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When you have a new baby, you need and get a lot of STUFF. The Millennial mom-to-be, who is tech savvy is looking for ways to make her life better in an easy and simplified sorta way. These ten thoughtful gifts are going to make her life as a new mom more manageable, enjoyable and memorable. There’s something in it for you the gifter, too. No gift wrap required!  1. mEMORY PHOTO BOOKGive memories with a photo book that captures mom-to-be during her pregnancy and after the birth of the baby. There are various options online that allow you to simply and quickly lay out a stylish book with quality printing. When I say you, I mean YOU offer to put it together for her and also make the purchase. Have her throw all her images onto a thumbdrive or into a Dropbox folder for you. With Mixbook you have the option to invite her to collaborate on the book; she can even upload the images directly to the project and make comments on the layout or content. We are a fan of Mixbook because they have tons of design options, a user friendly, intuitive page design, great prices (watch for promo-code discounts) and quality reproduction.  Mixbook photo books put all the memories right in their hand 2. DELIVERED FOODFood is love, so show her that love. New-mom is going to be preoccupied with feeding baby every 2–3 hours so make it easier for her to prepare healthy meals for herself and the rest of the family. No thinking up meal ideas. No grocery lists. No shopping. Minimal prep. There are many local and national meal delivery options out there, but these are a few at the top of the list. These three Hello Fresh, Plated and Blue Apron, get rave reviews because they make it easy to set-up your service online, select recipes and ship fresh, pre-measured meals that require minimal prep time.  Hello Fresh is a collaboration with celebrity Jaime Oliver known for his passion for healthy delicious meals. Services across the US and Europe  Plated service spans the U.S., offers celebrity recipes and various gift cards options  Blue Apron services most of the U.S. and offers different meal size plans 3. HELPS & FAVORSIt takes a village to raise a child. This idea gives loved ones the chance to lend a helping hand. Some of the best things can’t be purchased in stores. Your friends and family want to be there for you in a meaningful way. Add Help and Favors to your registry and let your village rally around you! You’ll find these precious help and favor gift options on Babyli.st. Add these and any other items (including those that you see here in this post) from any online site in the world.  Babylist makes registering for anything via an online site easy - including these Help & Favors 4. CLEANING SERVICE New-mom will have her hands full with new to-do’s for taking care of her little one. For example she’ll be changing a few dirty diapers, so why not help her keep her home clean and orderly with the gift of a cleaning service. Consider pooling together resources with others to give her a monthly visit for an extended period of time of 4–6 months. Check with the mom-to-be’s local Mom’s Club, Angie’s list or Care.com. A national chain like Merry Maids or The Maids may offer good options to get the job done. The latter even offers Gift Certificates!  The Maids service a large national area 5. SOCIAL EMAIL ADDRESSPay it forward (18 years) and hook up your mamma's baby with their first digital connection to the world – set-up a personal email address for the baby via a service provider like Google Gmail. Think of it as a millennial scrapbook and a way of showing your baby how much you care with regular updates, pre and post birth. Parents, family and friends can send regular updates, notes on milestones (like birth and future birthdays), even upload selfies and silly videos. Handing over the reins of this account when they are older will be so much fun and another great non-gift gift! I have set-up an email for my toddler and love knowing he will someday see these entries. For some great tips for setting up an email for baby check out this article by a mum who did this for her own child, "Why my newborn has an email address", Kelly Sutherland. BabyCentre. January, 2015. 6. AN ESPECIALLY MADE PLAYLISTJust because there are no more cassette tapes doesn't mean you can't make an awesome mixtape of music that sets the tone for this special time. Use iTunes to master a playlist collection of mellow tunes for her to "Chill-Out" or compile upbeat songs for a "Dance-Party" or how about lullabies and children's tunes for that "Sweet Child O'Mine". There are various instructions online of exactly how to do this, click the images below for two we seemed were easy to follow.  Give the gift of music with an iTunes playlist - link to "How-To" instrucitons  How-to help for gifting an iTunes playlist via Idealistmom.com 7. VIRTUAL NURSERY DESIGN SERVICEAfter coming up with a list of baby names — planning the baby nursery is the next big, fun task on the mom-to-be’s to-do list. YouthfulNest.com is perfect for the tech-savvy, design enthusiast who wants help achieving a WOW-worthy nursery. It’s all done virtually so she can spend time on her design from the comfort of her own home, or office, or coffee shop — at any hour of the day or night. YouthfulNest’s virtual design services are the perfect solution for a nursery due to its time sensitive nature — with a style board and product list delivered with 5–7 days, mom-to-be can immediately start shopping everything from her style board online and have it delivered to her home. She could also take advantage of a Personal Shopper who will handle all her purchases for her. Gift cards availble for the ESSENTIAL at $299 or the PREMIUM at $549, other services available a la carte.  YouthfulNest takes the time, frustration and unknown out of planning these special spaces. 8. MASSAGE THERAPyDoes this one really need explained? Pamper your mom-to-be with a pre-natal or post birth massage. To find a good masseuse we suggest contacting family or friend's in the mom-to-be's city for trusted referrals. You can also look into a national chain like Massage Envy or check out the website of American Massage Therapist Association to find a professionally qualified therapist.  9. LAUNDRY SERVICETake “loads” off her mommy-brain with a laundry service. We found laundry services that go hi-tech with apps to make it super convenient for that millennial mom or mom-to-be to arrange via her mobile device – she can select services, see pricing, and arrange pick-up & drop-off times. Below are a few top companies that offer services in various U.S. cities, but if you don't see her city listed under their locations, just google "laundry service" in their city. Washio, FlyCleaners, Cleanly and Laundry Locker seem to clean up when it comes to convenience and gifting made simple.  Washio's app makes doing laundry on demand super convenient  FlyCleaners app perfect for a new mom who will have her hands full, but phone close by  FlyCleaners offers pickup and delivery  Cleanly services NYC and Brooklyn  Laundry Locker services areas of norther California, San Francisco and Oakland 10. A GOOD OL' GIFT CARDSounds lame I know, but honestly a new mom will be looking for any way she can to simplify her life — if she wasn’t an online shopper before, she will be now. She can order anything online at any hour, just check out Amazon.com or Target.com. Other good ideas for gift cards, besides general online shopping for home and baby products, are gift cards to for her personal favorite online stores — she’ll be dedicating all her time to a new baby and family so give her a little something that’s just for her. A few of our go-to, splurge shopping sites are Sephora.com, Gilt.com and OfAKind.com.  Sephora for mom or mom-to-be because even a new lip gloss does wonders for the spirit  Gilt offers guiltless shopping with a gift cards  Of A Kind lets mom or mom-to-be splurge on a little something for themselves YOU ALSO MIGHT LIKE
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Lisa Janvrin
A self starter in pursuit of all things smart, savvy and stylish. FREE Personal Shopper
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