice cards. They looked brilliant cascading down the cake stand, popping out against the rainbow sprinkles. We also found some grey and yellow elephant confetti to decorate the table with.

One of my favourite parts of the baby shower décor was the amazing cake my friend Mel, from The Cake Revolution made. She’s made a few cakes for me over the last few years, so I knew I could count on her to do something perfect for such a special occasion. I sent her over a few photos of cakes I’d found online that I quite liked, all including elephants in one way or another, and she worked her magic making this beautiful Mother and Baby elephant cake. It tasted delicious too!

I couldn’t believe how quickly the party went, and it was soon time for everyone to start heading home. Before everybody left, I asked them to leave Lisa (and Richard!) a message in this beautiful guest book so that they had something special to look back on in years to come. We also had a little basket of favours for people to take home. After lots of browsing through favour ideas on Pinterest, I decided to buy a box of fruit teas in individual envelopes and tie a ‘Baby is Brewing’ tag onto each one. They looked great and received a lot of compliments from guests as they took one home with them. 

Despite the organisation being a little stressful at times, I was so pleased with how it all turned out and was happy to see Lisa and her friends enjoying it all. Hopefully it left her with lots of happy memories before the new arrival. And I hope this post might have offered you some ideas and inspiration if you’re planning your own baby shower sometime soon.

What do you think of all the decorations and games that we came up with for Lisa’s baby shower? Are you planning a baby shower soon?

Follow me on Bloglovin, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+ and YouTube