@SarahDarah33 - My shower didn't really have a theme and I didn't really receive gifts that matched the theme of my nursery*, so I wouldn't worry about having an art themed shower and then getting only "art" themed gifts.
Decorating onesies, bibs, diapers or decorations would be an excellent shower activity. You could do a quiz game where someone holds up the cover art for popular children's books and you all have to guess which book it belongs to. You can also do games that are outside the theme, like gift bingo, "don't say baby" clothespin game, etc - really the ultimate theme will be "how much we love SarahDarah's baby" so keeping in theme isn't always super important.
*The only themed element of my shower was that my friend bought invites that had whales on them and a print that matched for the nursery, but she is my very best friend who I talk to everything about and knew I wanted a whale themed nursery and loved the print on the invites. Everything else was just "baby" themed - the cake, the plates, the decor, etc. All the gifts were either straight off the registry, or completely irrelevant to my nursery theme.
We have the same due date! Ours is scheduled for Aug. 6! I don't think your date is too late-- you might just have to hold onto your purse strings so you don't go buy too much stuff before the shower
Thanks @PoodleDoodleOoo I've been really into cute little fox things- I don't know why but I'm fixated lol- so I'm going with crafty like a fox (even though the saying is really crazy like a fox, it's close enough) so it sort of combines the two aspects into one. I so hope people buy things off the registry! I made sure I included things in every possible price range with only two really big items- one of which my father already committed to buy.
This may have been asked/posted already so forgive me, mobile ap isnt as friendly as pc, but do yall consider it "rude" to skip an actual shower and just annouce where youre registered if anyone is interested in buying something for you/baby. Im highly considering this because i just dont get into the whole shower thing, and my mom doesnt either. Just wanted to hear some other opinions.
I just had a bad dream and part of it was a baby shower where no one bought off the registry and I only received the same exact newborn sized outfit over and over again.
This may have been asked/posted already so forgive me, mobile ap isnt as friendly as pc, but do yall consider it "rude" to skip an actual shower and just annouce where youre registered if anyone is interested in buying something for you/baby. Im highly considering this because i just dont get into the whole shower thing, and my mom doesnt either. Just wanted to hear some other opinions.
As long as you don't make some big, formal announcement where you're registered, and just tell people as they ask, I don't think it's rude. The former seems gift-grabby to me.
This may have been asked/posted already so forgive me, mobile ap isnt as friendly as pc, but do yall consider it "rude" to skip an actual shower and just annouce where youre registered if anyone is interested in buying something for you/baby. Im highly considering this because i just dont get into the whole shower thing, and my mom doesnt either. Just wanted to hear some other opinions.
As long as you don't make some big, formal announcement where you're registered, and just tell people as they ask, I don't think it's rude. The former seems gift-grabby to me.
No i wasnt planning on mailing anything. just telling people if they ask me, my parents, SO. I just cant do shower thing. im high anxiety and i really just dont want to deal with all the added attention and stress. not what anyone needs while pregnant. Thanks for the input.
I need some advise for a shower idea... My MIL suggested doing a baby pool for the shower. At first I thought she meant having a calendar sheet out for people to make guesses and then sending a gift to the winner once I deliver. As she talked about more she said she wanted to have people put money in and then donate the total to a children's hospital or some other charity. Although I think the donation is a nice thought, I feel a little weird telling people they need to pay to participate in the pool. Especially since they would have already spent money on a gift...
What do you ladies think? Does the request for money to participate in the pool seem tacky or is it okay since the total would be donated? A part of me thinks we should just send a gift card to the winner, but I don't want to shoot on her idea if it isn't a big deal.
@pinkspartan15 Even though intentions are good & it would go to charity -- I don't think anyone should ever have to take out money at a shower. So I would either do the pool for fun or skip it entirely. P.S. I feel for you on having to tell your MIL that you don't like her idea -- I hate doing that!!! Awkward but better than being stuck feeling awkward at the shower!
