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The Mom Hour

The most fun you've ever had with two moms you've never met.

in Episodes on March 13, 2018

Baby Shower Gift Ideas (& My, How Things Have Changed): Episode 147

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Whether you’re expecting a new baby or love showering friends with thoughtful baby gifts, this episode is for you. Meagan and Sarah enlist the help of some savvy new moms to get the latest product must-haves, plus rely on our own experience and the benefit of hindsight to dissect what’s really essential, what you can probably pass on, and which gifts go the distance. Join us!

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Links we mentioned (or should have) in Episode 147

All the product links are in their own lists below. Special thanks to our own Katie Addiss and the awesome focus group of new moms from Denver and Minneapolis for their contributions and ideas!

  • Struggles, Successes & Discoveries (Episode 133 that contains the lengthy discussion about cleaning humidifiers)
  • Gift Ideas For Babies, Toddlers & Little Kids (one of our holiday gift guide episodes that contains more great gift ideas for new babies, including some of our favorite books and toys for baby’s first year)

Baby Shower Gift Ideas

Amazon links are affiliates. That means if you click through and make a purchase you’ll be helping support The Mom Hour at no additional cost to you. Thank you for helping us continue to produce the podcast!

Go-to gifts from moms who know what’s up:

  • All the World by Liz Garton Scanlon – Sarah’s new favorite book to give as a new baby gift
  • Zutano Cozie Fleece Baby Booties With Grippers
  • Soft moccasins for pre-walkers, like any made by Robeez or these from Minnetonka
  • We both love Tea Collection for their soft cotton play clothes and jammies
  • Boppy Newborn Lounger
  • Leachco Podster Sling-Style Infant Seat Lounger
  • Boppy Nursing Pillow and Positioner
  • Magnificent Baby Unisex Newborn Footie
  • A pretty Chewbeads Necklace for mom
  • Fisher-Price Deluxe Rock ‘n Play Sleeper
  • Skip Hop 3-Stage Activity Center
  • Little Giraffe Luxe Blanket
  • Fisher-Price Bath Tub
  • WubbaNub Infant Pacifier

Gifts and gadgets we scoffed at until we realized they really ARE that great:

  • Fridababy NoseFrida Nasal Aspirator (aka “the snotsucker”)
  • Windi the Gaspasser by Fridababy
  • Burp cloths shaped to stay on your shoulder, like these
  • Baby Bargains: Secrets to Saving 20% to 50% on baby cribs, car seats, strollers, high chairs and much, much more! (recommended for moms who want to sort through what’s worth the extra money and what you can go cheaper on)
  • Working moms in our focus group recommend registering for a LOT of pumping storage bags because you’ll go through them faster than you think!
  • Fisher-Price 4-in-1 Sling N Seat Tub (because bathing baby in a sink is harder than you think!)
  • Keekaroo Peanut Changer (so you never have to wash changing pad covers again)
  • Katie’s new favorite humidifier is this one: Ultrasonic Cool Mist Humidifier

Supposed “essentials” that some of us found over-rated (and others did not!)

  • Teeny tiny newborn-sized dresses for baby girls
  • Impractical shoes for babies who can’t walk
  • Expensive sound machines (that’s what electric fans are for!)
  • Co-sleeper bassinets, or any pricey one-purpose place for baby to sleep
  • Super adorable but not-super-necessary diaper stackers, like this one
  • Dockatot

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Filed Under: Episodes Tagged With: gifts, new mom, pregnancy, products

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Comments

  1. Liana says

    March 14, 2018 at 3:19 am

    Hi ladies! I’m an American living in Sweden. I love your podcast! My daughter is 20 months and the windii saved my life so many times when she was a newborn. I think it actually is a Swedish invention, as are all the nose frida products. It helped when my daughter had to pass gas but also sometimes a bunch of poop would come out too, haha. So watch out! But afterwards my daughter was always so much calmer. Buy a bunch of those!

