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Baby Showers
give me the lowdown on sprinkle/meet the baby
I had a baby shower for my first and now with #2 on the way, I had a dear friend offer to throw me a shower. It took a lot of convincing her, but I finally got her to accept that I don't want a shower for #2. Now she has come to me and asked about throwing me a sprinkle or meet the baby party. So, give me the lowdown! I'm probably more interested in a meet the baby, but for my own proper etiquette info, I'd like to know:
1. Is a sprinkle before the baby comes? Besides not registering/asking for gifts, how is it different from a shower? How many/ who do you invite? Do you still play games and stuff or is it basically just an excuse for a party?
2. Meet the baby? how many/who gets invited? My first shower was a traditional women only- I assume meet the baby would be guys and girls???? If people bring a gift anyway, are you expected to open there?
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Re: give me the lowdown on sprinkle/meet the baby
I think "sprinkles" mean different things to different people...I think the idea is for it to be a low-key shower: smaller guest list, smaller gifts of expendable items- but many people treat it the same as a shower. I would say the sprinkles I've attended have all beenon par with showers. If 2nd showers aren't done in your circle of family/friends, I'd stay away from the sprinkle. Maybe you could suggest just a girl's day out for pedicures and brunch to visit with your friends before the new baby gets here and not make it a baby event?
For a "meet the baby" I think it's easiest to have an open-house type of event where you have some light snacks out and people can pop in/out to meet the baby. I would think families might stop in together to visit for a few minutes and probably most people would bring a small gift or maybe a casserole or some muffins for you guys. I would open gifts as you receive them and send TYs. Just consider whether you want a bunch of people around a newborn and how likely your friends/family are to want to hold the baby. Our pedi recommended not having anyone visit with the baby other than very close friends/family for first 6 weeks because if they get a fever in that time, it's automatic NICU/spinal tap :-(
To me a sprinkle is: yes before the baby comes, very small intimate gathering of close friends and family members (so perhaps around 10 people max depending on the size of your family), no games, no registry. Just a gathering with small necessity gifts such as diapers, wipes and clothes. However the idea of a sprinkle I believe is still relatively new and your guests might get the wrong idea and still think of it as a second shower, so that's something to be careful of.
Meet the baby = pretty much almost the exact same thing but it's after the baby is born and can most definitely be co-ed. However it's a safer option. I believe with this, the expectation to bring a gift is much lower. With a sprinkle someone will say "oh I HAVE to get a gift" while with a meet the baby party they would probably say "oh, how fun I get to meet the baby, I COULD get a gift, if I want to." This to me would be a much better option if I had to choose between the two. As for opening gifts, you could I suppose, but I don't think it's really necessary unless Uncle Hal says "hey, when are you going to open all these gifts!"
Hope that was somewhat helpful
W/a sprinkle - showers (IMO) are supposed to be gatherings of your closer friends and family. Not every person you've ever met. From that, I see sprinkles as your absolute CLOSEST friends and family. Definitely a small gathering and yes.... gifts are still expected w/ this. But it' snot supposed to be a "smaller shower" per se (as in, I wouldn't do games, etc), but more of a chance for your truly closest friends and fmaily to celebrate. Basically the people who would "of course" want to get yo ua little something anyhow.
~Benjamin Franklin
DS dx with celiac disease 5/28/10
My impression of the sprinkle is that is could be before or after the birth, more intimate with a smaller guest list. I would suggest a dessert sprinkle (maybe even an ice cream social kind of thing, play on the word 'sprinkle') or an appetizers thing, I wouldn't do a big buffet or a full meal.
The Meet the Baby party can be bigger since I would expect men and women to be invited but it would still be a casual thing, like an open house - no public gift openings, just casual drinks and finger foods or maybe a backyard barbeque depending on the season.
My Meet the Baby party was like an open house. Come anytime between 11:00 and 2:00 kind of thing. We had a baseball theme and served hot dogs, nachos, baseball cookies. Low key and very casual. My sister held it at her house about 2.5 weeks after he was born. We did get some gifts, but not many at all. Mostly from aunts that would've given a gift anyway. It was our first, but I had decided not to have a baby shower.
I loved it! I let people know way ahead of time that we were going to do that and so I think it cut down on the number of visitors that we had at the hospital or at home in those early days. They could just meet the baby then.
The invites were mostly done on facebook and via email. A "He's here! Come and meet him ..." kind of thing. I did have some postcard invites made up ahead of time (then my sister put the date & time on them) to mail to certain people - grandparents, aunts/uncles, but not really any friends.
We invited anyone. Friends. Relatives. Anyone that was in town.
We did do an official birth announcement later and that went to people that lived out of town too.