I think you generally have a baby shower in the third trimester, though not too late. I know someone who had a baby within days of their shower, and I myself did about two weeks after mine. Thankfully we’d gotten pretty much everything we’d need!
So about thirty people were invited to my shower, and only 9 showed up (including my friend who hosted the event). A little disappointing, but it was all family that showed up, so that’s the important part!
We played a bunch of silly games. Baby item bingo that is played while opening presents, word scramble, names of baby animals, and word search are the little ones that are played with a pen and little board. We also did the guess how big my belly is using yarn one (my mother NAILED that one) and the lottery where you guess when the baby will arrive and all the stats (another one my mother nailed).
Then of course there’s presents and cake. The cake was delicious, especially to a pregnant woman with frosting cravings! The presents were great. Got some clothes, a nursing pillow with a Lion King cover, a Lion King nightlight (do you see a theme here? – I LOVE Lion King!), and a few baby items including a Lion King bedding set – though surprisingly no diapers. The key items that really got me though were the baby shoes my mother gave me because they were my first pair of shoes and my first walking shoes. She also gave me her nursing nightgown that my grandmother made for her when she had me. I’m a big sap, plus I was hormonal, so naturally I got all teary eyed, but hey points to me for not straight up crying!
Overall the shower was a hit, but it was really all about after the shower. We went home and opened everything we knew we’d be keeping. Greg put the stroller and carseat together first thing (which was the only big ticket item we received and yay!). But other than that, the first thing I did was sit down and go over everything we still needed.
Greg had promised me after months of not being allowed to buy anything that the day after the shower we’d go to Babies-R-Us and spend lots of money. So we did just that. Got the remaining big ticket items and a few clothing items. We didn’t get any bottles or anything because we planned on strictly breastfeeding. The only thing we didn’t get same day was the crib.
Now I had been obsessing over cribs for months because I couldn’t decide on one. So when we decided to get all the remaining nursery items, I got on the computer and compared like six different ones between Ikea, Target, and Babies-R-Us. I was driving myself crazy, and Greg eventually said to just get whatever I wanted…so no help whatsoever. I finally picked one from Target.
I was obsessive over the following week. I needed to get the nursery put together, despite being very, very pregnant and achy and needing to take it easy. The crib was the important part though. It’s what makes a nursery a nursery. Even if she wasn’t going to use it right away, I had to have it. So once it arrived and Greg put it together the same day, I was finally able to relax.
It’s funny, I’d gotten the nesting instinct some over the pregnancy and it manifested in cleaning the house. I started sweeping more often, being obsessive about the dishes, and all that. Once I was allowed to work on that nursery, it was ridiculous. I got three hours of sleep after the shower and five the next night. I was so relieved when it was finally done. Good thing it got done over the two weeks following the shower since it was pretty much put to immediate use.