When Is The Best Time To Plan Your Baby Shower

Baby showers provide a wonderful way to spend time with your family and close friends and being showered with a lot of gifts for your new baby is also pretty good fun. A further great thing about a baby shower is that it is a reasonably simple event to plan, though deciding just when you should have your shower can sometimes present you with problems.

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

One advantage of holding your shower after the birth of the baby is that your guests will know the gender and name of the baby. Knowing this makes it a lot easier to choose gifts, especially if the gift is going to be something that you want to have engraved. Also, holding the event a month or two after the birth gives you a chance to get back to looking your 'best'.

Holding the party after the baby's birth can also work very well when the baby is not your first child because generally you will already have the basics on hand and your guests can focus their attention on purchasing essential everyday necessities such as clothing and diapers.

However, having your baby shower before the baby is born means that you can be the focus of attention rather than the new child. All eyes will be trained on you and you will be pampered. In addition, after looking through all of the gifts you will still have another month or so to go shopping for the items you still need. Of course a lot of expectant mothers know the gender of their unborn child and will have already chosen the decorations for the nursery so that gift giving can still be specific. Planning for your shower before the birth also gives you something to look forward to at a time when you could well simply be wishing that your pregnancy was over.

Another thing to consider is what you want to do in the way of games for your baby shower. For many people games form an important part of any baby shower and the games which you choose 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 you can play including such things as baby shower games for men and these also need to be considered when thinking about when to hold your party.

Deciding just when to hold your baby shower is really something which has to be done on a case-by-case basis, but you should not delay your decision as no planning can be done until you have decided upon a date. If you are going to have it before the baby is born then you should think about scheduling it for the seventh or eighth month of your pregnancy and, if you decide to have it after the birth, then it is a good idea to wait at least four to six weeks after delivery to allow yourself time to bond with your new baby.