Spinoff: What were some 'useless' gifts you received

[Rach]

Did you get anything that really loked cute, but you didn't really use, or something useless, or anything wacky?

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For me, it was the bazillion 0-3 months clothes. People should have gotten a variety. I got to the 6-9 month stage and had so little for my bambino! LOL. My little 2 boys never even wore 0-3 months past 2 weeks old :lol:

I also received a little baby bathrobe. It was absolutely darling and I loved it. It's now too small for my baby, and no one ever wore it. :?

[rocking baby]

ahh..diaper genie...used it for bout a mth when it was w/small diapers..but then got tired of the whole cleaning it out type thing...and size 0 sandals for my lil guy...but he's feet we're too fat...and still are too chunky for shoes..lol..so yeah...

I got a variety of different clothing sizes so that wasn't an issue... especially since my mum kept a ton of our clothes in her glory box LOL She is still handing on clothes to me for Abby!

One thing I bought that was a waste of money... changing table. I got a nappy bag as a gift and it had a mat in it and I have always just used that.

Oh I also got a jolly jumper but couldn't use it because we didn't have the right kind of door frames and my mum didn't want me to screw anything into the door frames ... so we never used it.

Also ... my front pack. I only used it once :lol: This time round I've got a sling... which I intend on using every day! It's supposed to be great for bfing...

[kanaclark]

with all due respect for moms who use disposable diapers, I use cloth, and after expressing that on my invitations to my shower, by word of mouth, really getting it out there, I still took back almost $250 worth of diapers! it was rediculous.
my only suggestion from this, if there's a note on the invitation, it's not there just to look pretty or take up space.

another thing i NEVER used: all that baby powder, lotions, shampoo, etc. I just started with the "sensitive skin" wash that I use since the baby takes a shower with me, and so that when breast feeding him, he would be less likely to have a reaction to my skin.
but that was just me.

[e&m'sirishmum]

I have enough blankets to start my own store!!! I am not sure what to do with them though since some of them are hand made, but since we live in Ca. it gets so hot so I really don't need as many as I have!

The other thing is clothes that were the wrong size for the season! A lot of my family in Ireland sent clothes that were pants and long shirts, but the month that they fit was right during the hottest part of the year! I saved a lot of things and was able to use them this last time with Micah.

[kanaclark]

I had the same problem, sort of. Our cousin bought a bunch of short rompers in 6-9 months, which with our october baby, that would have been right, except at 9 months, he wears a 12-18 months. He's tall. 6-9 months clothes won't even snap on him. The few times I use disposables, I can "make them work" if I had to, but he's so long and lanky that they just don't fit.

and as for all those receiving blankets, Bri has acid reflux something horrible, and burp cloths just arent' big enough. we used a lot of the blankets for that.

You could donate some of the less special blankets to an area crisis pregnancy center. These are centers that help less fortunate mothers with supplies for their babies, while sharing the Word of God with them. i worked at one a few years ago and our center is a recipient of project linus blankets, a nearby one to you would probably be glad to accept them.

if there are a lot of special ones, you could have a quilter, if you don't, put them together into a big quilt for a big boy/girl bed one day.

with all due respect for moms who use disposable diapers, I use cloth, and after expressing that on my invitations to my shower, by word of mouth, really getting it out there, I still took back almost $250 worth of diapers! it was rediculous.
my only suggestion from this, if there's a note on the invitation, it's not there just to look pretty or take up space.

another thing i NEVER used: all that baby powder, lotions, shampoo, etc. I just started with the "sensitive skin" wash that I use since the baby takes a shower with me, and so that when breast feeding him, he would be less likely to have a reaction to my skin.
but that was just me.

Well that is not very nice IMO They should have respected your wishes. They could have just given you money if they didn't want to buy the cloth diapers but yeah. Why buy disposables for you when they KNEW you were not going to use them? Or perhaps they just thought that you would change your mind. I had one of my workmates tell me that I would chang my mind about using cloth. LOL I did eventually... but still, if I asked for cloth diapers not disposables I would be annoyed if people bought disposables.

I also didn't use most of the baby products. I only used J&Js top to toe wash, bedtime bath, shampoo & conditioner, oil, talcum powder. I never used the lotions. Abby never had a problem with dry skin. The only time I used lotion was when she was first born because she had a bit of dry skin on her hands because she was overdue. But after that... it just sat on the shelf. I didn't really ever use the talc or oil either. Just used the talc with cornstarch in it for diaper rash occasionally. And the oil for cradle cap.