@jbscmama thanks! I agree that people shouldn't have to take out money at shower. If she brings it up again I'll tell her that or maybe she'll forgot about whole the idea.
@pinkspartan15 I agree with @jbscmama. And I think the guessing game is fun even without any sort of eventual gift to the "winner" or donation to charity.
@pinkspartan15- I hardly ever carry cash, I'd feel a little awkward if I couldn't participate.. and telling people ahead of time is also a bit odd. Hopefully it can be avoided!
@pinkspartan15 I think it'd be odd to have people put in money at a shower if I were a guest to one. I've heard of the baby pool where people put in their names and a date into a bowl or use a calendar. My shower will have a diaper raffle (which I'm way too excited about) so whoever brings a pack of diapers will be put in for a prize and they'll just do the drawing at rhe shower.
@BernieRae plus there's the chance we all might forget about sending a gift with the excitement of the new baby!
@AnnaS930 I hadn't thought of that, but most people don't carry cash these days (including me) That would probably cause people to be be a little annoyed with the whole thing.
@AlwaysAuntNeverMom diaper raffles are a great idea. My mom already wanted to ask everyone to bring a book with a note to the baby instead of a card so we decided to do that instead of the raffle.
Thanks ladies for your input. If we do the pool I'm going to suggest dropping the 'buy in' part.
@geminigirl16, my mom is planning mine and having it at hear house. She said that my step father, grandfather and husband would be there in another room while we had my shower outside. I don't have a lot of traditional things that I really hold on to, but that was one of them. I have no problem with others having co-ed showers, but I definitely believe in the tradition of it being all females. Just a nice time to spend with your lady friends and family members.
@JWarfield726 You know, I think I just may agree with you on this about holding onto the tradition of women only showers. My coworkers threw me a surprise shower at work today and it was ladies only and it was a lot of fun and truthfully more enjoyable without my male coworkers. That may be because I'd be less comfortable with some of the talk around male colleagues vs. male friends and family.
My SIL is still thinking of a mixed shower and I discussed it with my fiance tonight and he said that he'll try to sway her mind to women only. His view was once you add men it becomes more of a party and less of a celebration of motherhood and the baby. Maybe he's just trying to get out of it...
So when someone in your family offers to throw you a shower, do they assume that I'll want to invite some of his family too? Or should I ask permission? MIL already gave me a list of people that want to come...(I didn't ask) I don't know how to navigate this because the aunt that is throwing me the shower hasn't asked me about a guest list at all.
Two things- I'm reviewing the guest list for the baby shower and I feel so strange about inviting some of the people that I've never met or barely see/know- but my husband thinks I should invite them because it's a nice gesture and he's convinced they will likely feel excluded if they don't get invited. I'm over here thinking men are clueless with this stuff- I don't want anyone to think I'm inviting them because I hope they give us stuff, you know? Thoughts?
Also- my total lack of sleep last night at least helped me be productive, so I got my shower invites done I'm OCD and love to craft, so I drew and colored in the little foxes then loaded them in PhotoShop and went to town. We're having the shower at a contemporary art museum (that I manage, so it's free), and most of what I've been buying for the baby is woodland themed (especially foxes) so I combined the two lol.
When was your shower? This past weekend! At just about 29 weeks.
How many people attended? Exactly 20 total. We had a luncheon so we had a cap.
What did you wear? I wore a navy blue spandexy looking tank dress. It was long yet cool for the heat!
Was there a theme? Yes, safari to match the baby's room
Did it go as you expected/wanted? Share. I thought it was a great time. It was hotter than I expected and since we were on the patio fans had to suffice.
We played 3 games. For prizes my mom gave away gift cards.
1) Everyone brought a baby photo of themselves. We numbered them, gave everyone name tags and passed them around the table. Guests had to guess who the baby photo belonged to. It was a long of fun, encouraged people to be social and was baby related.
2) My mom found a list of animals and gave everyone a minute to write down the "baby" form of that animal. The person who named the most won.
3) My mom scrambled baby related words (like bottle) and gave everyone two minutes to unscramble as many words as they could. It was hard but everyone had a lot of fun.
