One Year Anniversary with Newborn

Hi W.! My husband and I was in the very same boat as you during our one year anniversary. We were married on October 28, 2000, and our daughter was born on October 7, 2001!! That year, we started a tradition. We always spend our anniversary (or right around that time) having dinner at The Melting Pot. This is probably our very favorite place to eat, but since it can get a little pricey, we only go once a year. (makes it a little more of a special place just for us, too) My inlaws babysit for us, and since it does take a couple of hours to get through the entire meal, it is some nice alone time for us. Looking very forward to this again this year!!!

We also had a newborn on our 1 year anniversary and I was breastfeeding. We got a hotel room. We had my mom babysit so we could go out to dinner and spend an hour at the hotel alone. Then we went and picked up the baby and stayed the night in the hotel.

I would suprise your hubby and plan a get away weekend at a B&B before baby comes. It will be the last chance you get for awhile for just the two of you and he will really appreaciate it. It doesn't even need to be far away go towards the lake. Take off on a Friday night get reservations for dinner then go to a B&B for the night. You could even just do one night if your budget it tight.

A perfect gift for the one year anniversary is http://mydayregistry.com/gifts/first-anniversary-gift, where you dedicate your special day to your spouse :) It's especially great for the first anniversary because it combines the traditional with the modern gift recommendations into one amazing and truly unique gift!

You're right, over night or even all day would be too much time away from your precious new one. You might even still be recovering yourself.

How about going out for some ice cream? You could even splurge for a sundae! You could spend some time looking through your wedding album and reliving the moment.

If you want a special keepsake memory, why not write your own card message on a blank card.

Enjoy your baby (it's really all about him at this point) and your anniversary.

Neither my husband nor I are very good at gift giving :) so at least neither of us has high expectations. :) But one thing we did on our first anniversary that was fun was to buy a wedding cake: just the top! We had frozen our real wedding cake but were a little nervous about eating year old cake :) so we bought a new one. It was fun to eat and reminisce about our wedding and look through photos. And do other things :)

Hey, W. --

My husband and I have been married for 6 years now - as of last weekend! Four of those years have been celebrated with our daughter -- either in anticipation of her or with her being large and in charge on the planet.

For our first anniversary, my husband went to the place where he proposed to me, which was also the scene of our first date, and we had a picnic. We ate the topper from our wedding cake and generally just celebrated the very good decision we'd made to say "I do."

For our first anniversary after our daughter arrived, we went to a cabin in Hocking Hills, Ohio, to enjoy getting away from it all. Our daughter was 6 months old at the time, so it wasn't really relaxing, but it was still fun.

Also, for that first Father's Day, which was just a couple of weeks earlier, I gave my husband a cool ball locket with 6 pictures of our daughter in it, from the first 6 months of her life. It's a sweet reminder of that crazy time.

I hope these ideas help!!

:)
H.

Hi W. - I have tried to go with the traditional gifts for each year. THe first year is paper so I got my husband tickets to see our favorite singing group. We made a long weekend out of it and stayed the night. I was Pregnant too, it was a nice little get away before the baby came. Maybe you could get him a neat/meaningful book of somekind too.

Ah...this brough back some memories!! I had a 2 month old on our one year. Since I was breastfeeding, then we couldn't be too far away for too long. We went out to eat where my husband about chipped his tooth on glass that was in his drink. They treated us as if we planted it ourselves. We went back home and sat in the hot tub and drank a little wine while my sister and her boyfriend were inside babysitting. It wasn't the best of dates, but we still talk about how bad the dinner was and the glass etc. What a memory!!

Congrats on your first year and on the baby!!

Hi W..
We don't usually buy gifts for our anniversary, rather we just do something fun together that we both enjoy. This year we went to the zoo with our 6 mo. old & it was lots of fun! Also we had dinner out with our baby as well. We actually took him out to dinner with us when he was first born also(a couple of weeks old) & he just slept most of the time.
Anyway, for our first anniversary we celebrated by going camping & eating the top layer of our wedding cake that we had saved in the freezer (it was still good :). We took our bikes with us camping too. We were poor (still are) & it was a cheap, fun thing to do. You could probably take your little one camping with you(if you guys like to camp).
Well, whatever you end up doing, I hope you have a great time! Happy Anniversary!

My son was just 4 weeks on our 1st anniversary, and I did not want to leave him for one second. My husband got his parents to come over and he had made arrangements with a nice little resteraunt in town, they had candles lit on our table and the flowers my husband purchased were very nicely displayed on our table. We ate, had a great time, but hurried home then to spend the rest of the evening with our son. Next year will be our 5th anniversary, and we plan on doing something "big", but the first 4 years we've just been real reasonable and stayed very close to home. Good luck, and have fun.

Hello - I would suggest writing a letter (handwritten instead of typed) that tells him all the things you love about him and how you feel about him. You could then have this presented to him by you or you could have it hand delivered to him at work.

Our first anniversary was spent on a cruise ship where our first child was conceived :). But dinner on a the river boat might be just as well. Have fun and best wishes with your little one.

The hotels & such sound nice, but if you end up having a c-section you won't be able to do that until your incision heals. So you might want to maybe plan that a month or so after the baby is born (or wait the magic 6 weeks after the baby is born!!). You could always order take out & eat them at home with candles on the actual date and make it very romantic...snuggle up with a movie and the baby.

