Best Newborn Toys and New Baby Gifts

The infant play gym gets a makeover with the Bright Starts Baby's PlayPlace. The sides of the mat fold up to create a cozy hideout for baby, and the soft bars overhead hold a variety of toys to kick at and play with. As baby grows, you can configure the sides and bars differently to encourage tummy time fun or to create a tunnel to crawl through. Later on you can remove the bars entirely and use it as a play mat. The whole thing folds up for storage or travel, too. I love the way you can customize this play mat and gym for your baby's skills and environment.

Instead of a plain nightlight for baby's nursery, try out this plush sea turtle that can project stars onto the walls and ceiling of the nursery. Three colors of lights shine through the turtle's shell, which has five endangered sea creatures highlighted on it. The lights will turn off after 45 minutes to save the batteries. A storybook is included so you can eventually tell baby about endangered sea animals, and a star guide will help older kids pick out the stars they see projected from the turtle when they go out and look in the night sky. This is a cool gift that will be fun and useful for several years.

Bright colors, patterns and interesting textures make this pony toy from Lamaze a great choice for small babies. When you pull the pony's legs, it makes sounds. Though newborns are a little young to do this on their own, you can use this toy to play with baby, moving the pony around as it makes sounds and letting baby learn to follow the sounds. This toy is easily stashed in a diaper bag, too, for instant distraction when necessary.

Many parents steer clear of baby lullaby CDs for fear of not liking the music. With Rockabye Baby! CDs, you can choose your favorite music group and listen to soothing renditions of your favorite songs. A few of the groups available as lullabies are: Nirvana, Beach Boys, ColdPlay, The Rolling Stones, Metallica, Pink Floyd, The Beatles, Radiohead and U2. Baby can go to sleep to soothing sounds and you can secretly sing along in your head to music that doesn't irritate you! If you're a country music fan, look for the new Hushabye Baby CDs from the same company that feature lullaby versions of popular country music songs.

This crib soother has a cute rainforest theme that baby will love to watch as he or she drifts off to sleep. The waterfall glows blue and has wavy, watery motions, and a friendly fish swims in the bubbling pool of water at the bottom. There are colorful lights that turn on and off (slowly, in a soothing way), and a monkey and frog move around on the front among the rainforest leaves. Rainforest sounds can help baby sleep, or you can choose classical music or lullabies.

These soft, versatile muslin blankets will quickly become a parent and baby favorite. Aden and Anais blankets go beyond traditional pastel pink, blue and green, with a variety of cool patterns and modern color combinations, whether you know baby will be a girl or boy, or even for a unisex baby gift. Use these wraps to swaddle your newborn, throw a wrap over the top of your car seat or stroller for shade or to block the wind, use the blanket as a burp cloth or even a changing pad. These wraps are machine washable, so there's no worry about getting them dirty. The breathable material keeps baby cozy but not too hot.

The bold patterns and colors on this inchworm are easy for infants to see, and as your baby grows, he or she will love exploring the crinkly sounds, rattles and fun textures on this plush toy. When you hug the Lamaze Musical Inchworm, it plays "When You're Happy and You Know It, Clap Your Hands." This is a great basic plush toy for infants since it offers stimulation for developing senses.

The real intrauterine recordings on these CDs will help soothe baby to sleep because it comes so close to the sounds your baby heard while snug inside the womb. Using low-frequency noise, like you would hear underwater, Sound Sleep for Babies recreates that womb-like atmosphere in the nursery with resonating sounds that you can almost feel physically. Unlike some other soothing CDs, this one fades gradually rather than just cutting out, so your baby has a better chance of staying asleep instead of being jarred by a sudden stop. The sounds are soothing to toddlers and adults as well, so this CD may be particularly useful if you want to induce a family-wide nap time!

You have to touch a Little Giraffe chenille blanket to understand why parents go crazy over them. The chenille is luxuriously soft and thick, so it's comfortable for baby whether you tuck the blanket into a stroller, bundle baby up in it against the cold, or use it as a floor covering for play time. The chenille duo blankets feature a classic baby pastel chenille on one side - you choose from pink, blue or soft green - and the flip side is a rich mocha color. The blanket is trimmed in coordinating satin. Little Giraffe blankets are the ones that started the luxury baby blanket trend!

A classic stuffed toy for babies, this hand-knit monkey is slightly underfilled so it's really squishy and fun to hug. The contrasting colors make it fun to look at, and the cotton yarn means this monkey is very soft to the touch. The large eyes are easy for smaller infants to focus on. Blabla toys are hand-made in Peru.