Pampering a New Mom

My good friend, Nicole, is going to deliver her third baby (and our godson!) any day.  Since she already has all of her baby gear, I thought I'd make her present all about her and her hospital stay.  I decided to put together a hospital "survival kit" to pamper her, her husband, and all of the sweet nurses that will care for her during her stay.

Nicole's Labor/Delivery/Postpartum Survival Kit in all of its glory

Here are a few pictures of the contents:

Non-smelly lotion, room air freshener, hand soap, mints, hand wipes, gum, tissues, chapstick

Granola bars, dark chocolates, hair bands, hair ties, notepad, baby "thank you" stationery

Scented foaming hand soap for visitors to use before holding the new baby.  "Please scrub before snuggles!  Thank you!"

In addition to the contents for Nicole, I included a fun surprise for the nurses.  I wish I could take credit for this brilliant idea, but like most creative ideas, I found this one on Pinterest!  The general idea is you fill a container with goodies, label it "Nurse Bait" with a cute little poem, and use it to lure the nurses in to take extra good care of the patient.  I decided to use a pail and shovel for the "Nurse Bait" container.  I found the poem here, printed it off on cardstock, and laminated it before attaching it to the pail.   

"Nurse Bait"

NURSE BAIT

When one’s in the hospital and feeling sick,

The very best thing is to get well quick.

The nurses are wonderful and take good care.

They can’t stay long.  It’s just not fair!

To lure them in to check on you

Even more often than they usually do,

This bucket of NURSE BAIT should do the trick,

To get them to see you often and quick!

So, with extra visits and extra care

Hopefully you’ll soon be outta here!

Cute, huh?!

Here's what the note attached to the crate says:

Friend's Name’s

Labor/Delivery/Postpartum

Survival Kit

Pamper yourself during your hospital stay with the following items:

• “Nurse Bait” (Bucket full of goodies to keep the nurses coming back to take extra good care of you!)
• Soothing lavender room spray for when things need freshening
• Burt’s Bees lotion - a non-flowery smell so that you can pamper yourself without overwhelming Baby's Name’s nose!
• Honeysuckle-scented foaming hand soap for visitors to use before holding Baby's Name.  “Please scrub before snuggles!”  It smells better than the hospital stuff, too!
• Tissues for the gamut of emotions
• Wet Ones - because you never know when you can use more hand wipes
• Kashi Cherry Dark Chocolate granola bars
• Dove Dark Chocolates
• Tic Tacs
• Extra Spearmint Gum
• Non-slide headbands and hair ties to keep your hair out of your face during labor & delivery
• Chap Stick
• Cute notepad for scribbling down notes, recording gifts, etc.
• Baby-themed “thank you” stationery
• Pink crate to help haul it (and other gifts you receive) all away

Originally, I was going to put it all into a cute basket, but I decided the crate was the way to go.  With a crate, your friend can use it to haul away whatever loot they get in the hospital (gifts, diapers, formula samples, etc.) and reuse it in the future.  I don't know about you, but I forgot to bring containers to carry everything home our first time in the hospital with a baby, so I thought this might be helpful.

Please, please, please feel free to copy and paste anything I typed up here and steal any of it to pamper your friend in the hospital.  Having a baby is tough work, and us mamas need to make sure we're all being pampered through the process!