Gift to wife on birth of first child

March 20, 2009 2:34 AM

Touching and tasteful gift to mark birth of our first child.

My wife and I are about to have our first child.
The baby's due date co-incides with my wife's birthday, and I'd like to buy her a gift which will have lasting significance.
I thought about a locket in which she could keep a lock of baby's hair, but can't find any that aren't huge and clunky.
Can anyone suggest a touching and tasteful gift to mark this wonderful occasion.
We live in the UK.
Thanks.

posted by Blackwatch to human relations (25 comments total)

When my husband and I met our first child, whom we adopted, it was also Mother's Day, and he and our new son gave me a lovely little necklace with my son's name engraved on it. These are sometimes called "mommy tags" in the US (like dog tags on soldiers). Here's a website which sells something like this.

Along the same lines: you could get a necklace with three letter charms, one for each of your first initials (or, if the child doesn't have a name yet, your initial and her initial, and then get another initial when the baby is born and named), or a charm bracelet with a few charms that somehow represent each of you.

This is mommy-focused gifts, which seems to be what you had in mind, right?
posted by bluedaisy at 2:54 AM on March 20

How about an engraved ring with the child's name. She's probably more likely to wear that than some clunky locket or necklace.
posted by hungrysquirrels at 3:41 AM on March 20

For our first child, I took a picture of my wife holding him at the hospital, and then found a really nice poem about motherhood and put it into MSword and made it all prettified, printed it out. I then went to walmart and printed out the picture I took at the same size, and got them both framed in a hinged picture frame. It sits on our mantle to this day, she loves it.
posted by JonnyRotten at 4:40 AM on March 20

I don't know what your budget is, as they're pretty expensive, but this inner message ring, is such a lovely idea. Basically, they look like plain silver bands (or gold too, for a higher price), but on the inside is an engraved word, made so that it imprints the right way on the finger of the wearer. Custom made rings (baby's name, "mom", some other inner joke/msg from you to her) are $450 in silver, and would be a really really nice gift I think. Even the standard "Always" ring would be quite nice I'd say.

I do wish they were a little prettier though, but still, such a beautiful idea.
posted by dnesan at 5:13 AM on March 20

You might try etsy for the kind of thing dnesan is talking about. They offer a wide range of artists and styles of message rings.
posted by runningwithscissors at 5:22 AM on March 20

- I'm partial to thumbprint jewelry, though I haven't taken the plunge and gotten myself anything yet.
- More dogtag styles, and other "mommy" jewelry, here.
- A handcut silhouette might be nice. Some here: Paper Portraits.
posted by cocoagirl at 5:38 AM on March 20

Do you have any land? I've always been enamored with the idea of planting a tree to celebrate a birth.
posted by zerokey at 5:49 AM on March 20 [2 favorites]

Congratulations on the pending birth of your baby!

To answer your question, I have rings for each of my daughters stacked on top of my wedding band. One is channel set blue sapphires, and the other is channel set yellow sapphires. (They're both born in December, but I didn't particularly want their birthstones.) Inside their rings, I have their first names and their birthdates inscribed. They both know that at some point, they will inherit their respective rings (which is why I didn't just have one ring made to represent the two of them).

Here is a picture to give you a kind of idea of what they look like. Mine isn't an eternity band since I wanted to have them inscribed.

Best wishes to you and your wife for a safe arrival of your little one!

Just to lend some perspective, my wedding band is the same style of ring, but set in diamonds, so it all kind of looks like the same ring but layered in three different colours when I have all of them on at one time. It's really quite pretty.
posted by dancinglamb at 6:01 AM on March 20 [1 favorite]

Do people ever get family rings anymore? My mother has one with her, my dad's, and all five of their kids' birthstones in it. You might do something like that, or just give her a piece of jewelry with something inscribed inside and the baby's and your wife's birthstone in it. I believe March is a aquamarine and April is a diamond, so for the sake of your wallet I hope the baby is to be born in the next 11 days.;-)
posted by orange swan at 6:27 AM on March 20

I like these pearl peapod necklaces. You can get it with one pearl (and upgrade her to two pearls if you have another later on).
posted by amro at 6:29 AM on March 20

I planted trees for each of my kids.
posted by plinth at 6:46 AM on March 20 [3 favorites]

