If the essence of great gifting is to buy something for someone they want yet wouldn’t buy for themselves, surely the best gifts for new parents are gadgets that are over-the-top yet simplify their lives a tad.

For instance, the Itzbeen Baby Care Timer, a replacement for the battered school composition book Mom’s been keeping by the nursing chair. The reasonably priced ($26) handheld device tracks diapering, feeding (even time spent on the right or left side!), baby’s naps and nighttime sleep, and medication schedule (if any). The buttons are so intuitive to use that even a frazzled parent groping for the device at midnight can work them out, and the tracking saves a whole lot of middle-of-the-night anxieties. Oh, and it comes in pink, blue, and green for the indecisive.

Looking for a bigger-ticket item? Slide $69.96 Brookstone’s way and they’ll hand you back the Tranquil Moments White Noise Sound Machine for Baby, a sleek little bedside companion that offers a plethora of baby-friendly sounds: the loud whooshing of the womb, a soothing heartbeat, dolphins. Dolphins? Sure. Babies like it. They also like the Car Ride setting. No need to tiptoe around during naps with this baby on.

POSTED IN: Gear, Gifts
TAGS: baby care timer, brookstone, gifted, itsbeen, itzbeen, sleep sound machine, sound machine, tranquil moments