When Is It Best To Hold A Baby Shower

Baby showers provide a wonderful way to spend some time with your family and close friends and being showered with a lot of baby gifts is also pretty good fun. Another wonderful thing about a baby shower is that it is relatively easy to plan, but deciding exactly when you should have your shower can occasionally present problems.

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

One benefit of holding your shower following the birth of the baby is that your guests will know the baby's gender and name. Knowing this makes it much easier to buy gifts, particularly if the gift is going to be something which needs to be engraved. In addition, having 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 particularly well when the child is a second or third child as normally you will have the basics to hand and your family and friends can focus their attention on purchasing essential everyday bits and pieces like clothing and diapers.

But, holding your party before the baby arrives means that you, rather than the new child, can be the focus of attention. Eyes are going to be focused on you and you can be pampered. Additionally, having looked through your gifts you will still have another month or so to purchase those bits and pieces you still need to have. A lot of expectant mothers will of course know the gender of their unborn child and have already picked out the decorations for the nursery so gift giving can still be specific. Planning for your baby shower before the birth also provides you with something to look forward to at a time when you might well simply be wishing that your pregnancy was over.

Yet another thing to consider is what you want to do in the way of games for your baby shower. For a lot of people games form an important element of any baby shower and the games which you choose might well change depending upon whether you hold the party before or after the birth. There is a huge range of games you can play including such things as baby shower games for men and these also have to be taken into consideration when thinking about when to have your shower.

Deciding just when you should hold your shower is very much something which 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 do decide to have it before the baby is born then you should think about scheduling it during the seventh or eighth month of your pregnancy and, if you are going to hold it after the birth, then you should wait at least five or six weeks after the birth to allow yourself time to bond with the new baby and for the two of you to get used to each other.