Anyone here ever had a baby?

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NZminilops

NZminilops

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My mum and I are planning a baby shower for the daughter of a family friend, but as neither of us are the girly type, or like babies all the much, we have no idea what to do!

What are you meant to do at a baby shower? Do you all just sit around and eat and chat?

I know people are meant to bring gifts - when you were pregnant or just had a baby, what gifts would you appreciate the most? Practical things like nappies (diapers), baby bottles and such? No idea what to get her.

She's 15 and this is her first baby...I know, ugh, way too young. Not an ideal situation. But we all want to help her and support her as much as possible.

She' lives at home with her parents and her boyfriend. He's not the father, but considers himself as such.

They are all pretty poor. Her dad doesn't work and is a real moocher. Her mum does but the dad takes most of the money. The boyfriend works but has a lot of his own debt.
 
NZminilops wrote:
My mum and I are planning a baby shower for the daughter of a family friend, but as neither of us are the girly type, or like babies all the much, we have no idea what to do!

What are you meant to do at a baby shower? Do you all just sit around and eat and chat?
games, sometimes.
I know people are meant to bring gifts - when you were pregnant or just had a baby, what gifts would you appreciate the most? Practical things like nappies (diapers), baby bottles and such? No idea what to get her.

She's 15 and this is her first baby...I know, ugh, way too young. Not an ideal situation. But we all want to help her and support her as much as possible.

She' lives at home with her parents and her boyfriend. He's not the father, but considers himself as such.

They are all pretty poor. Her dad doesn't work and is a real moocher. Her mum does but the dad takes most of the money. The boyfriend works but has a lot of his own debt.
Click to expand...
ok, with the whole 15 thing in mind, i'd say go practical. clothes(buy 3-6 months as the lowest size, they grow fast and that way the clothes will last longer. onesies are great;)), diapers, burping cloths(get nice THICK ones), bottles if she isn't planning on breast feeding, car seat, baby bath tub, etc. check out this website, also. find out if she's registered any where, too.

hope that helps a bit!

 
We don't have baby showers here at all so I am quite unfamiliar with this tradition. But having had five kids myself, I have an idea what I may have appreciated. I think it could be a good idea to contact other people who go to the baby shower and see if you could all chip in and buy a bigger item like a pram/moses basket/high chair etc... (depending on how many people are willing to contribute of course). Some shops are willing to hold on to the item until the time arrives and even willing to refund the money if (God forbid) anything goes wrong.
With baby clothes you have to be a bit careful. sometimes people are very fussy what they put on their child (even if they have little money) - I am anyhow. So maybe if you buy clothes enclose a gift receipt if possible so they can exchange. I personally also liked things for myself. something to pamper yourself with. but i don't know if that is in the tradition of the baby shower. just a few ideas that came to mind...
 
Thanks very much! You two were very helpful.

I've never been to a baby shower and this was mums idea, so yeah I'm not too sure on the traditions either. She's *I think* about 8 months along so wont be long now until she needs stuff.

I used to babysit her when she was a toddler and then a young child, so it seems very strange to me that she's having a baby! Kids these days :nerves1.


Ladybug, I'm not sure what you mean by resgistered anywhere? Registered for what? If you mean at a store for gifts, I'm not sure if you can do that in NZ. At least I've never heard of anything like that before around here.
 
1. Baby gifts - People can get these things:

0-3 mos clothing but very little of that....... they do grow fast and will need more of the 3-6 mos and 6-9 mos quicker than you believe. Go with comfortable, functional over cutesie stuff. Luke lived in onsies, Lexi in jersey sweats and stuff. They don't need shoes early on cause they kick them off..... socks are best!

Depends on your weather a lot too - they say dress them one layer more than you would dress.

Blankets (they spit up so much sometimes!) and burping clothes (cloth diapers are nice for that) and baby sheets - at least one or two spares incase one gets soiled.

Diapers are nice but Lexi couldn't wear a certain type cause she was allergic! so the ones we had of those, we had to give away.

2. The shower - Just so happens I am getting ready for one also - my niece! I personally wouldn't have a shower for that young of a pregnant girl but if she needs it and all that....... and it's a baby so what the heck!

BE SURE TO - have someone keep a list of the gifts she gets and who gave them - she'll want it for her baby book.

