"Meet the baby" party instead of a baby shower?

FacciaBella83

My mom wants to throw a baby shower for me, but I'm not so sure if I want one, even though it's my first baby.  I read that some people opt to wait until the baby is born and then have a get together of family and friends so everyone can meet him/her.  This sounds more appealing to me.  I'd much rather have the actual baby be the center of attention instead of my big belly.

Has anyone done this?  How was it? 

katedemers

I asked this not too long ago and got some great responses. Our circumstances are different for wanting the celebration after the baby comes, though. The girls here had great suggestions for how to word the invitation etc, and Im sure theyll post those again, The only thing they reminded me (its hard to imagine if this is your first), is how exhausted you are after delivering, especially if it was a C section (you never know). So be sure that you are NOT in chanrge of planning, or cleaning up after, or settingup before. You really will need others to do that. Best of luck!!!!

ccorso

We are doing a 'meet the baby' party.  I live in Northern Cal but grew up in Southern Cal.  I am sure I will have a small shower here but will go down after the baby is born so everyone can meet him/her.  I would rather people in So Cal see the baby since we don't get down there as often as I would like.

JCragg

I wish I could. It's the height of Flu season here and usually when we get dumped on by snow so we are doing it earlier.

TadPole24

That is what we are doing. We purchased everything for baby ourselves so we don't want gifts, but we still wanted to celebrate our little girl! The after party seemed like the best solution. I'm sure people will still bring gifts, because that is what people do, but they won't feel obligated to. my girlfriends are still throwing it (the ones that offered to throw my shower) but we are having it at my house now, hopefully it will have more of an open house feel than a baby shower.

PunkyBooster

I love the idea.

I just had my baby 2 weeks ago so I can offer the following insight:

You don't know how you will handle recovery. You may bounce back or you may, like me, have a terrible recovery. Pace yourself and realize that you may not be up for guests for several weeks after baby is born. I am just now open to the idea of 1-2 people dropping by once in a while. I still can't handle the idea of more than 4 people here at one time.