Baby Showers
Baby shower timing
I am pregnant for the first time and due on December 15th. We have chosen to not find out what gender the baby is until s/he arrives. My question is, when should I have my shower, before delivery or after?
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Re: Baby shower timing
Showers are held before the baby arrives, so um, before.
Anything else is a 'Meet the Baby' party, which is not considered a gift giving event, and I am judging by your post your celebration is gift motivated.
Religious reasons for parties after birth.... totally acceptable.
Having parties after birth just to get better gifts.... tack tack tacky!!!!!
I actually wasn't trying to think about the gifts. If someone came without a gift, I could honestly care less. Just come and celebrate with us! I was more thinking about the timing of the holidays. I am due right between Thanksgiving and Christmas. The gender thing was more just informational. It would be easier for someone to purchase a thoughtful gift knowing the gender and/or name of the baby, but like I said before I don't really care if I get gifts or not. Gifts would just be a "bonus" to just having my friends and family there.
Sorry for any confusion.
I think that having a shower in October would be a lot easier than trying to have one in January. I'm due late February and my shower will be Jan. 15th, which is the furthest from Christmas/New Years my hostess could get without getting too close to my due date.
Since you are due Dec. 15 I think a shower anytime in October/early November would be more convenient for guests, and probably for your hostess as well.
I don't think the timing is a problem. I am actually due 1 day after you, and my mom scheduled my shower for the last weekend of October.
1- Agreed that a shower doesn't *have* to be before- it USUALLY is, but doesn't have to be (i.e. religious reasons).
2- This board doesn't have an obsession with Meet the Baby Parties. They are a new trend that is often suggested to appease people who try to throw their own baby showers... at least a MTB party is less tacky!
3- OP- I suggest an October-November shower.... please suggest a few good dates to whomever offered to host your shower and leave the rest up to them (because you don't throw your own shower... see #2).
I was wondering myself when to have my baby shower. My SIL and mom are doing the shower - but SIL is really doing everything.
I spoke to my mom, stating a preference for end of October. She stated November, which didn't work well for me. So I asked SIL what she thought. She said based on her own personal experience (she just had a baby) that early to mid October would probably be better - it would give us more time to figure out what we need/want to do and buy before baby gets here. And what if baby is early? Plus she pointed out we don't want to have it at the end of October because of Halloween parties that people will be attending.
ETA: I'm also due December 15th.
DS #2 - 4/2/14
I was due Dec. 10th. Had my shower in late October!
The shower before/after issue - why on earth does it matter WHY someone has a shower after the baby is born? I think having it before is more convienent in light of getting everything ready. But if the parents, for some reason, want it after - why on earth does it matter?
I really can't believe that this is causing people to scream "tacky!!". Good grief. I'm all about etiquette and what not in regards to showers, but this is one of the most "made up" issues to get up in arms over.
A shower is a shower is a shower regardless of when it's held or WHY it's held at that time.
~Benjamin Franklin
DS dx with celiac disease 5/28/10
My sis is due Dec 22 and we're having the shower in Oct. We wanted to beat the holidays and it had to work when she could travel home so it ended up being earlier than expected. I can't imagine anyone in our area will think a thing about it.
On a side note, and somewhat flameworthy, I think a shower is better for team green, because people always complain about getting a ton of clothes and little else. When people don't know what type of clothing to buy you, they're more likely to buy stuff off your registry or stuff you can genuinely reuse. A baby bath tub gets much more use than an outfit baby outgrows quickly or that isn't your style. We were very blessed with our shower and now this time around, we'll need clothes if we have a girl, but otherwise the basics really were covered at our shower. GL
Mine was thrown when I was 36 weeks. I was due Dec 2 and my shower was on halloween
I loved getting all the gender neutral stuff. He got PLENTY of boyish toys, books, and clothing after he was born as gifts from friends and family.
GL!
I would do it in October. My due date is Oct and I had mine at the end of August. That still left me plenty of time to get everything organized, make some returns (if need be), and make purchases of things we did not get and felt we needed. And it gave me time to get Thank You cards out, before the baby arrived and I had my hands full. And since you are due around Christmas, you can always spend the holidays shopping for the needed baby gear that you know you didn't get at the shower. I have had a lot of friends that wait to purchase anything for the baby until after the shower on the off chance that someone might buy the item for them. Most of them, knew the sex and ended up with a lot of gifts of clothing/blankets/toys....and were scrambling at the last minute to get the items they didn't get at the shower. I learned from that, and would occasionally buy the needed items throughout the pregnancy when they were on sale or I had a coupon for them....so I wouldn't have to buy them all at once.
My cousin was Team Green and had her shower AFTER her daughter was born and received a lot of clothes and other items that were very gender specific.
I am Team Green, and all I heard was "be prepared for a lot of yellow and green". Well........I had about 30-35 people at my shower....I got 4-5 sleepers, 2 sleep sacks, a pack of white socks, two blankets, and 6 onesies from our friends in Europe. Everything else I got, was gender neutral baby gear (and tons of it).....which is nice because we plan on having more than one kid and we can use all of the stuff over again. And then most of the family members said they couldnt wait to find out what it was so they could go shopping again for clothes and gender specific items.
But regardless, I would do it beforehand so you have time to get the other items you wish to have (before the baby is born) without feeling like you are rushed, you have time to get Thank You's out before the baby arrives and you you could probably hit up some pretty good sales after your shower during holiday time!