Figure out how many people you will expect, have a cake with appropriate decorations..... and something like punch/tea/lemonade.... we always have a veggie tray too - and for my niece's we'll be making little sandwhiches like eggsalad and chicken salad.

Do a couple of quick games, have a couple of little prizes for those games.. a cute notepad and pen, or some little lotions in a bag.... just a token.

INEXPENSIVE GAME IDEAS:

  • make words out of "RUBBER BABY BUGGY BUMPERS" or some stupid thing like that - give everyone a piece of paper, pen, and time 2 minutes or whatever for them to make as many words out of the letters in that saying......
  • Pin the baby on the Mommy - make a preggers mommy and a baby and have everyone do the whole pinning thing. You can use a diaper as the facemask and use pink and blue paper for the babies' diapers, etc.......
  • Put baby items on a tray and cover it. Give everyone paper and pen, let them look at the tray for 30 seconds.... then write down all they can remember that was on the tray. The most correct answers wins! (things you can puton the tray that can actually go to her after the game!) - rattle, nipple from a bottle, diaper pins, baby nail clippers, pacifier, diaper, bib, jar of early baby food, baby socks, mini baby lotion, powder, bath soap, baby wash cloth, anything tiny like that :)
  • Purse scavanger hunt - ask for items in purses, first one who has it gets a point= most points wins.
  • Have everyone bring a baby picture...... have them pinned to cardboard or on a table and labled with a number (don't ruin the picture - get sticky notes or something) and then everyone writes who they think the babies are on a piece of paper/numbered. Once everyone is done - they check who is right. Be sure everyone has a name tag if people might not know each other's names.
  • Make a word search relating to a baby
  • Do the PRICE IS RIGHT game with the baby items you purchase for another game. Set them out and keep the exact cost of each on a receipt. Give everyone time to "guess" the exact price. Try to have several items (like the things from the tray game).....



 
Well, I only went to my first baby shower a couple of months ago, and I panicked a lot as well, but here's what I've learnt:

You can take cakes, cookies, biscuits etc along, plenty of those seem to be eaten!

Presents of any kind go down well. My best friend got clothes vouchers (to buy herself new clothes once she'd had Daisy- she appreciated these no end since she no longer had stuff that fitted her or she looked nice in and she's on a v.low income too), baby-gro's, blankets, a musical mobile, I got her a kit that she could make a foot/hand print mould of her baby and put it next to a picture in a frame-type thing, and she got loads of practical stuff like baby wipes, cream, bubble bath for her, etc etc.

I learnt that really anything vaguely useful is very much appreciated! Babies can never have too many clothes, especially stuff that's 3-6mths, so they have stuff to last them beyond the first few weeks.


My friend had a sweepstake going- we all made guesses at the birth day and weight, and donated a couple of £'s (like £2 etc- something small) to charity of her choice, etc.


Hope that helps! I was equally as scared at my first baby shower too! :)
 
By the way- there was a prize for whoever won the sweepstake of a bottle of wine/box of chocolates. Doesn't need to be anything expensive, in fact there probably doesn't need to be a prize even. It does make for fun conversation though.

Me and my friends all pitched in on some small presents, and put them in a plastic storage box, and covered it with pretty paper, and added shredded tissue paper inside. Was very cheap, and Ro (my best friend) will use the box to store toys, etc in from now on.

Pennie has some brilliant game ideas! In fact, when/if I ever have a baby, I'm hiring Pennie to come and organise my baby shower! :biggrin2:
 
NZminilops wrote:
Ladybug, I'm not sure what you mean by resgistered anywhere? Registered for what? If you mean at a store for gifts, I'm not sure if you can do that in NZ. At least I've never heard of anything like that before around here.
Click to expand...

here it's at places like target, walmart(department stores i think they're called:?)and then event specific stores(if you're getting married, bad, bath and beyond, having a baby, babiesRus). the person comes in, signs upand takes a scanner around and scans all the things they might like to get. then when you go to the store you put in their name and it gives you a list. that way you can get them exactly what they would like.

