Every single gift someone gives your new baby is special. Whether someone sends you a hand knitted pair of booties or some babygros from Next, when you peek into that gift bag and see something dinky it’s always exciting. Heidi got all of these things and more from our friends and family and we’re so grateful. But as a blogger, I was also sent some very sweet gifts from baby boutiques and some of these are simply too cool not to blog about.

My favourite, purely for it’s uniqueness, is this seriously cute ukulele from My 1st Years. I love things that are a little out of left field and this is certainly that. Okay, Heidi clearly can’t play the ukulele, and neither can her mummy and daddy, but it’s so adorable that I plan to mount it on her nursery wall. The walls in there desperately need something as they’re pure white and this is a rented house so we can’t change them.

It also seems to soothe Heidi when she has one of her ‘moments’. I can honestly say I’ve never experienced anything like Heidi before. If she’s not asleep, she’s screaming. She isn’t placated with cuddles, rattles, singing, rocking, a dummy… it’s all about The Boob. It’s not her fault, I think she has a nasty case of colic that means she’s pretty much uncomfortable all the time. Strumming the ukulele close to her head seems to intrigue her and you can see the look of bewilderment on her face. I think I even caught a smile yesterday (but that might have been wind).

In fact, playing music to your child is thought to stimulate the brain in a way that helps educational and emotional development.There have been tons of studies on this that go wayyyy over my head but apparently it strengthens the neural bridges along which thoughts and information travel, therefore making baby able to retain, recall and process information quickly. I can’t speak for how true this is, but it sounds good hey? And just look at how chilled Heidi looks (above) when I was murdering Old Macdonald yesterday…

In any case, I love it. It’s incredibly dinky (measuring just over 50cm high) made of high gloss MDF, and sounds how a ukulele should as soon as you take it out of the box. As with all My 1st Year’s products it’s personalised (we chose Heidi’s name and date of birth but you can chose any 15 characters) which makes it an extra special gift as it’s the first thing she owns with her name on. The personalisation is on a little silver plaque on the headstock. This bumps it up into keepsake territory so it can be something she can treasure forever.

But this isn’t all My 1st Years have to tempt you with. There’s also a vast baby clothes range with everything from robes, to rompers, to dresses, to shirts all of which can be personalised. If you’re looking for a lovely baby shower gift that is just that little bit special, you’re bound to find something unique, affordable and adorable. Here are some of my favourite pieces:

Polkadot Hooded Baby Robe £25 / Personalised Waffle Teddy Bear £20 / Star Pattern Hooded Baby Robe £25 / Striped Footless Baby Grow – Grey & Ivory £12 / Organic Natures Purest Rag Doll £25 / Ditsy Print Wrap Baby Grow Set £20 / Bodysuit, Trousers & Hat Set - Boys £25

Heidi’s ukulele costs just £25 and arrives in a beautiful big gift box. You can check out this, as well as hundreds of other lovely baby gifts over on the website or say hello on Facebook or Twitter where there are also lots of fabulous giveaways to enter.

Disclaimer: I received Heidi’s adorable ukulele in exchange for my thoughts. All thoughts and opinions are my own.