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New Mommy Survival Kit

You think love is a battlefield, Pat Benetar?  How about motherhood?!  Sleepless nights, nonstop nursing, diaper change after diaper change….  A new mom needs an arsenal of weapons to combat the new challenges she faces.

So, I present to you, the New Mommy Survival Kit:

New Mommy Survival Kit | The Thinking Closet

First, let me introduce you to the recipient of this New Mommy Survival Kit: my dear friend, Laura!  She’s a gifted writer, director, and actor…and as beautiful inside as she is out.

My Friend Laura | The Thinking Closet

But I can’t talk about Laura without mention of Brittany, too.  The three of us gals have been buddies since college.  We roomed together our junior year and have since had the honor of being bridesmaids in each other’s weddings.  Here’s a photo of us cutting it up on the dance floor at Brittany’s wedding back in 2010.  (It’s inevitable…when we’re together, raucous laughter and dancing ensue.)

Laura, Brittany, and Lauren | The Thinking Closet

This March, Laura and her husband Jordan had a baby, making them first-time parents.  Yay!

So, when Brittany visited us here in Orlando over her spring break last month, we conspired to create a care package for our third musketeer.  We collected items to help make Laura’s transition into mommyhood a little easier and hopefully a lot more fun.

Let me give you a tour of what we put together.

New Mommy Survival Kit:

New Mommy Survival Kit | The Thinking Closet

  1. custom “I Love My Drama Mama” onesie (download the free silhouette studio file here)
  2. burp cloths made from cloth diapers (burp cloth tutorial for the beginner sewist here)
  3. tissues
  4. travel-size wet wipes
  5. diapers 
  6. scented candle
  7. cucumber masque 
  8. nail polish
  9. breath mints
  10. dry shampoo
  11. Johnson’s baby bedtime lotion
  12. Logan & Lenora wet bag (made by our talented friend, Rachel!)
  13. homemade Tollhouse bars (a favorite treat of ours)

A few things for the baby, a few things for the mama, and diapers for both of them!  Well, the diapers themselves are officially for the baby, but the silly notes we stuck to them…those are all intended to make Laura smile during those late night diaper changes.  (Thanks to Jess from Bright Green Door for inspiring this idea with her “diaper diaries.”)

WARNING: These photos may contain bathroom humor.

New Mommy Survival Kit | The Thinking Closet

New Mommy Survival Kit | The Thinking Closet

New Mommy Survival Kit | The Thinking Closet

New Mommy Survival Kit | The Thinking Closet

New Mommy Survival Kit | The Thinking Closet

We added little notes to the rest of the gifts…

New Mommy Survival Kit | The Thinking Closet

…packaged it up and mailed it off to Laura!

New Mommy Survival Kit | The Thinking Closet

Her reaction?  Well, the word she wrote to me in all caps in her text was, “AMAZING!”  I’d consider this New Mommy Survival Kit a success.

To close, here are a few photos of Brittany and me during our windy crafternoon:

New Mommy Survival Kit | The Thinking Closet

Dear reader, what would you include in a New Mommy Survival Kit?  

Have a happy Friday, everyone!  {I have been known to link up here.}

This is Lauren, signing off.

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78 Comments

  1. I made something similar for my cousin when she had her first. I included some trash magazines, bubble bath and candles, ear plugs and Tylenol.

    1. Lian, thanks for the shout-out! And I’m so happy to know that our friendship is palpable in this post. I love my girls!

  2. I agree with Mom–I love that pic of you all dancing. PURE JOY! I also quite enjoyed the diaper notes…genius and entertaining…I couldn’t get enough of them, so I went back to the first picture, and yes, I zoomed in to read them ‘all! I can just imagine how much fun you and B had coming up with those! And I’m with Gianna in that lots of my friends are having babies now, so will have to do some kits of my own for them! Thanks for the great ideas!

    1. Love that you utilized the zoom-action, sister! Yes, B and I did have a lot of fun with this…and knowing you and your zany sense of humor, I’d love to hear what new diaper notes you might come up with. (Movie quotes…accents…I’m just laughing imagining them all. Ha ha!)

