Baby Showers

[nickel]

It's kinda totally up to you - like a hen's night.
There are no rules as such.
Personally I can't stand babyshower games - so we had a mixed gender BBQ. After all my DH was part of this too! This tends to be the way most people I know are going now, just having a mixed gender party even if they aren't part of a couple themselves.
As we already had a child, we just asked if anyone wanted to give a gift to give some money towards a new pram.

But the more conventional ones i've been to can be a lot of fun with cute baby hand and feet shaped cookies, and you can really get carried away with the whole theming of the invitation and so on. You can throw it for yourself or if your friend is organising it- tell her what sort of party you want and what day suits you and let her do the rest! There are also baby shower registries (like wedding ones) so that you don't get 500 stuffed teddies. Whatever - have fun and celebrate your pregnancy!

[AliciaK]

Hi there - I also haven't been to one before and can't wait for mine on Saturday. MIL and SILs are organising.... I am helping with games and we are having women and kids only.... just cause DH wants to go the pub with his mates LOL
SIL sent out invites and getting RSVP - I did a list of my friends andfamily I wanted invited (even though I knew most of them can't come as they live far away - I think it's nice to invite them !) and SIL did the ones I forgot on their side of the family. We are just have an afternoon tea (with grog for them of course!!) with nice food and drinks (SIL said on the weekend she had found some great mochtails for me YAY!)
But whatever you want goes really - its your day. I haven't done a register or anything, just gave a list of things we might need to SIL who tells people who want to know - really for us some people are coming from far away and them being there is gift enough for me. We also suggested if people are stuck, gift cards from Big W (which can also be used at woolies) so that if we get cash strapped down the line and run out of food, etc we have the cards to use... (DH idea!)
I hope you have a great time... enjoy the company of all your friends and being spoilt rotten it mightn't happen again for a while!!!
Ps - MIL suggested 4 weeks before birth date in case she decides to come early!!! But I have heard of other having them just before their due date..

[~Kim~]

I was the same as you, I just wanted my friends together - I ended up with 3 separate baby showers (sooo not my choice). My fave one was the one with my mates - my thanks for being my great friends and inspirations party.
My DH didn't want to be involved at all.
I had one at 32/34/35 weeks. 2 were chinzy games and cheesy decos 1 wasn't. One of the games ones no-one really wanted to play - so not great, the other one with all my female cousins and their daughters (there are a lot of girls in my fam) we had a ball being stupid.
2 I had no say in and they were organised around me.
1 my MIL and SIL orchestrated and it was so not me and really all about what they wanted - terrible but hey if that's what they wanted.....
The third one at mums was very relaxed, high tea and wine. i gave them all cards and pressies saying thankyou for supporting me, you are where I get my inspiration from. THey were all the great women in my life.
Do exactly what you will feel great about.

[Nai]

I think it's nice just to have a catch up with the girlfriends. Generally you have some champagne (you can also get some great alcohol free stuff these days) or fruit punch and themed food eg. one of my friends knew she was having a girl so it was all in pink.

If you are having games it's a good idea to have 1 or 2 people running the show making sure everyone is organised and knows what's going on. That way they can keep things on track and throw in a game or two in between the conversation (or as an icebreaker).

If you have someone organising things then word them up as to what you need for the baby so they have a list if people ask them. I wanted the fitted cloth nappies so my friend collected money from people who wanted to put in and got me a gift voucher for the supplier that I had chosen. It was the best gift!

[mbear]

I just recently (on Sunday actually) organised a baby shower for my best friend. She knew about it.

We had it at her mums home. We arranged it for 2pm, we had a 'high tea' kind of theme - smoked salmon bite size sandwiches, scones and cream, cupcakes, champagne, peach schnapps, coffee and tea.
It went reaaaaaaaaaaaaaally well. We had about 25 of her close girlfriends. We played 3 games (PM me if you like and i will email you what sort of games we played), of which me and another girl organised, the mum to be just sat back and watched/particpiated in the games. We had a few 'baby shower' decorations hung around the room, our plates, napkins and cups were pink and blue (she does not know sex of baby), and generally it went really well.

We opened the gifts towards the end of the party, then everyone left (and we hung around and ate all the leftovers ). It was a blast, you must have one, especially for your first. I thought the 'afternoon' tea idea was great. Entertaining and feeding 20 or so people can become costly, not to mention a headache. The afternoon tea involved a couple of cakes, some sandwiches and some champers.......Enjoy.

[NaeNae]

Thanks Ladies,

Nickel - wow baby hand and feet shaped cookies sounds like things could go OTT more so than a wedding and registeries really? uh shows how much I know.

Kim - gosh sounds like the MIL and SIL had their priorities really wrong. At least you had fun at the others though.

Mbear - sounds just like what I would want too. I am in the process of organising my no.1 girl's Hens night so can appreciate the headache side of things. But its all in good fun. Did you get people to bring a plate? I will pm you for the games as well.

Nai - great thought with the cloth nappy, I so want to go with fitted cloth nappies what a fantastic gift they are so damn expensive.

AliciaK - please please come back in here and let me know how your Baby Shower goes and what they did etc. Hope you have a great day.

I guess coz we live so far away from ...well everything ...that I wouldn't expect anyone to bring gifts, just having everyone around and having fun is all I want. Dh probably won't be in a mixed thing, he'll probably want to go off and play golf or something.

My no.1 girl is already stressing about this, hello she has a wedding to think about. I told her we'd have plenty of time post wedding and I was thinking August sometime which is about 4-6 weeks before bub is due depending on what date we have it.

I am just not sure how I will be feeling by then though, gosh I already feel like Melbourne Aquarium is missing a whale and I am only half way. Spose it will give me something extra to look forward too.

If anyone else would like to share their Baby Shower stories/Ideas etc please post away I need as many ideas as possible

Nae x x x x

[mbear]

The mum to be basically elected 3 helpers - me, her sister and her mother.
Her mum made the sandwiches (we all helped though)
The sister bought the drinks (champers,schnapps, OJ)
I brought scones (i got these from woolies on the morning of the party, much easier than baking them), and i made a marshmellow slice.
The mum to be brought cupcakes, mini sausage rolls, cut fruit.

We had 2 of the girls invited to the party offer to bring dips/cheese etc. We took them up on that offer !!!

We had sooo much food leftover. When it comes down to it, your friends have come to see you and your growing belly, spend a couple of hours with you, have a drink, a snack, watch you open your gifts, and off they go - its a day you will always remember....

[Laranna]

My baby shower is tomorrow It's being organised by SIL and my sister. I made all the invitations (just cause I like doing that kind of stuff ) and SIL is taking care of all the RSVP's, food and decorations. She put up a piece of string all the way around the room and hung paper cutouts of babys clothes, nappies (including safety pins!) on all different patterns of paper...looks so cute! My sister has organised the games.

All I've had to do was the drinks, the prizes for the games and clean the house! SIL has made cookies in the shape of pram and iced them, put them in organza bags and I've made "thank you" tags to go on them which everyone will get a bag to go home with. I'm also making sandwiches which will be cutout in the shape of baby outfit and hat.

We found some paper plates and napkins at Woolies that are pastel colours and say baby on them.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow!