Here, off the top of my head, are some of the best postpartum gifts I've ever received:
A week of meals (Thank you wonderful people!!)
A batch of muffins
A busket of granola
Pillars of the Earth
A pint of Kopp's red raspberry custard (which, sadly, I can't hope to receive again in my current locale)
Observation 1: These are almost all food. The joy of the meals is self-explanatory, but why should I still remember so fondly a dozen muffins I received over 8 years ago? Because they were the only thing I ate for as long as they lasted. For some reason, when I have a new baby, I cannot feed myself. I stand in the kitchen, feeling hungry, holding the baby, looking at all the food there, and thinking: It's all too hard. I can't do it. And I wander back out, sad and still hungry. This has improved since my mother-in-law has made a habit of coming to stay with us for a while when we have a new baby. I awaken from a nap with the baby on one side of me and a plate full of tacos lovingly tucked in on the other. But the problem can persist for a long time, so if you want to help a postpartum lady out, unwrap a bunch of string cheeses and put them front and center in her fridge with a note that only she's allowed to eat them.
Observation 2: Pillars of the Earth caught me by surprise, but wow. I read that book day and night for a week, and although real me felt like pure junk, imaginary me was having the time of her life building cathedrals (disclaimer: there was quite a bit of yucky stuff I skipped, particularly with the skittery postpartum brain). Now I always save a giant book I really want to read for postpartum. It helps.
Observation 3: You can never have too many sweat pants, especially postpartum.
6 comments:
Granola and huge books are among the finest of treasures. :)
Last baby, I managed to read every scrap of Jules Verne I'd ever been meaning to read. It was great.
Meals are definitely nice.
In our local church, there are quite a few women who will volunteer to make a dinner for a family with a new baby. It's fun. I've made quite a few dinners for new moms and I've been the happy recipient quite a few times now as well :). It certainly is nice to not have to think about dinner for the first week or two. (And there are some women whose gourmet meals make it almost worth having another baby just to get one!! Okay, not quite... but just about. :P )
I love the meals I've been given but the best.gift.ever. was 3 months of a cleaning service coming in and cleaning the house for me. It was amazing and wonderful and once I got over the initial weirdness of someone else in my home it was much appreciated.
In addition to what others have listed, I have also enjoyed gift cards for pizza.
I'm with Schlef. Dinner tonight, breakfast tomorrow, and the 5yo got some protein.
I ate the granola you sent me last time around day and night till it was gone. That wandering in and out of the kitchen sadly and hungrily thing is so true. Hey, now that I'm thinking of your granola, I really do need that recipe.
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