Precious

A precious gift set for a precious baby!

I managed to get these finished in good time, after all. The set comprises a swaddling blanket:

A burp cloth:

A traditional bib:

and a bandana style bib:

These are made entirely from organic cotton with organic flannel on the reverse of the blanket and an organic cotton/bamboo blend on the back of the bibs and burp cloth.

I blogged about the making of the traditional bib here.

I chose the word precious for a very special reason. This set is a Christmas gift for my niece, who is expecting her first baby in February. It's the first baby in the family and we're all very excited. At her second scan, however, it was found that this little one is not growing how we would have hoped. The simplest way to describe it is to say that her heart has developed back to front. From the moment  she is born, she will have to stay a very, very long time in hospital whilst they operate to try to put her heart to rights. She will need many operations as she grows.

I pondered for a long time, trying to decide what would be an apt gift for this very precious little girl.

Hospitals are wonderful places that perform life saving miracles for many, but for a new mum, they are not home. The more things of her own that this little one can be wrapped in during her long stay in hospital, the more comfortable and comforted my niece and her husband will feel. There will be chemicals a-plenty surrounding this little baby, most of them life saving, but the fewer there are in the cloth in contact with her skin, the better in my opinion.

So, hopefully with this little set, they will be able to swaddle her, cuddle her, nestle and feed her, knowing there is some nice organic goodness, right close by. I'm sure they'll need no reminding just how precious she is, but it's embroidered there, right on her bib, just to take care of any low moments that come along in the difficult weeks and months ahead.

I can't wait to see their faces when they open this on Boxing Day. I'm already planning a great many more items, but I'll gift them one at a time, as and when they're needed. (after all, it's a good excuse to buy more organic cotton!!)

As luck would have it, the topic for this month's challenge over at le-challenge is "precious", so I'm definitely linking up today!!