Fabulous!

Guest post by Sharon of Good, True and Beautiful.
I love baby showers – I love sharing the excitement of a new life, smiling over the freshness of the clean clothes and new toys, and laughing over the horror stories, errr I mean “anecdotes”, that seasoned moms love to share. There’s just something about baby showers that puts a big smile on my face.Having said that, I have been noticing an unusual trend. Pretty consistently I’m surprised to see that a few gifts don’t make the registry. Since I would consider these items absolute essentials for the new mom, it’s remarkable how often they have been overlooked. Therefore, I felt that it was important to share these “must have” items for all pregnant moms and baby shower shoppers.
The True Top Ten Baby Shower Gifts:
1. Several white smocks similar to what you used to wear in kindergarten when you had painting privileges. Included with them would be the following directions: These smocks should be worn at all times to absorb the voluminous amounts of bodily fluids that will soon cover you from head to toe. Smocks should be removed when your need to look pretty outweighs the need to do laundry. Therefore, removing the smock will be a rare occurrence.
2. A gallon size container of Infant Tylenol. Trust me, you will think that you could never possibly go through all of it, but will find yourself wishing for a second gallon before your cherub hits her second birthday.
3. A stack of 1,000 thank you cards, pre-stamped, pre-addressed, pre-written, and mailed.
4. A note from a doctor written to the new father saying,
Dear Sir,
Congratulations on the birth of your baby. While six weeks is the recommended minimum, please be advised that you should not circle that date in your planner using bright red marker. The beautiful mother of your new child might need a little more time. Or, a lot more time, depending on how often you help with the dishes.
Sincerely,
Dr. Smartest-Person-in-the-World
5. A new set of bed sheets which can be thrown away after twelve months of use when you realize that breast milk, formula, spit up, poop, urine and snot stains are hard to remove, even if you Shout at them.
6. A digital watch that illuminates so that you can track how many minutes between the hours of 1:00 AM and 6:00 AM your little person requested your presence – this should then be reported to both Grammies, all your Facebook Friends and the NBC Nightly News.
7. Personalized, One-on-One coaching explaining how to wear that funky, baby carrying sling without looking like a burrito, along with specific directions on how to convince your child that it’ll be cool to sit in it.
8. That new, highly technical gizmo that taps into the grocery store’s public announcement system with the message: “Please applaud the lady in the white smock who is crying in Aisle Three. She is the most incredible person who has ever lived, she has super-hero powers, she looks stunning, and her husband think she’s awesome. No autographs please.”
9. The promise of twice a month phone calls for the first ten months of the baby’s life in which you can assure her that “Yes, you will sleep again”, you can promise her that “Yes, your life will settle into a new normal”, and you can exclaim “Wow, it doessound like little Johnny is a genius.”
10. A case of individual frozen pizzas, so that when the new dad naively asks, “What’s for dinner?” you can throw one at him (in the most loving way possible).

Sharon is the mom behind Good, True and Beautiful (www.goodtrueandbeautiful.com) a blog about Living Abundantly on a Budget. She lives in Upstate NY with her husband and son.