    Reply
  2. Shannon Allen says

    July 24, 2018 at 12:51 pm

    Hi Ladies. Looooove listening in every week to get my mom-fix!
    I could have sworn on this episode that y’all talked about a great umbrella stroller? I’m not able to find anything in reference to it on your site. Can you link me your recommendation for the umbrella stroller of your liking?

    Reply
    • Sarah Powers says

      July 25, 2018 at 8:28 am

      Hi Shannon! Meagan did talk about going with a slightly more upscale umbrella stroller after trying a bunch of cheap ones. I think the reason we didn’t link it up is that it’s been almost a decade since that purchase! It was a MacLaren, probably similar to this one (affiliate link): https://amzn.to/2LDFBRh, but we’re a little out of the stroller game these days so I’m sure you’ll find other great ones out there as well. Thanks for commenting!

      Reply

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The Mom Hour
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📲Listen now wherever you get your podcasts!⠀
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With nearly a year of “everything’s cancelled!” behind us, and facing down an early 2021 of “Who knows?”, we’ve all learned a couple things:⠀
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1️⃣ Truth #1: We all need to set goals and make plans to stay on course and keep working toward our deepest priorities, especially when life is unpredictable.⠀
2️⃣Truth #2: When life is unpredictable, it feels really hard to set goals. How do we make these two realities jive?⠀
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The solution: goal setting with a big dose of self-awareness and self-empathy. As 2020 taught us, things aren’t always going to look exactly the way we plan, but that doesn’t mean goal-setting is cancelled!⠀
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From our personal finances to family priorities; hobbies and household projects to travel (what?!) and extracurricular activities, Sarah and Meagan are here with a real-life conversation about goal-setting that will meet you where you are and help you plan what you can – while allowing a lot of flexibility for the things that may change along the way.⠀
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Sarah here, friends. It’s getting REALLY hard to find shows that all three kids enjoy—not too mature for the 7yo, and not too little-kid-ish for the tween. This brand new mystery series from Disney - geared toward ages 6-14 - hit the mark and then some. They LOVED it. There’s a little suspense (just enough), great characters, and plot twists galore. We can’t wait to keep watching to see what happens next—thanks for including us in the premiere, @disneychannelpr!

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When you unpack next year, just run the napkins and dish towels through a quick wash cycle and you’re ready to go!

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We're not an interview podcast as our primary form We're not an interview podcast as our primary format; never have been, and don't plan to be. So when we bring outside voices onto the show, we try to do it very mindfully - covering topics outside our personal spheres of experience, or that we believe this community will benefit from hearing more about. Sometimes a guest comes to us by popular request; sometimes a pitch catches our eye (about one in 1,000, to be honest); most often, we approach people whose message and work we admire and are genuinely excited to talk to.⠀
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I hope tonight, after you've picked up the hundredth tiny bit of wrapping paper, or finally got that toy working after wrestling with the battery pack for an hour, or stepped on an errant piece of Lego, that you can look back over your day and identify a few moments of comfort and coziness. ⠀
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Meagan is continuing her daily blog posts through Christmas Day, sharing a short tip, truth, or bit of perspective each day. Check out the full post at themomhour.com/holidayhelp, or via the link in our bio!⠀
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"Your holiday to-do list wasn't a manifest of dema "Your holiday to-do list wasn't a manifest of demands penned by a hostile captor, it was an optimistic catalog of suggestions lovingly created for your present self by your past self. ⠀
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Literally everything on it is optional. ⠀
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The Elf can show up for 2 days instead of 25.⠀
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Your un-mailed Christmas cards can go out on Friday as "holiday cards".⠀
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You can make cookies on Christmas Eve. Or Christmas Day. Or not at all.⠀
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You are not behind: not today, not tomorrow, not even 7 PM Thursday evening."⠀⠀
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Meagan is continuing her daily blog posts through Christmas Day, sharing a short tip, truth, or bit of perspective each day. Check out the full post at themomhour.com/holidayhelp, or via the link in our bio!⠀
✨
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