The Baby Shower Thread

minnie_yoga_mama

This is a place to ask questions, look for advice, share ideas/cute decorations/invites, etc. 

STM+ please jump in with advice and experience, including any fun ideas you had for previous showers!

kiwi2628

Don’t: open presents at the shower. It takes a ton of time and is fun for exactly no one.

Do: have a onesie decorating station for people to paint or draw on onesies for your baby (get onesies up to 9+ months that way you have time to use them all!)

Dont: take tags of everything- sort through what you have and want and need and like and exchange things for stuff that fits you and your lifestyle better (aka get rid of all snap clothes and get zippers or magnets!) also don’t keep all 0-3 clothes or NB because many babies spend very little time in those size brackets

Do: Serve food and drinks (mimosa bar!)



AFM- I won’t be having one. third baby in 3 years means no baby shower. But my baby shower with my first was a BLAST. It was a pool party (October baby so it was perfect) where we ate BBQ, opened no presents (which upset the grandmas but everyone else was relived), listened to music and generally just had a very relaxing, fun time

 

winterviolethope

Ok I fully realize I may be the only one but I love when people open my gift at the shower! I also love seeing the cute baby clothes lol. I think older people like the recognition too but I definitely heard it go both ways… as long as there’s cake and alcohol happening during present opening I think it’s ok

I’m from NYC area and our showers are usually held at restaurants with multiple
courses and a cocktail hour haha. I loved my first shower! It was in a really cool place with a tv for a slideshow and my mom got beautiful decor and cake … the restaurant also served dessert so I just remember eating like 3 different desserts that  day!

Make sure you assign a friend/sibling or
cousin to help write down who bought you what for thank you cards! 

I had a surprise sprinkle with my second with only my mom, aunts, first cousins and
grandma — it was my second boy and
done more low key with just close family and was really nice.

My mom is throwing me a sprinkle again since im having a girl this time— but again just immediate family and 4 friends.
Im not taking part in the planning or sharing a registry. 

winterviolethope

Here are some photos of the decor from back in 2016 lol… the balloons were made to look like baby rattles 

doxiemoxie212

My baby shower was.... lol.... not great. So my words of wisdom are that sometimes no baby shower is better than a baby shower  

monstera13

Not going to lie, I’m still bitter 4.5 years later about Hurricane Harvey arriving on the day of my baby shower. Definitely a horrible event for the Houston area, and so many people had it way worse than me, but I was sad not to get one. 

I love games at showers (I guess I’m that kind of nerd!). I don’t particularly like opening gifts in front of people, but as a guest, I enjoy watching them open the gifts 🤷🏼‍♀️ Make sure you have big baby stuff on your registry too- think bigger clothing and diaper sizes, solid food supplies, older baby toys, etc. You don’t want to only receive newborn stuff! 

I won’t be having a baby shower this time. My sister offered, but it feels a bit tacky as a STM 😩

aloha_mama

No shower for us this time, but DD6 decided to arrive thirty minutes before her shower was supposed to start 😂 My friend was sweet enough to keep all the decorations up for a couple of weeks until we could reschedule. We had a barbecue with alcohol, cornhole, and tons of food (and since I had already delivered I could actually enjoy the mimosas, which was great!). Not really any theme but it was a lot of fun, more like a party with friends than anything else, which is what I love: I wanted it to be a celebration with my village and not some Instagram-worthy thing where I felt like I had to perform. I also wanted something DH could come to and enjoy with me. I hated sitting in a chair in front of everyone and opening gifts but hey, some parts weren’t actually for me, and I don’t mind showing appreciation to the gift givers. Everyone got to meet DD and she slept the whole time in her little sling DH wore her in. 

shlecks

We had a sweet small shower for DS4 with family and a few friends and my sister and one of my friends are throwing me one this time around as well since I'm having a girl.  I don't think I would have if I was having another boy.  We're doing a Valentine's theme I think since it'll be around that time.  I agree I like watching people open gifts at showers!  So that'll be a part of it, but I don't know if we'll do games.  Probably will just be a gab fest of all the ladies in my life with good food and drinks.  

robbenson

@kiwi2628 we decorated bibs instead of onesies so they fit forever! It was great and was nice ro have a huge stack of them ready to go.

I recommend the theme aligning with your nursery theme. It made it so much easier for people to pick out blankets, gifts, and what not when it was the theme of the party.

Keep it relaxed and be aware of who is paying for everything. You don't want to be demanding and make your best friend go broke. I paid for certain things because I wanted them there and I didn't want to stress anyone else out about it. Try to remember that it is to have fun with you and the people you love. 

SmashJam

TTM so no shower for me! My MIL would probably say she's going to plan a party after birth so I can drink, lol. 



TW: She threw a baby shower last time because DS3 was born after my daughter passed and she has said she would have a party after for her-then there wasn't one. So I think she wanted to make sure I got celebrated.

rbflei

For my baby shower we did bun in the oven. I hosted at my house but my two friends planned everything. We love to cook so it was an easy theme. One of my friends made the parting gifts and they were wooden spoons for cooking with a heart burned in each. We still get people who say they actually use that and reminds them of us. We just kept it simple and it was a nice get together but we had a lot of dietary restrictions so tons of food sectioned off into dietary sections but still managed a small a mimosa bar. My only ask was no games. I really don't like baby shower theme games. The guys all went to a party at the flying saucer a low key beer bar and restaurant we all go to and just hung out at the same time we had our party.  kids could go to either but a lot of the women made the men take the kids so it was kind of funny.

Blondesweety444

We’re just going to do a little sprinkle brunch probably. It’s technically been 5 years since I had a baby but I kept most of my stuff and it’s another boy so I don’t need much. But I would like to get together with my family and celebrate baby still. My sister is doing the planning for this!

queenklau

I believe no shower for me either. Between COVID and this being my third, unlikely to happen. I didn't have on with my second because it was my second girl and ALSO during COVID...Freaking COVID ruined two potential sprinkles

The part of the babyshower/sprinkle that I love the most is the celebration of someone having a baby with friends and family. I really like any excuse to get people I love together, which is not optimal right now. I am hoping between Feb-March things will settle some and maybe someone will throw me a surprise sprinkle haha, wishful thinking.

My first shower was zoo/animal theme, I told the hostesses (sister/bffs) that the nursery was elephant theme, so they bought all the decor (stuffed animals, banners etc) with that in mind. I kept a lot of the decoration as nursery decor. I also didn't share the name of the baby so they made stuff that said Baby "our last Name". I will be able to repurpose most of the nursery decor for all 3 kids, haha! I just bought a few personalized items to change it up with each. I also had a  second shower with friends only and it was co-ed, that one was less traditional and super fun, they set up drinking games with baby bottles and people mostly brought diapers as gifts, it was more like a party (except I couldn't drink haha).

Edited typos...

minnie_yoga_mama

We are planning a casual co-ed celebration with our friends and family at a local park pavilion. Here is the top of the email invitation we sent out this week:

We decided on the coaster invitation theme because my husband loves to brew beer, mead, kombucha, etc. at home and also did the engineering design for a local brewery that just opened up close to where we live! At the actual shower, we’re sticking with the rustic neutral theme, and I’m printing out posters I designed with classic Winnie the Pooh quotes to decorate. My mom is making Pooh shaped sugar cookies and both of our moms are designing a trifold board of baby photos of hubby and I. Besides that, we just want a very casual afternoon of hanging out with our friends and family— pizza, beer, snacks, etc. Then the following day, we’re holding a Zoom baby shower for the people who are unable to attend in person or who live far away and still want to celebrate with us. For the virtual shower, we’re just planning to do a few fun games!