What was your favorite part? Or least favorite part if applicable. My favorite part was seeing how genuinely happy were for me and baby! And it was funny hearing everyone try to guess the name LOL. We aren't saying until birth but wow people want to know! I will say that it was hard trying to mingle and give special attention to everyone. It felt a lot like our wedding. So many people!
@SarahDarah333 - SIL invited a few people from her family that I didn't know to my shower in July. I'm normally a pretty big stickler for etiquette but I went all ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ on this one. DH's family is never ending and is apparently really close despite distance - both physically and in relationship labels - essentially she was inviting second and third cousins once removed kind of thing - and DH considers himself close to them even though he hasn't seen them for a few years. DH knows his family best, and remember showers can be more about celebrating the baby and getting excited for the new addition in the family and not just you.
About 15? 20? A lot of people couldn't come because of vacations, graduations, family events, etc. but it was a nice turn-out, especially since it was a relatively small space.
What did you wear?
A indigo and ivory chrysanthemum-print sleeveless jersey maxi dress. So pretty and comfortable.
Was there a theme?
Woodland animals (mainly foxes) in bright colors (mostly deep violet, peacock blue and orange) to go with our nursery theme.
Did it go as you expected/wanted? Share.
Yes! It was low-key but so nice. I have bad anxiety that's made worse by social situations, but I had a great time. It was mostly friends and close family (with one more distant family member and one friend of my SIL's).
I was hoping there wouldn't be games (because anxiety), but there were a couple and it was fun!
1. SIL filled a baby bottle with Skittles and people had to guess the number without going over.
2. No one could say "baby" or "babies". Everyone started with one clothespin (which you lost if someone heard you say the forbidden word/s) and whoever had the most at the end won. BIL was on a roll until he lost them all to my niece for saying "baby monitor" during the gift opening, so she ended up winning. It was hilarious watching people try to trick other people into saying it and then grabbing their pins.
What was your favorite part? Or least favorite part if applicable.
The fact that everyone was so happy for us! The youngest kids in the family (other than DH's cousin's due-any-minute baby) are all at least 10, so there's a lot of excitement about new babies, especially since these are our first (and after 11 years of being married and 16 years together!).
I'm due Mid-September and the baby shower will be Mid-August. Though it's close, the time frame worked better for all of us because our family is spread out and there are a number of people who wanted to come but would have to travel.
My cousin is throwing the party for me with assistance from my mom and SIL, since cuz lives and is organizing the event from another state. I'm super excited to see family I don't get to see on a regular basis and squeal with them over baby stuff!
@SarahDarah333 Thank you! I really love how it turned out. It was perfect and I love that they respected my gender neutral preferences and didn't make everything blue.
I just love the fox/woodland theme. I've been stuck on it since we found out I was pregnant. I can't imagine doing the nursery with any other theme.
We showed up to my MILs and my SIL had planned a surprise shower for me. It wasn't anything big just my MIL, 2 SILs, one if DHs aunts, although 2 aunts that couldn't make it sent something, and my best friend showed up.
They were great and got us a car seat, stroller, and pnp! I was not expecting that at all.
We had a cookie cake. But I had tested my blood sugar while we were there and got a 146 so they wouldn't let me eat any of it and instead gave me sugar free cookies. Blah
@SarahDarah333 Out of curiosity, is your shower mixed or women only? I'm debating doing a mixed one and my count is similar to yours.
I dont have a lot of close female friends and no family on my side at all where I live. I also dislike being the centre of attention so really want my SO to be there since it's his sister who wants to host the shower. Part of me feels like he should be there since it's his family hosting and attending.
What did you wear? A lace maxi dress that I looooved. It wasn't a maternity dress, just one I got that was bigger and stretchy.
Was there a theme? Not really, they used the colors of the nursery and did a princess cake.
