Gifts at the Hospital

One of the things that everyone recommended was bringing a gift for EG to the hospital, something we could give her that we could say was being given to her by the baby.

Honestly, if I hadn't heard about the idea from so many people I wouldn't have done it.  It seems sort of dishonest to say that Ocho could be giving a present to EG, but at the same time, it certainly did wonders to quell the growing gifts that Ocho was recieving.

Luckily for us, EG had just had her birthday.  I'm one of those mean mommies who doesn't give EG all of her presents right away- I put some of them aside for rainy days, and other times.  This was one of those great moments when I was able to add some of her birthday presents to the pile, and not go out and spend too much on another gift for her.

When putting together the gift I had a few considerations:

1. Nothing to extravagant.  I didn't want it to overshadow the arrival of the baby, and I didn't want it to be something so expensive, especially with all the extra costs we have right now with Ocho coming.  Double diapers are expensive!

2. Useable right away.  When I first thought about the gift, my mom had given EG playdough for her birthday.  I thought that was perfect.  But then my sister-in-law mentioned that playdough wouldn't exactly be easy to use in the hospital.  We wanted the gift to be something that she could interact with right away, sitting in the hospital bed with me.  This also knocked out bubbles, and anything else that needs to be an outside toy.

3. Long life span.  I wanted to make sure she had something that she could associate with her sister in a more permanent way.  She's good at making connections for her birthday presents, and I wanted to reinforce that these were gifts from Ocho, not just items for her.

So, what did I put in it?

I got EG a new t-shirt, which I thought was really really cute.  Something to say to the world that she's the big sister.  I also thought she could wear it to school the next day to announce the baby to her school.

I went out and bought the snowy tails book. Interactive, with lots of things to touch and playwith- I thought it was a great book because Ocho could play with it too.

Then I stole 'The Foot Book' from one of her birthday presents.  I thought the gift needed something else, and it turns our I was right, because this book was definitely her favorite!

I'm really glad we went with the gift.  She carried the bag around all week, and has told me on more than one occasion that Ocho gave this to her.  It definitely made things a bit sweeter.