What to put into a Hope Chest?

[RackinRudy]

I want to start a hope chest for my baby boy this week.
I'm wondering what things I'd like to put into it.

I'd like the normal sentimental stuff but I also think it would be cool to include:

A newspaper the day he is born
Pictures of what it looks like outside the day he is born


Please let me know other stuff that would be cool to include.

[shynbvs]

waaait...so a hope chest is for sentimental things? i though it was a type of storage chest... hmm well then

[Hill]

A picture of what you and hubby look like the day you go into labor!

[PoniesRock101]

hmmmm........... lots of pics! i cant think of anything else right now.

[lovesfortune]

Hmm.. I think everyone's hope chest is different. But I have a memory box for each of the kids that has:
Their coming home outfit
Hospital bracelets
A diaper in the size they wore when they were born
Baptism outfit
Cards/letter from the hospital

In their photo albums I have:
Belly pictures (this is great to look back on)

I like your ideas!

[menagerie]

My grandmother put things from my childhood like my first baby dress and items that celebrated my birth as well as some other things that meant something to her she wanted me to have. I think of hope chest's as sorta a time capsule for the person its intended for. Something they can sorta look back at their life thru someone else's eyes if that makes any sense at all.

[missdixie]

My parents each wrote me a letter a few days before I was born about what they were thinking and their hopes and excitement for me. They gave it to me on my 18th birthday. It was really cool.

[SedonaThunder]

How interesting that "Hope Chest" means different things to different people! In my family it was full of stuff for your futrue - Grandma said "it's full of hope". She was putting one together for me with things like China, Silver, a lace tablecloth... when she passed. She wanted me to "be all ready to be Betty Homemaker" one day!:)

[MyHorseBiggs]

When I was a baby my mom put a diaper in my hope chest and one time she ran out and had to use it on me (when I was a baby.:p)

[RackinRudy]

i love the idea of writing him a letter. also his bringing home outfit, hospital bracelet ... pic of me and John on the way to the hospital .... these are all great suggestions!

Sedona ... as I was googling suggestions for this, I did read that in different parts of the country the "Hope Chest" means different things. it is weird. But for me it will be memories/moments in his life I want him to remember. ... "I'm such a sap these days!"

[Arrow]

The first book that you read him a zillion times until he starts wanting another one.

[OwnedByOurHorses]

When you see something a hundred times yet the first time you see it with your child it makes it so different. I write about those times in a journal that I keep in a memory box I have for each of my children.My daughter Amber who now has a child of her own has started adding to her own memory box to include things from her daughter..She titled the box My Daughters History