Did it go as you expected/wanted? Share. It went even better than I expected. People didn't get us anything from the registry but got us a bunch of essentials that we needed! We had left off things like pacis, washcloths, towels, blankets, etc and just put the bigger items on the registry. We were expecting to buy all the little things ourselves eventually so it was nice to get them as gifts and not have to worry about it! For some reason, I thought people would only buy cute clothes (which were also appreciated) so all the presents were so great.
What was your favorite part? Or least favorite part if applicable. Absolutely no disappointments. My favorite part was the diaper raffle. Everyone brought in a pack and we even got a couple boxes. We got different sizes, too! All the way up to 3. That also surprised me as I expected some people to only bring diapers, not gifts. We feel so lucky.
What did you wear?A maroon empire waist flowy dress I already have
Was there a theme? Just the colors from the nursery coral and navy.
Did it go as you expected/wanted? Share. It went really well, the weather was perfect and the backyard of my MIL was so pretty with all their decorations. The food was amazing and you could tell they all worked hard on it. The games were very fun. They did onesie decorating, a diaper raffle, water breaking (babies in ice cubes), bingo during presents and the clothespins. It kept everyone entertained. I got mainly clothes, books and diapers but a few other fun things like a cute lamp and really pretty homemade quilt and stuffed bunny.
What was your favorite part? Or least favorite part if applicable. Favorite part was all the food and just seeing everyone and mingling.
I have a shower question and hopefully it makes sense since I am tired at work Did anyone have a shower from both your side and your SO's side? If so, was your mom/sisters invited to the shower thrown by your SO's family? Or were they completely seperate. From my past experience with sister was we were invited to the shower hosted by her husbands family and his mom and sister were invited to the shower we threw? I'm just wondering other peoples experience with this as my SO's sister said they were not planning on inviting my mom/sisters to the shower they were throwing, that they wanted it to be seperate...
I would invite them, but let them know it's no pressure and obviously they aren't expected to give gifts at both events. My family and my husbands family never see one another because they're far apart in geography so I would totally invite to both so they have the chance to see each other. But I wouldn't expect it either.
My mom was invited and came to my SO's side. They did an awesome job of including her in the shower. She sat up front with me and ate with my SO and I. They also put her in charge of writing down who gave which gift. She felt busy and entertained the whole time.
We invited MIL to the shower on my side of the family in July. We don't want her to feel pressure to come and definitely don't need a second gift.
drabong88 - I think it's polite to invite them, but not always necessary. I specifically asked my sister to NOT invite MIL/SILs to the shower she is throwing since MIL tends to talk too much and generally annoys me. I don't think my mom and sister were invited to SILs shower, but they also didn't even ask me for any guest lists.
Re: The Baby Shower Thread
Decorating onesies, bibs, diapers or decorations would be an excellent shower activity. You could do a quiz game where someone holds up the cover art for popular children's books and you all have to guess which book it belongs to. You can also do games that are outside the theme, like gift bingo, "don't say baby" clothespin game, etc - really the ultimate theme will be "how much we love SarahDarah's baby" so keeping in theme isn't always super important.
*The only themed element of my shower was that my friend bought invites that had whales on them and a print that matched for the nursery, but she is my very best friend who I talk to everything about and knew I wanted a whale themed nursery and loved the print on the invites. Everything else was just "baby" themed - the cake, the plates, the decor, etc. All the gifts were either straight off the registry, or completely irrelevant to my nursery theme.
Super strange
My MIL suggested doing a baby pool for the shower. At first I thought she meant having a calendar sheet out for people to make guesses and then sending a gift to the winner once I deliver. As she talked about more she said she wanted to have people put money in and then donate the total to a children's hospital or some other charity. Although I think the donation is a nice thought, I feel a little weird telling people they need to pay to participate in the pool. Especially since they would have already spent money on a gift...
What do you ladies think? Does the request for money to participate in the pool seem tacky or is it okay since the total would be donated? A part of me thinks we should just send a gift card to the winner, but I don't want to shoot on her idea if it isn't a big deal.
P.S. I feel for you on having to tell your MIL that you don't like her idea -- I hate doing that!!! Awkward but better than being stuck feeling awkward at the shower!