  3. Ok…I heard about this care package, but oh my word…you guys are hilarious and so thoughtful! 🙂 My favorite diaper quote? “Pooping…….(please wait)” (don’t judge, potty humor gets worse the older the boys get…)

    Loved the pics of you and B too. 🙂

    1. I’m glad to know that we were right on track with the bathroom humor, then. And I definitely found the “Pooping….(please wait)” one on a onesie online and couldn’t resist grabbing it for one of our diaper notes. B and I chuckled through that whole step of our survival kit crafting. Hopefully, they’ll give Laura some chuckles when she needs them most. 🙂

  4. What a great gift and how thoughtul to provide the TollHouse bars to carry your friend through! Loved the REPAID diaper!!! (Seriously — who figures these things out in the first place!?) That nail polish will come in handy marking the housekey so she can find it on the keychain while peering past the baby and the armload of paraphenalia she is trying to get in the house in one trip 🙂 Pinning! Thanks so much for sharing on Busy Monday!

    1. Charlene, what a great idea to use the nail polish not so much to paint nails (which she will doubtfully have time for), but to mark her house key! Now, THAT’S creative. Thanks for the inspiration!

    1. It was really a lot of fun to put together…and for Brittany and I to try to climb inside the mind of a new mother. I’m sure you’d have a lot of clever ideas of your own to add to a gift like this! Thanks for stopping by and for commenting, Laura.

  5. Love, love, love this idea! My cousin is expecting in June and I have been helping plan her baseball themed shower and posting all about it, but in the excitement to get everything planned I completely forgot about a due date gift to bring to the hospital…this is the perfect idea! I am going to try and put together something similar for my cousin 🙂

    1. I love the idea of a baseball-themed shower! Sounds like fun. And that’s so sweet of you to come up with a due date gift for your cousin on top of all that. I’m sure that whatever you come up with will be fantastic!

    1. Ahhhh! Amy from A Nest for All Seasons! I’ve been a faithful follower of your blog since I started blogging in September of last year. I’ve been very inspired by your resources for bloggers and photographers. Your concept of “trust bucks” has really helped me navigate the uncharted waters of monetizing my blog now that I’m on WordPress.org, and I’ve been relying on your “money shots for square layouts” post to help me broaden my skills as an amateur photographer. (It’s probably what helped me get on Looksi in the first place. See, it all comes full circle.) Anyway, sorry to gush so much, I guess I was just so floored and honored to see your comment here tonight, Amy. Thanks!

    1. Thanks for hosting The Pinterest Challenge each month; it’s always fun to sift through my recent projects to find one that had some Pin-spiration to link up at your monthly link party (and there’s always at least one!).

  6. I love all the notes! It really adds a level of uniqueness that makes it stand out from typical baby shower gifts. The notes would so be saved somewhere special if I received them. What an excellent gift giver you are, Lauren! Love all the pics of you and your girls! Hugs!

    1. You’re as sentimental as I am, Bethany. I still have every scrap of paper that my husband has ever written me a note on. Thankfully, we have a chest devoted just to our written correspondence, so it feels less like clutter and more like a keepsake. 😉

  7. Your friend will absolutely love this very heart felt and meaningful gift! As a mom of 3 and with another on the way, this is the perfect gift. Thanks for sharing! Stopping by from I Heart Nap Time 🙂

    RamblingReed.blogspot.com

    1. I’m guessing that if anything can get you through that millionth diaper change, it’s humor! Right? 😉 Thanks for your sweet comment and for stopping by! Your quilting is inspiring to me as a beginner sewist.

    1. Most of the diaper note ideas come from good old Google. Searches like “funny baby quotes” or “funny baby onesies” proved quite fruitful. The song-related notes came from our brains (we just starting humming “baby, baby, baby” until a song popped into our minds…didn’t take long). And a bunch that I didn’t even photograph were inside jokes that the three of us shared. Overall, we had way too much fun writing those notes! 🙂

  8. WOW! I agree with your friend Laura “AMAZING”! Wow! it’s so nice of you and Brittany to pamper your friend! 🙂 How, I wish I would’ve received such a beautiful and thoughtful gift like this one over 22 months ago! Those notes on the diapers; too funny, my favourite one is “REAL MEN change diapers”! they do: when hubby comes back from work; he’s on duty! ha!ha! & those Tollhouse bars; yummy! she will need them! after I gave birth to my son, I was supposed to be on “A DIET” because I was so swollen (c-section) but I still managed to eat chocolate cookies every day! it helps with exhaustion! 🙂 dry shampoo: great idea! nail polish: I think it’s a good idea too, I used it a lot when my son was a new born and asleep for many hours, now I don’t even know what nail polish is! ha!ha! You ladies are great friends and love all your pictures! 🙂

    1. Ingrid, thanks for your enthusiastic and affirming words! Since you were a new mommy not too long ago, your feedback means a lot, and I’m glad to hear that our gifts aren’t totally off! Also, hooray for the fact that your husband is a real man…and can do diapers! Ha ha. Hope you had a fantastic weekend, my friend.

