I couple I know had a fire in their apartment a couple of years ago, just two weeks before their first baby was due to born. Their friends gathered around in support and organised trying to provide a place for them to stay, and helped to solve other necessities. My role was to prepare a gift basket for their newborn baby. That's when I decided to sat down and make a list of possible gift basket ideas.

Because another friend of mine was donating a large supply of lightly-used rompers, sleepers, and coats, I decided that my friends would probably find a baby travel-kit most useful. I found my list of baby shower gift ideas and narrowed down the items to a short list.

Traveling clothes would be needed for the baby. This could include a gown for sleeping in that would be easy to remove, and for the baby's more active hours they would need a bodysuit. The baby would also need outerwear. This is why I included a soft hat to keep the baby's bald head warm, soft comfortable shoes and a blanket that matched. All these items should be in easy to wash fabrics.

Babies are very frequent eaters and it's usually very messy so I put in two terrycloth bibs and a nice soft washcloth. All babies need toilet items so I also put in two cloth diapers and two disposable ones. (Even parents using cloth diapers to protect the environment can sometimes find a use for disposable diapers.) Then I also added two small dish towels to use as protection for the clothing when burping the baby. A compact package of baby wipes is also a very useful thing to have so I included two of those.

Newborn baby gift baskets should always have a toy for the baby included. I didn't know the sex of the baby since our friends wanted to wait until the baby was born to find out if it was a boy or a girl. So I had to choose something other than the rag dolls and stuffed trucks. Instead I chose a pale yellow stuffed duck.

For the perfect newborn baby gift basket I used a cheery vinyl diaper bag. New parents need more than material things in able to thoroughly enjoy their new baby so the final thing that I included was a note. The note promised several nights of babysitting when they needed a little alone time together later.