@AnnaS930 I hadn't thought of that, but most people don't carry cash these days (including me) That would probably cause people to be be a little annoyed with the whole thing.
@AlwaysAuntNeverMom diaper raffles are a great idea. My mom already wanted to ask everyone to bring a book with a note to the baby instead of a card so we decided to do that instead of the raffle.
Thanks ladies for your input. If we do the pool I'm going to suggest dropping the 'buy in' part.
June 11th
How many people attended?
30-40 people
What did you wear?
It was a nautical theme (My hubby is in the navy) so I wore a navy blue and white striped dress.
Was there a theme?
Nautical (Red, white, and blue)
Did it go as you expected/wanted? Share.
Yes. I was out of the loop and just showed up. It was perfect.
What was your favorite part? Or least favorite part if applicable.
My favorite part was seeing everyone I love in one place at the same time!
Any pictures you want to share?
Yep!
My SIL is still thinking of a mixed shower and I discussed it with my fiance tonight and he said that he'll try to sway her mind to women only. His view was once you add men it becomes more of a party and less of a celebration of motherhood and the baby. Maybe he's just trying to get out of it...
I don't know how to navigate this because the aunt that is throwing me the shower hasn't asked me about a guest list at all.
I'm reviewing the guest list for the baby shower and I feel so strange about inviting some of the people that I've never met or barely see/know- but my husband thinks I should invite them because it's a nice gesture and he's convinced they will likely feel excluded if they don't get invited. I'm over here thinking men are clueless with this stuff- I don't want anyone to think I'm inviting them because I hope they give us stuff, you know? Thoughts?
Also- my total lack of sleep last night at least helped me be productive, so I got my shower invites done
How many people attended? Exactly 20 total. We had a luncheon so we had a cap.
What did you wear? I wore a navy blue spandexy looking tank dress. It was long yet cool for the heat!
Was there a theme? Yes, safari to match the baby's room
Did it go as you expected/wanted? Share. I thought it was a great time. It was hotter than I expected and since we were on the patio fans had to suffice.
We played 3 games. For prizes my mom gave away gift cards.
1) Everyone brought a baby photo of themselves. We numbered them, gave everyone name tags and passed them around the table. Guests had to guess who the baby photo belonged to. It was a long of fun, encouraged people to be social and was baby related.
2) My mom found a list of animals and gave everyone a minute to write down the "baby" form of that animal. The person who named the most won.
3) My mom scrambled baby related words (like bottle) and gave everyone two minutes to unscramble as many words as they could. It was hard but everyone had a lot of fun.
What was your favorite part? Or least favorite part if applicable. My favorite part was seeing how genuinely happy were for me and baby! And it was funny hearing everyone try to guess the name LOL. We aren't saying until birth but wow people want to know! I will say that it was hard trying to mingle and give special attention to everyone. It felt a lot like our wedding. So many people!
Any pictures you want to share?
Saturday the 18th.
How many people attended?
About 15? 20? A lot of people couldn't come because of vacations, graduations, family events, etc. but it was a nice turn-out, especially since it was a relatively small space.
What did you wear?
A indigo and ivory chrysanthemum-print sleeveless jersey maxi dress. So pretty and comfortable.
Was there a theme?
Woodland animals (mainly foxes) in bright colors (mostly deep violet, peacock blue and orange) to go with our nursery theme.
Did it go as you expected/wanted? Share.
Yes! It was low-key but so nice. I have bad anxiety that's made worse by social situations, but I had a great time. It was mostly friends and close family (with one more distant family member and one friend of my SIL's).
I was hoping there wouldn't be games (because anxiety), but there were a couple and it was fun!
1. SIL filled a baby bottle with Skittles and people had to guess the number without going over.
2. No one could say "baby" or "babies". Everyone started with one clothespin (which you lost if someone heard you say the forbidden word/s) and whoever had the most at the end won. BIL was on a roll until he lost them all to my niece for saying "baby monitor" during the gift opening, so she ended up winning. It was hilarious watching people try to trick other people into saying it and then grabbing their pins.
