Hello all!
As of tomorrow, we are 6 months into the pregnancy! Woo Hoo! Only a few months left to go! Now my summer is going to be so packed full of work, family reunion, and baby prep that this last weekend was the only time I could fit in a baby shower back home. I teamed up with my fabulous Aunt and my best girl friends to get the task done and came up with a few tidbits of advice for all.
First off, I’m a control freak, kinda, but I am definitely very specific about what I do and don’t like. I know a lot of people say that you shouldn’t have to do anything for your party, but as long as you don’t let yourself get stressed, I say TAKE PART IN THE PLANNING! This does not mean that you need to do everything, or even anything at all. I just think that if you want your shower to have a certain theme or if you want a specific food incorporated into the menu, then you should say so. Of course you shouldn’t have tasks to do the day of besides showing up and looking cute with your new bump, but help with decisions where you want to.
Second, but most important, BE THE CENTER OF ATTENTION! I know this is hard for some people, but everyone that shows up is there for you! Let them dote of you. Let them tell you how cute you look and how you are just glowing. Let them compliment you until you turn red all over, and thank them for everything.
Next up, TAKE ALL THE ADVICE YOU CAN GET. I don’t care how many times you’ve been through this with a friend, and how many child cares you’ve worked at. I don’t care how often you babysit for other people or jump at the chance to hold the babies at church. There are just things you won’t really know until you are a mom. At my shower I made sure every woman had an index card where they could jot down a piece of motherly advice for me. The advice you get from the women you look up to and respect is more important than anything a doctor or nurse could tell you at the hospital. Plus this way, you have it written down in their writing which makes it extra special.
HAVE WOMEN ONLY TIME. Even if you are allowing men and children to join in on the festivities, there should be time set apart when you can ask questions or get advice without having to make up fake words or say “you know” in order to explain things. Birth is an experience that even women who have nothing in common feel a bond talking about, and you should be able to talk openly about the good parts as well as the bad and ugly parts.
In order to make sending Thank You cards easier, HAVE EACH GUEST FILL OUT THEIR OWN ADDRESS ON THE ENVELOPE. This is not tacky or rude to ask your guests to do. Usually the soon to be new mom is overwhelmed with things to get done still before baby comes and there is little to no time to sift through an address book in order to find everyone’s current address. This way, each envelope has been filled out (we had the guests do this while people were still arriving) and it only takes a few seconds for them to do it instead of taking you hours to do them all.
Well that’s all I’ve got for today, enjoy and comment if you have any other good shower advice!
Then There Were Five 