I had a c-section and felt great afterwards, over did it and the incision took a little longer to heal. You really need to take it easy since it is a major surgery.

As for the gift, I am one for home made items...how about a nice card with a recent picture of the two of you in it. I like to write exciting things that have happened to us in the past year and hopes of the good things to happen to us in the future. My husband is kinda mushy and likes that stuff!! (and 1st year is the paper gift).

Good luck to you, this is a super exciting time!
J.

I don't want to burst your bubble, but chances are you won't feel like doing anything but sleeping so soon after your baby's birth. 3 weeks may seem like a long time, but it's not. Keep your plans simple. Dinner at a restaurant that you wouldn't normally go to. Maybe stretch the budget a little. Buy yourself a new dress (but wait till AFTER you give birth if you can). What about a nice couple's massage? Trust me, you'll need one! That would be a great thing to do as a couple and as new parents. If you plan on nursing, your little guy will still be too young to be away from you for more than a few hours. Take what free time you have and just do something special...it doesn't have to be anything big.

WHen our kids were little, I did an indoor picnic. After they got to sleep, we spread a blanket on the living room floor and had a nice little dinner and just talked. We talked about our goals and dreams. The important thing is to make a little time to remind yourselves that even though you have a baby, you haven't forgotten about your individual lives. It also brought about concerns my husband had about having two little girls (he comes from an all boy family) and we were able to talk about it.

Congratulations!!!

I am not sure how close your wedding party members are to you physically. What we did was had a dinner party thing with the people who had stood up with us and shared the top of the wedding cake (which had been frozen) with them. It was a quiet and fun evening, they brought their spouses and dates with them. They all wrote down a few of the things they remembered about the wedding and reception for us and brought them with for us to add to our wedding album.
As for gifts I am trying to think back and I think the first anniversary is paper and I remember giving my husband a book on some subject he was really in to, if I remember correctly it was fishing and I found a book about the best fishing spots in our state.
Congrats on both of your upcoming events!!!!

I would definitely do a get-a-away now before the baby is born. My little one was 8 months old at our 5 year anniversary and I still didn't want to leave her overnight. (You get very attached!:) ) I know you only have a little time before the baby comes, but try to go somewhere even for the night. You will be glad you did! As for your actual anniversary day, just enjoy yourselves!! You will probably be very tired so keep whatever you do simple. Gifts aren't necessary, but we always do something for the other that they won't buy themselves. For example, he got me a manicure gift card; I got him a shooting pass. Congrats on your first year of marriage and your new baby! Good luck!
A.

hey congrats well my husband got injuryed over seas before are first year we got each other picture dog tags with out knowing what he other got and so i think we just went out to eat or he cooked for me, and r birth days are in the follewing months so it like july we were married aug his b-day and sept mines we just hit four yrs now and we have a 1 yr old we got to eat and a moive and take trip a weeked to for all three things and of course ia nice card with soemthing we write to each other in side good luck

well i have a year and 1 month before i'm in your shoes, but with the baby being about a month old, and the weather being so nice, what about finding a nice place to say have a picnic lunch and go for a walk, baby should be content and you can have a nice romatic family day, then get a sitter and go to a nice dinner, getting a hotel room with a fireplacce or hot tub could be wonderful just take the baby with you and use those moments when baby is content or sleeping to snuggle in front of a fire and watch a movie. of course if you happen to have these things at home all the better, but not only are you celebrating the first year of your marriage but the birth of your baby, so make it a special day for all of you.

Rememeber tradition says to give paper as yoru gift so the sky is the limit on this one. One year with a new born? I;d say ANYTHING just the two ofyou would be appropriate adn special and try not to focus or worry about the baby just focus on how much you love him and are enjoying your time with him.

My husband and I have always tried to stick to the "traditional" gifts. 1st anniversary is Paper. We went to Ireland for our Honeymoon. So, for our 1 yr. anniversary I bought him tickets to see an Irish comedy. We went out for dinner and then to the show and had a wonderful time! Good luck!

i say go to the park or beach and just sit and enjoy the view then maybe get outback get
carry-out and just enjoy a nice dinner with hubby and baby. that's pretty much what we did last year when our lil man was just 3 months old. have fun, and just remember what that day was like. congrats!

Honestly, I can't remember what we did... I wish I had an idea for you. In any case, obviously you guys will have had a HUGE great first year together. Perhaps you can take some of your favorite pictures, including a few of your precious new little boy, and make a little photo collage. It will be something to last for years in the future. Perhaps you could even do it yearly, as a timeline... Oh well, just a thought!

In any case, happy anniversary and good luck with bringing your new angel into the world!

Hi W. do i ever have a first anniversary story for you. my mother and father in law went to dinner with my husband and i. we went to a nice resturant when we were served my father in law took his fork to get a bite of his chicken and needless to say when he put it to his mouth it flipped to a table next to us. We still laugh to this day about it. Maybe it isn't funny to others since they weren't there but this happened 49 years ago and we stll enjoy telling about it.
as for gifts we have never bought each other a gift for our anniversary but we do out for dinner and a movie.
Congradulations on your anniversary. K. & tom