What Is The Best Time To Have A Baby Shower

Baby showers are a great way to spend some time with your close friends and family and being showered with a host of gifts for your new baby is also good fun. A further wonderful thing about baby showers is that they are reasonably easy to plan, although deciding just when you should hold your party can occasionally present problems.

For first time parents having a baby shower before the birth of the baby seems like the perfect solution as you probably will not have any baby gear yet and this is something that you will require the moment the baby arrives. However, a baby shower is also the ideal time for friends and family to see the new bundle of joy so that holding the shower after the birth also makes perfect sense. Here is some advice therefore which you may find useful when making your decision about timing.

One advantage of having your shower after the birth of the baby is that your guests will know the baby's gender and name. Knowing this makes it much easier to select gifts, especially 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 gives you a chance to get back to looking your 'best'.

Having the party after the baby's birth also works very well when the baby is a second or third child as usually you will have all of the basics on hand and your family and friends can focus their attention on purchasing those essential everyday necessities such as clothing and diapers.

However, holding your baby shower before the baby arrives means that you, rather than the new baby, can be the guest of honor. Eyes are going to be trained on you and you can be pampered. Also, having looked through all your gifts you are still going to have another month or two to purchase the bits and pieces you still need. A lot of expectant mothers will of course know the gender of their child and will have already chosen a theme for the nursery so gift giving can still be specific. Planning for your shower in advance of the birth also gives you something to look forward to at a time when you might well simply be wishing for your pregnancy to be over.

Another thing to think about is what you want to do by way of unique and different baby shower games. For many people games form a key element of any baby shower and the games that you select could well change depending upon whether the party is held before or after the birth. There is a huge range of games available including things like baby shower trivia games and these should also be taken into consideration when thinking about when to hold your baby shower.

Deciding just when you should hold your shower is really something which has to be done on a case-by-case basis, although you must not delay your decision as nothing can be done by way of planning until you have decided upon a date. If you do decide to have it before the baby arrives then you should think about scheduling it for the seventh or eighth month of pregnancy and, if you are going to hold it after the birth, then you should wait at least four to six weeks after the birth to allow you time to bond with the new baby.