What's a good baby gift for a PhD Advisor?

Does she have a registry?

Baby clothes, rattles, toys, books, etc. are all fairly generic. Be careful though in getting too “involved” yourself. Are there other people in your research group? Maybe you could all chip in and get a gift together. Another “unique” gift you could do which would be really appreciated is to either a) bring over some dinner one day for her after her family has cleared out or b) give her a gift certificate to a food delivery service or delivery restaurant, something like waiters on wheels. New parents are often way too tired to cook.

baby board books are always great. I usually give boynton ones, which babies love, aren’t gender specific, and have gentle humor which makes reading them every night quite bearable. :-)

I like the Sandra Boynton books. Other authors for little ones include Eric Carle (The Hungry Caterpillar), Eric Hill (Where’s Spot?), Todd Parr (Otto Goes to Bed).

a baby gift for a PHd advisor? Does the fact that she’s a PhD advisor matter what
type of baby gift to get for a baby?? One year old generic gifts are usually books, clothes, gift cards, blankets, stuffed animals, one year old approriate toys (it usually says the age range on the box), ...

You can never go wrong with a scrapbook,photo album or picture frames.

I’d get her some great early books for the baby—the heavy cardboard kind that baby’s love pretty early in their lives.

make a gift basket,( diapers, onesy, burp clothes, wipes,nipple cream.) Or you could make one for the mom since usually everything is for the baby. Sometimes they have some already done at Babys R Us.

Thanks for all the advice, everyone! Sounds like a lot of people are thinking books, and I also like your ideas a lot, shilolo. Thanks again!

You could get her a gift certificate to one of those online photo and book printers so she could make custom albums, or novelty stuff like coasters, magnets, mugs, etc.
Here are a couple examples:
Shutterfly
Kodak Gallery