What was your favorite part? Or least favorite part if applicable.
The fact that everyone was so happy for us! The youngest kids in the family (other than DH's cousin's due-any-minute baby) are all at least 10, so there's a lot of excitement about new babies, especially since these are our first (and after 11 years of being married and 16 years together!).
Any pictures you want to share?
● IUI #2: BFP - early M/C
● IUI #3: BFN
● IUI #4: BFN
● IVF/FET #1 (2 transferred): BFP! TWINS!
● FET #2 (1 transferred): BFP! BOY #3!
● Natural #1: BFP - M/C @ 8 weeks
● Natural #2: BFP - M/C @ 5w5d
My cousin is throwing the party for me with assistance from my mom and SIL, since cuz lives and is organizing the event from another state. I'm super excited to see family I don't get to see on a regular basis and squeal with them over baby stuff!
Everyone's shower pictures are so sweet!
@PoodleDoodleOoo - I ended up inviting about 70 total lol- I know a bunch won't come but the thought means something to most of them.
@MojieJo So so cute! I love the foxes!!! We're doing fox/woodland theme
I just love the fox/woodland theme. I've been stuck on it since we found out I was pregnant. I can't imagine doing the nursery with any other theme.
● IUI #2: BFP - early M/C
● IUI #3: BFN
● IUI #4: BFN
● IVF/FET #1 (2 transferred): BFP! TWINS!
● FET #2 (1 transferred): BFP! BOY #3!
● Natural #1: BFP - M/C @ 8 weeks
● Natural #2: BFP - M/C @ 5w5d
They were great and got us a car seat, stroller, and pnp! I was not expecting that at all.
We had a cookie cake. But I had tested my blood sugar while we were there and got a 146 so they wouldn't let me eat any of it and instead gave me sugar free cookies. Blah
I dont have a lot of close female friends and no family on my side at all where I live. I also dislike being the centre of attention so really want my SO to be there since it's his sister who wants to host the shower. Part of me feels like he should be there since it's his family hosting and attending.
How many people attended? 15-20 plus kiddos!
What did you wear? A lace maxi dress that I looooved. It wasn't a maternity dress, just one I got that was bigger and stretchy.
Was there a theme? Not really, they used the colors of the nursery and did a princess cake.
Did it go as you expected/wanted? Share. It went even better than I expected. People didn't get us anything from the registry but got us a bunch of essentials that we needed! We had left off things like pacis, washcloths, towels, blankets, etc and just put the bigger items on the registry. We were expecting to buy all the little things ourselves eventually so it was nice to get them as gifts and not have to worry about it! For some reason, I thought people would only buy cute clothes (which were also appreciated) so all the presents were so great.
What was your favorite part? Or least favorite part if applicable. Absolutely no disappointments. My favorite part was the diaper raffle. Everyone brought in a pack and we even got a couple boxes. We got different sizes, too! All the way up to 3. That also surprised me as I expected some people to only bring diapers, not gifts. We feel so lucky.
Edit: TB ate my post
BFP: 8/11/18 Due: 4/26/18
How many people attended? 15 and me
What did you wear? A maroon empire waist flowy dress I already have
Was there a theme? Just the colors from the nursery coral and navy.
Did it go as you expected/wanted? Share. It went really well, the weather was perfect and the backyard of my MIL was so pretty with all their decorations. The food was amazing and you could tell they all worked hard on it. The games were very fun. They did onesie decorating, a diaper raffle, water breaking (babies in ice cubes), bingo during presents and the clothespins. It kept everyone entertained. I got mainly clothes, books and diapers but a few other fun things like a cute lamp and really pretty homemade quilt and stuffed bunny.
What was your favorite part? Or least favorite part if applicable. Favorite part was all the food and just seeing everyone and mingling.
We invited MIL to the shower on my side of the family in July. We don't want her to feel pressure to come and definitely don't need a second gift.