  9. What a great idea! I love the notes on the diapers. Definitely made me laugh out loud! One of my good friends from high school just had a baby girl. I think I need to replicate this for her!

    I love the pics of you and Brittany:-) You guys are such goofs!

    1. Ha ha. We are quite the goofballs, aren’t we? Although I do believe I have a photo that might trump these: it’s you, Leah, Amanda K., and I hamming it up for the camera in our “ghetto” look. Remember that? Our first brother-floor raid, I do believe. 🙂

  10. What a thoughtful gift! I especially love the 1 Cor. 15:51 diaper! I’ve been to several showers where we wrote on diapers in Sharpie. If I have any more showers, I’m going to remember your notes!

    I don’t know if your friend will be nursing, but if she is, these lactation cookies are great!
    http://www.food.com/recipe/oatmeal-chocolate-chip-lactation-cookies-by-noel-trujillo-192346

    They’re just oatmeal cookies with some extras: brewers yeast, flax, and cinnamon all help with milk supply.

    1. Ha ha, I know. Brittany found that one! I thought that verse was pretty funny taken out of context. Yes, do remember these notes next time you find yourself sharpie-ing a diaper (wow, you don’t say that sentence every day).

      And thanks for the recipe for lactation cookies, Jen! I never even knew that cookies could help increase milk supply. What a great excuse to chow down on cookies! Will have to incorporate those into future New Mommy Survival Kits….

  11. What a great idea!!! I love the sticky notes with all the little comments. That makes all the gifts so much more fun. Thanks for sharing at our link party. Can’t wait to see what you share next week!

    Melissa
    redflycreations.com

    1. Yes, we wanted to explain our thinking behind each and every gift, so the little notes were our way of sending our voice in the package with those gifties! Thanks for your sweet comment, Melissa, and for being such a lovely hostess!

  12. I love this idea… and it seems right at the time of life when so many people I know are having little ones… I might be replicating this many, many times over! So thoughtful and creative as always. AND the notes are HILARIOUS. I might be stealing those verbatim!

    1. Replicate away, my friend! And knowing you, you’ll come up with your own creative twists and turns to the concept. And I’m glad to hear you got a kick out of the notes. Brittany and I definitely had fun coming up with those…though I’ll admit, many of them were “borrowed” from baby onesies on google images! Ha ha.

  13. This is so awesome!!! I love that it is not just stuff for the baby, but also a few thoughtful pampering gifts for the new mom-very important too.

    Oh and I love the diaper note about Ace of Base-seriously what was that song actually about and how come I never realized how strange it was when I sang it as a kid!?!?!

    1. Yes, we knew that the baby would be getting a lot of gifts, so we wanted to ensure Laura had some items specifically for her and her alone.

      Ha ha, and that makes me happy that you picked up on the Ace of Base note. Brittany wrote that one, and I can relate to not even thinking twice about that song or what it meant as a kid. Most of the time I zone out on lyrics and hone in on the actual music; my husband is the lyrics man and often says to me, “Do you know what this song is actually about?” To which I reply, “Nope. What?” Ha ha.

    1. Those little notes were definitely the most fun part of putting together this Survival Kit. We had so many chuckles as we brainstormed ideas. Thanks for the pin, Mandy! Following you now on Twitter and Pinterest.

  14. So wonderful! I did something similar back in February for my cousin who’s having a baby girl! I sent her onesies for the baby plus a few little things from their registry as well as some coffee, tea, and mugs for the mom and dad to be and some chocolate and peanut butter candy that she’s been craving!

