I fell asleep yesterday during my kids’ quiet time instead of running off to my laptop to blog.  You’d think that I was the pregnant one and not my good friend from High School.  Tara is expecting her first baby any day now but she was slaving away at work yesterday afternoon while I was napping on my couch instead of doing something productive like blogging. 

Really, though if I had blogged about what I had planned to yesterday afternoon, I may have given away the surprise.  You see, Tara and I go way back.  We met in High School and shared lots of experiences from learning to drive a stick shift to travelling throughout Europe following college graduation and being in each other’s weddings to sharing the birth of our babies together.  I want to do something special for her surrounding the birth of her baby.  And since last Friday’s post was all about unique Birthday gifts for little people, why not follow up with unique gifts for the new mom?! 

• A new mom has time for diapers, crying babies, and feedings….but she doesn’t have time to make herself a meal.  Why not give her a gift certificate for a “Dinners By Design” type place?  She and her significant others can go beforehand and whip up some meals for the freezer and have them on hand for when the time comes.
• How about finding a meal service that would prepare and deliever a meal?
• Clean house?  Forget it.  Send a maid service once a week for the first month
• How about a date night for the new parents?  Give ’em a few weeks to settle in with the new bambino and then present them with a gift card to a favorite restaurant or coffee shop and the movies.  Tell them you’ll babysit.  They may not be gone for long, but at least they got away!
• Mom just wants to relax and be alone…see if she is up for a couple of hours at the spa.  Give her a gift card for a massage.  Again, give her some time before she’s ready to leave baby.–but trust me, in the first 6-8 weeks, she will be.
• How about a “Meet My Baby Brunch?!”  Everyone is dying to see the new little one, so host a baby brunch at your friend’s home.  Go there the night before and clean it up for her, then prepare some yummy food for the guests who can stop in for a two-hour window and meet the new member of the family.  Plan this for about 4 weeks after the due date…have some hand-sanitizer on hand, take photos, and make it memorable.  The ticket for admission: a casserole or food item for the happy young family. 
• Other ideas: a motherhood necklace with baby’s name or birthstone, a personalized book or CD (baby’s name), a keepsake rattle (those silver engraved ones), “on this day in history” describing everything that happened in the world on her baby’s birthday, cute puzzle-piece step-stools that spell baby’s name….

Either way, the fact that you remembered to honor the new mom and her sweetie is enough.  Happy New Moms!