Ooh, I like plinth's idea.
posted by amro at 6:48 AM on March 20

You can buy silver or gold charms for charm bracelets. I love the silver baby mug charm, ideally engraved w/ baby's initial. Or something with the baby's birthstone. A charm bracelet sets you up for more gifts of charms to populate the bracelet for life events.
posted by theora55 at 7:40 AM on March 20

Planting a tree ain't really a gift, IMO. Here's what I'd do - get her a thousand buck gift voucher to a tattoo shop.
posted by tra at 7:41 AM on March 20 [1 favorite]

dogeared.com is my favorite website for very unique gifts with great prices and meaningful messages
also hand made inscribed charms are gorgeous
posted by kgreerRN at 7:43 AM on March 20

Some lovely suggestions so far, but most retail solutions are in the USA. Any UK links much appreciated.

Thanks everyone.
posted by Blackwatch at 8:08 AM on March 20

Seconding planting a tree. And to argue the point that "a tree isn't a gift" -- make it a fruit tree of some sort, and that way you get the fruit every year as well.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:16 AM on March 20

I've had three children now, and each one that I've purchased a gift for coincided with what my wife was interested in. Mainly for one is that for obvious reasons you will no way of knowing what your child is truly into, for a very long time, and even that will change.

If you can also get it to coincide with what the theme of the baby room is, that would also be excellent.

Let me give you some ideas from what I've done.
Our first child was a girl, her room was just a typical pink girl's room with flowers. The other underlying theme was 'God', etc. I purchased a very nice piggy bank of noah's ark and baby animals on it. It fit into the room, was for a child, but nice enough to make the wife happy.

The second child the theme was airplanes, they were painted on his wall, etc so I purchased a clock from Hallmark that produced lullaby songs and had airplanes, it became the center piece of the room and my wife was thrilled by it. Of course now he's three and the airplanes have been painted over and replaced by bulldozers as that's his infatuation.

These are just ideas, but to sum again, buy something that relates to what your wife envisions for the child but is extremely nice.

hth
posted by dolemite01 at 8:21 AM on March 20

Thirding planting a tree. My grandfather planted a dogwood tree in the yard when I was born - my grandmother to this day laments that when she divorced my grandfather, she couldn't take the tree with her. When I was growing up, the dogwood tree was "special" and every year when it bloomed, it was a Very Big Deal. But I'm an only child so I'm used to having big deals made out of silly days.
posted by kerning at 8:52 AM on March 20

A tree, a tree! It's life-affirming, long-lasting, and symbolic. Ever since I heard that jewelry gifts from fathers to new mothers were recently tagged as "push presents," the idea has squicked me out. The "mommy tags" thing has a similar effect. The names just gall me, I guess.

I thought about a locket in which she could keep a lock of baby's hair

Heads up, lots of newborns are born without any hair.
posted by zoomorphic at 10:14 AM on March 20

Planting a tree is nice in theory, but where do you plant it? In the back yard? What if the family moves to a new house at some point?

I like the idea of a charm bracelet, with one charm symbolic of your wife (her birthstone or her initial, whatever) and one for the new baby. That way you can add to it if you add to your family, and future children won't feel left out.
posted by Oriole Adams at 10:56 AM on March 20

I googled "mommy tags UK" and found Boutique to You. I'm sure there are charm bracelets for sale there as well.
posted by bluedaisy at 12:46 PM on March 20

A necklace from Photo Gems. It's the kind where there's a photo inside the pendant and you look into a tiny lens to see it. (These are also called stanhopes to assist in your searching.) I ordered one from them several years ago and am still happy with it.

Furthermore, if she later wishes to swap out the image for a new one, they offer this service.

(Note, they currently have mostly silver jewelry due to the high price of gold. I had e-mailed them to ask why they didn't offer many designs in gold and that's the reason they gave.)
posted by IndigoRain at 2:37 PM on March 20

If you're going to do jewelry, I'd suggest something more simple and subtle (such as the Pea Pods or Photo Gems) because they're more timeless. The charm bracelets and mommy tags are very trendy and will go out of style faster (IMHO they're already out of style).
posted by radioamy at 8:36 PM on March 20 [1 favorite]

Thanks everyone for taking the time to answer my query.
posted by Blackwatch at 2:41 AM on March 23