Baby shower stuff

[Rachels]

People keep posting about baby showers, so I thought I'd share a few faves from my own shower. One thing my hostess-friend did was to buy thank-you cards and put stamps on all the envelopes, then have the guests fill out their addresses. Everybody laughed and complied, and my notes were sent out the next day. Also, everybody got a few strips of beautiful paper and wrote blessings for me, for my baby, and for the birth. Then they read them to me, folded them up, and put them in a beautiful wooden box. I took it to the birth with me, remembered it during transition, and got through a very tough time lying in the jacuzzi and listening to somebody read me all the blessings. It was an essential moment. Third, I had a hilarious contest to find the WORST baby name to go with my last name. We got dozens of truly riotous suggestions, which my friend printed on little strips of paper and scattered like confetti around the table.

I've also heard of the idea of having a children's book shower, where everybody brings their favorite book as a gift, and I LOVED the idea of a casserole shower that somebody posted about here. I think a time-of-day shower would also be fun, where all the guests received a time of day and got mom-to-be a gift that could be used at that hour. We did that once for a wedding shower, but I think it would work even better with babies.

Whatever you do, it's such a fun time!

-Rachel
Mommy to Abigail Rose
5/18/02

[emilys]

I just had my shower two weeks ago and it was so wonderful so I'll add my highlights -- (wish I'd read this other post before, I love the blessing and bad name ideas!)

There were 2 or 3 polaroid cameras and plenty of film, everyone was taking pictures of everyone. At the end of the shower, two of the girls put together a beautiful album of the event which started with the invitation (beautiful invitations designed by my friend who is an art director), and included all the polaroids, all the shower gift cards (so great to be able to read and actually digest all the nice notes again, after the overwhelming rush of opening gifts and trying not to bore everyone to death). The album ends with a handwritten detailed list of all the gifts by someone with excellent handwriting and an anal attention to detail - made thank you notes a snap. They did the album so fast, double sided tape seemed to be the secret, and they used a pretty fabric bound spiral scrapbook with plain heavy stock white pages.

There were about 30 guests and there was a table with onesies and t-shirts (lots of sizes, not just newborn) and fabric paints (little squeeze-on bottles) and everyone who wanted to painted a little shirt or outfit for the baby. They were so creative and funny and cute and even political which was hilarious. And it really showed a side of each guest in terms of what they painted. A nice, non-competitive, on-going activity - GREAT icebreaker for the people who didn't know anyone else there, they could just go and paint and chat about the painting. And the results were both adorable and useful. Oh, and when each one was done, they hung them up on a big clothesline to dry and display. (I had actually requested this of one of the hosts after she kept asking what she should do for games and activities, because I had seen this at another shower, so if you are expecting, don't be afraid to make requests, especially if you aren't into other kinds of games. She was happy to do it and she got more stuff than I ever imagined!)

There's more, but this is getting too long... great food, decorations, hilarious diaper cake centerpiece (which is now my first stock of newborn diapers), etc.

By the way, DH felt strongly about contributing to the event in some way because he knew it was a lot of work and expense for the three hosts so he insisted (and I agreed) that we contribute something. We offered champagne (it was a Sunday brunch so we thought mimosas) and the hosts liked that idea, so we did. Or maybe they came up with the champagne idea, who knows, it's all a blur...