  15. Lauren, I am so loving this!! Love that you included pampering things for mommy, as well as essentials for baby. And I love, love the little notes on the diapers. Something to bring her a smile and some joy when she’s doing a less than joyous task. 🙂 Very well done! 🙂
    Kenley

    1. I haven’t had to change diapers since my babysitting days, but you’re right in describing it as “a less than joyous task.” With those sorts of things, humor goes a long way, doesn’t it?

      Thanks for the sweet as sugar words, as always, Kenley.

    1. Thanks for being my partner in crime on this one, B, and for coming up with the idea for a New Mommy Survival Kit in the first place! Genius!

      Our crafternoon together was definitely one of the highlights of your visit for me. It took me back to the college days when we would have journal parties together…. Love you, friend!

      1. I enjoyed knowing you two were working on this together together! I really loved seeing the pictures of the three of you at Brittany’s wedding, and then you and Brittany on your windy afternoon. Each and every gift is so special. So neat you’ve all stayed close friends and what a great compilation of gifts you put together for Laura! It is fun survival kits like this and friends like you and Brittany that will help carry Laura through the whirlwind and “fog” of new motherhood. xxoo

        1. Glad you enjoyed the pics, especially the one of Brittany’s wedding. I hated to do it, but I had to crop you out of that photo of us dancing (in order to make it square), but you were smiling and getting down on the dance floor in the background, Mama. So glad we got to share in Brittany’s wedding celebration together that day!

          Yes, I’m thankful that we’ve stayed friends so long…although you’re still doing spa weekends with your friends from kindergarten, so I think you take the cake for longevity in the friends department! #myrolemodel

          1. No problem with cropping me out…I had no idea I was in that picture anyway!! That was such a wonderful wedding and I have great memories of being there with you.

            Can’t wait to hear about your “spa weekend” with your friends when you are all in your 60s!! 🙂

  16. Great idea! So thoughtful and sweet. Although, the nail polish and cucumber mask made me laugh, as in “Yeah, right”. I don’t think I have painted my nails since having my first child almost seven years ago. Man, I really am a Mom. How depressing is that? Anyway, I am sure your friend and any other soon-to-be Moms will appreciate this care package. It is clear that you put a lot of thought and love into this.

    1. Ha ha, thanks for keepin’ it real with the comment about the masque and nail polish. Clearly, neither of us are moms yet! I guess we were hoping that since the package arrived a few weeks before the baby did, she might have time for some pampering. The calm before the storm, right?

  17. I am LOVING THIS! Saw you on The Patriotic Pam. Your blog is darling! Newest follower over here! Please feel free to stop by any time! I can’t wait to see what else you have up your sleeve! xo-Brook

    1. Thanks for the follow, Brooklyn! I’m touched. Just came back from visiting Cook and Craft Me Crazy, and you definitely have my mouth salivating with all of your yummy creations. And anyone with “Crazy” in their blog title is crazy cool in my book. 😉

  18. Once again I query, where were you when I was having babies, Lauren? This gift is so thoughtful, fun, and so you! The diaper notes are hilarious and the dry shampoo is genius! I’m not gonna lie – I definitely ate some chocolate chip cookies while nursing in the middle of the night, so I’m sure Laura will love those tollhouse bars – gotta keep the milk comin’. Loved my wet bag (although I bought one rather than having one lovingly made for me), especially in my years of cloth diapering. Much like the 30 gifts from your parents, each of these gifts is so well planned and so full of love. As to the pottty humor, if they had a boy, better get used to it now, because I’m finding with my 5 year old boy the potty humor just keeps on coming. What a blessed gal that Laura is to have a friend like you!

    1. They did get a boy! So, I suppose the potty humor is great preparation for what’s to come. Ha ha. And I’m glad to hear that the wet bag proved so practical for you. It sounds like it’s great for so many things even beyond cloth diapers. (Our friend Rachel has her own business now and her biggest seller is wet bags; they’re not only practical, but beautifully made. I kinda want one for myself even though we don’t have kids. I could use it for wet bathing suits, right?)

      Glad you enjoyed this post, Jessica. As always, I delighted to read every single word of your comment. Happy weekend to you and your fam!

  19. You are the coolest. The diaper notes made me laugh out loud!!!! Great idea though, seriously… My cousin is pregnant with her first and a kit like this would be so amazing to mail to her!! Thanks for the (always) fantastic ideas!!!!

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