When should a new baby card be sent?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nThere is no window you can miss. The first fortnight brings a flood of cards and then almost nothing arrives at all, so a card that turns up in the second month is often the one that gets read properly and kept. If you heard the news late, say so plainly rather than apologising at length \u2014 I have only just heard is enough. If you are close to her, a card early and a message later works better than one perfectly timed effort, because the quiet weeks are the ones that need it most. And a card sent with no expectation of a reply can be sent at absolutely any point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Do you write to the mum, to both parents, or to the baby?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nAddress it to her unless you have a particular reason not to. Cards written entirely to the baby are charming, and they are also written to somebody who cannot read them, while the person holding the envelope has just done something enormous and is frequently the last to get a mention. The comfortable form is a warm line to the household and the body of the message to her. If both parents are close to you, name both, but keep at least one sentence about how she is doing rather than folding her into a plural. A new mum can go a fortnight without being asked a single question about herself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The baby’s name has not been shared yet. What do you write?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nWrite around it. A card does not need the name to work: the little one, the newest arrival, your daughter or your son all read perfectly well, and so does simply keeping the message on her. Names sometimes take a while, and sometimes one has been chosen and is being held back until the family has been told in the right order. Either way it is not a hint for you to ask. If you are curious, wait \u2014 you will be told soon enough, and it will not come by way of a reply to your card. What to avoid is guessing at it, or joking about how long it is taking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She has not replied to anything for weeks. Should you send another card?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nYes, and expect nothing back. Silence at this stage almost never means what a quiet inbox usually means. She may be replying to nobody at all, or only to whoever happens to message at the one moment she has a free hand. The kindest thing you can send is something that closes the loop for her: a note saying plainly that there is nothing to answer, no visit is being angled for, and you will still be here in a month. Then send another in a month. Repeated, undemanding contact is what people remember afterwards, far more than a perfectly worded first card.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What is worth leaving out of a new baby card?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nAnything that tells her how she is supposed to be feeling, beginning with the assumption that she must be delighted. She may well be, and she may also be exhausted, frightened, or grieving something that has nothing to do with the baby at all, and a card that has already decided for her is one she cannot answer honestly. Leave out questions, because they turn a card into one more small task on a very long list. Leave out remarks about how she looks, and jokes about what she is in for next. Leave out anything at all that reads as instruction. What remains \u2014 that you are thinking of her, that you are pleased, that you are nearby \u2014 is short, and it is the part that gets kept.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A new baby card is one of the very few things that arrives in the post and gets read straight away \u2014 usually one-handed, and often at an hour when nobody sensible is awake. That is worth knowing before you write one, because it changes what works. The lines that land are short, warm and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":597,"featured_media":4761,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2559],"tags":[],"moimportance":[],"motype":[],"moformat":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4760","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-greetings"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edinburghname.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edinburghname.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edinburghname.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edinburghname.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/597"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edinburghname.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4760"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/edinburghname.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4760\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4764,"href":"https:\/\/edinburghname.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4760\/revisions\/4764"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edinburghname.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edinburghname.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edinburghname.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edinburghname.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4760"},{"taxonomy":"moimportance","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edinburghname.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/moimportance?post=4760"},{"taxonomy":"motype","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edinburghname.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/motype?post=4760"},{"taxonomy":"moformat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edinburghname.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/moformat?post=4760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}