I still have lotion and oil and talc on the shelf.

Hey we used cloth diapers as burping cloths! :wink:

[Godzgirl]

I didn't use baby powder, i got alot of blankets i didn't use, and i also got a bathrobe that was just adorable but didn't use.

[kanaclark]

i just use plain ol' cornstarch from the grocery store. it's so much cheaper.
I've been using disposables here lately, but that's because Bri is cutting those bigger teeth now, front four already in, and I just can't keep up with those diapers. the bed sheets and blankets are enough. he had a stomach virus this past week, (he and daddy were the only ones to share that, thank God) and between the diarhea from teething, plus from the bug, and the throwing up, I washed five to ten crib sheets and blankets a day!
But, as soon as he get's through the teething we'll go back to cloth, and once Patrick get's here, he'll be in cloth too.

I love using the cloth they're economical, cute, safer for their skin, cute, and cute. :lol:

[harmony5]

I got A LOT of newborn diapers for my 10 pound baby that I had to return! I also got this bath stuff that smells like Vicks Vapor rub. It's called vapor bath. You apparently can squirt some in the tub if your kiddo is sick, but I've never used it and Preston is 19 months old! I also got lots of diaper rash cream, like Desitin, but I am a baby powder kind of girl! :D Oh, yeah, and the infamous bottle my sister gave me held a whopping 2 ounces!! :roll: She bought it because she thought it was cute, which it was. I never did use it, because 2 oz to Preston was just wetting the whistle. :wink: Courtney used it for her babydolls though.

Lori

[stephwhiz]

Too many newborn diapers--but I took them back and exchanged them for larger sizes so that was nice! :D I also had large babies and I got lots of tiny newborn clothes that they never got to wear! Also took those back atleast the ones that I could find where they came from. Stephanie :D

[cjropher]

I agree with the baby bathrobes. I can't figure out what they are for. I'm not leaving a baby in just a bathrobe, mine would need another bath if there wasn't a diaper on them... By the time they are out of the tub and toweled off, I'm lucky if they are still clean! So who has time for a bathrobe. But they are so cute. The thing is they would be really cute if the newborn could stand... but they can't. So it looks cute on the hanger but loses something on the baby. I actually find alot of baby clotes to be that way.

I got a lot of those hooded towels and bath puppets that I never used. I like the hooded towels but some are of really really thick cotton, not even terry and they just don't work very well.

I didn't use my snugli (front carrier) very much. It was really hard to get the babies in and out, it was hard on my back, and I got spit up down my front as well. I tried it a few times with this one as well but it wasn't great.

[kanaclark]

we used those cute 2 oz bottles the first few days when Bri wasn't hungry that much, but they only lasted about a week. I'll probably use them again, not sure.

the bathrobe, oh yeah, they're cute. we put it on him after his first bath, and that was just for pictures. :wink:

[MomFromCanada]

We got some little tiny burp clothes that didn't even cover your shoulder. Those were not very helpful! And my Mom, I love her so much but gave me tons of old wool and knitted stuff I don't know what to do with. It's the thought that counts though I guess!

Yeah I thought the changing table was a waste of money too (as did Renee), I changed the bubs on the floor on a mat.

Probably the most useless thing that we were ever given was that - we already had car seats for quite a while for both babies and for some reason MIL went out to a thrift store and brought this dirty old baby capsule that was out of date and couldn't even be used in a modern car because the restraints were out moded.

It sat behind our couch until it eventually ended up in the dump (well she only paid 5.00 for it and no one else could really use it because of the outmoded strapping method)

haa oh dear!

Oh geeesh too much too count! Its not that I wasn't appreciative, but some of things we got just didn't work out....Like for instance our little darling was estimated 4 to 5lbs due to my size....She was 8....So the preemie stuff had to go (although I kept 1 dress that dolly likes to wear)..Also all the nb diapers were way too small....I wrote "its a girl" on the invite and still received boys items...not sure what that was about...and also we had tons of lotions,cremes,etc....and Angela is allergic to EVERYTHING!! Sooooooooo.....we took alot of stuff back and bought alot of big diapers :wink: