What Is The Best Time To Plan A Baby Shower

Baby showers are a wonderful way to spend time with your close friends and family and being showered with a lot of fabulous baby gifts is also pretty good fun. Another wonderful thing about baby showers is that they are a fairly easy event to plan, though deciding just when you should have your shower can occasionally present you with problems.

For first time parents holding a baby shower before the birth of the baby makes perfect sense as you almost certainly will not have any baby gear yet and you are going to require all manner of things as soon as the baby arrives. However, a shower is also the ideal time for friends and family to see the new bundle of joy and so having the party after the birth also makes perfect sense. Here is some advice therefore which you might find helpful when making your decision about timing.

One advantage of holding your baby shower after the birth is that the guests are going to know the gender and name of the baby. Knowing these details makes it much easier to choose gifts, particularly if the gift is going to be something which you want to have engraved. In addition, holding the party a month or so after the birth allows you time to get back to looking your 'best'.

Having a baby shower after the birth can also work very well when the child is not your first child because generally you will have the basics on hand and your friends and family can concentrate on purchasing essential everyday bits and pieces such as diapers and clothing.

However, holding your baby shower before the baby arrives means that you can be the focus of attention instead of the new child. Eyes will be focused on you and you will be pampered. Also, after looking through your gifts you will still have another month or so to shop for the bits and pieces you still need to have. A lot of expectant mothers will of course know the gender of their child and have already picked out a theme for the nursery so that gift giving can still be specific. Planning for your shower in advance of the birth also provides you with something to look forward to at a time when you could well simply be wishing for your pregnancy to be over.

Yet another thing to consider is what you want to play in the way of unique and different baby shower games. For many people games form a key part of any baby shower and the games which you select could well differ depending upon whether you hold the party before or after the birth of the baby. There is an enormous range of games available including such things as a pass the parcel baby shower game and these should also be considered when thinking about when to hold your baby shower.

Deciding exactly when you ought to hold your shower is really something that needs to be done on a case-by-case basis, but you ought not to delay your decision as no planning can be done until you have decided upon a date. If you are going to hold it before the baby is born then it is a good idea to schedule it for the seventh or eighth month of pregnancy and, if you are going to have it following the birth, then you should wait at least five or six weeks after the birth to allow you time to bond with your new baby.