Bo B Bunny wrote:
Blankets (they spit up so much sometimes!) and burping clothes (cloth diapers are nice for that) and baby sheets - at least one or two spares incase one gets soiled.
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those are what mom used.......she says she can't see the point of the little think ones, says they'll soak through so fast there's no point:biggrin2::p
 
My daughter still has her flannel receiving blankets. LOL! She called them her B's. She carried a B forever and now won't let us take her Purdue one away LOL! The bunnies have a couple of them.
 
i find this sssssoooooooo funny i thought everyone everywhere had baby showers, and bridal showers and such, i am still learning things.

Another cute game is to get ornament pacifiers and put them on strings and give one to everyone, they wear them around thier neck and they are suppose to take ones off of peoople if they say the word baby. THat is hard especially at a BABY shower, the person with the most binkies at the end of the shower gets a prize

I always appreciated clothes for when the child got older, so this way when the kids got older i had clothes for them to start until i could get to the store and get some more, just like 3-6 months and 12 months. Diapers are always good, wipes are good, bibs ............ i am a bib freak and you can never have too many.
 
Same here, Fran. It's nice to have at least one or two outfits for each size - then if you need something quick, you have it.

I like the binky game..... I've heard of it with diaper pins.

Pennie has some brilliant game ideas! In fact, when/if I ever have a baby, I'm hiring Pennie to come and organise my baby shower! :biggrin2:
Click to expand...
I have 2 kids, babysat zillions and kids went to a Catholic school..... every year we had at least 6 women preggers LOL!
 
I went to a baby shower a couple of years ago. It was great. There was a lot of food, a lot of talk and a lot of great baby-related and random games (some were really funny)! You could search online for games at baby showers.

As for gifts, clothes (like jumpsuits), nappies (when my mum had me, she got 12 months of nappy service), bottles, soft toys and blankets are all good. Good luck!
 
That's a great idea! I might use that for my niece! Of course she's been craving my cookies! LOL!
 
Does she mind second hand? If not, hit up trademe. My friend Khalarn (16) had her baby a few months ago and having a very low income she just went on trademe and got like EVERYTHING for under 700. You can get BIG bulk packages of clothes, nice clothes Pumpkin Patch, JK, nature baby etc really cheap, also really nice designer stuff for the price of Farmers usually brand new, also things like bumbo seats which are really good. I don't think places like Farmers or BabyCity do registry's....
For games, theres the guess the baby belly length were you get ribbon or string and they have to guess the size of the belly. Fill baby bottles with some form of liquid and have races to see who can drink it first, the warehouse usually has cheap baby bottles, or the $2 shop....
 
Lol- I should forward this to my mother (she's planning mine for April!) I've never, ever been into baby showers and have skipped out of all but 1 in my lifetime. My best advice is try to make it fun for everybody- sitting around watching gifts be opened and having nothing to do is very boring- games are great! Just be creative.

As far as the registry goes- we registered for our wedding and I have to say that only 1 person ever even looked at it. I really hope people look at the registry this time around because there are always certain things you need more than others. For instance- what good would 3 carseats be? For our wedding we ended up with 3 different glass sets and ended up exchanged 2 of them to match the third.

But I don't think you could have enough receiving blankets, burp clothes and all the goodies! My family usually opts out of thinking and just gives cash which is also nice so we can pick out everthing to match.
 
I only remember three games from the baby shower I went to, there was tasting and guessing foods, hanging up diapers while holding a baby and mobile and dressing up one person in a group as a baby. There were other great games but I can't remember them! They all had prizes. Oh yeah, there was the one where you couldn't say the word baby (like luvmyzoocrew said) but we didn't use pacifier necklaces (you can use anything for that one).
 
Bo gave good ideas for the games, you really only need to play a couple of games, don't go to crazy or you won't have time to open gifts, LOL.

As far as what you should get her, clothes are always good, and always get a size or two bigger than what you think they will need, because they will grow into them faster than you would believe. Diapers are excellent too, she will go through a lot of them and they tend to be expensive. When we had a shower before my twins were born, we got something like a dozen packages of diapers in different sizes, and we used them ALL!! LOL Oh, and you know the simethicone gas medicine we use forthe bunnies? It's also a fabulous staple to keep on hand for a baby.

For party favors and the like to use for your games, check out this site: http://www.cabirdnerds.com/babyshowers.html I am pretty sure they will ship overseas, they are a really great company to work with. I get the parts for my handmade bunny toys from them.
 
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