Throwing a baby shower........

My aunt is throwing me a baby shower in two week, and I just had one thrown by a friend about three months ago, so I may be able to help you! At my friend's, it was co-ed... co-ed showers are becoming more and more popular, so you may want to ask the pregnant couple if they want to invite male friends as well. My friend decorated with some streamers and balloons and set up the living room area with plenty of seating and a couple tables. One was for snacks... we had baby themed cupcakes, chips and dip, a veggie tray, and crock pots of chili with all the fixin's on the side like shredded cheese, fritos, sour cream, diced tomato and green onions. There was more food, I just can't remember! I know we had trays of petite fours and bowls of grapes in various places as well. The other table was for gifts. Mostly, since we are a young couple ( I am 24 and my husband 27) the evening went more like a party with people stopping in and out, music and dancing, wine and beer drinking for the non-pregnant guests. It was a lot of fun and there was a huge turnout.. probably 40 people came by over the course of the evening. It was low-key, and there were no frou-frou games because it was co-ed. The shower at my aunts will be more traditional. I've asked for fruit and veggie trays as the snacks because I am a vegetarian and I don't really want the typical snack fare, and I know she has hired a cake decorator to make the cake. I imagine she will decorate her home with the typical baby themed confetti, balloons, tablecloths, or whatever they decorate with. And I'm sure there will be the traditional games. One is to let everyone cut a length of string, guessing how big around the mom's belly is. The one who is closest gets a prize. If the mother wants, you can set up a table with spaces for everyone to write their name and phone number, creating a phone tree that gets kicked off at the onset of her labor, to notify family and friends. I would also google 'baby shower games' and see what ideas you can get off the internet. Basically, provide some snacks, a little decoration, a cake, and invite lots of ladies to ooh and aah over onesies and baby socks and you should be good to go. You could also plan to set aside some time to share birth stories if you want to... it's really all about showing love and support for the new mamma, sharing in her joy and giving the new family gifts to help out with the little one. Good luck, happy planning, and have fun!

Baby showers are more of an American thing - we don't really have them in the UK. Well, maybe something similar but more low key. Sounds like great fun though! I think one where men are invited as well sounds good (and a little different from usual) but really I would just do what you feel like doing. Traditional ways are ok but sometimes it's a refreshing change to have something a bit different.

I just had my baby shower last weekend! what a disaster it was! I am VERY familiar with baby showers and how they should be ran. First, you have to decide if its going to be a co-ed baby shower or just strictly woman? Kids allowed? no kids allowed? you should probably discuss it with the mom to be. Then you have to figure out if she wants some kind of theme or color scheme and what? also, what kind of food? everyone has a different take on what kind of food they want, especially with mom to be she may despize certain foods...so thats important. Also, unless you have the means and time to do it yourself, I would find out if there are other friends or family members that are willing to help you out. That way you can kind of designate games and prizes to one person, food to another (or you may decide on a pot luck), paper goods (plates,forkes, cups, spoons, etc.)someone will be in charge of decorations and so forth. You also wanna make sure that the food portions and drinks will be enough to compensate the # of people that will be there. Then unless she is wanting to do it herself, assist mom with her registry and be sure to include that note into her invitations. As far as games and such there are MANY ideas that you can find online as well as in books from the library. some games that I love to play are: the diaper game where you get several baby pampers and the same amount of chocolate bars. You melt the chocolate bars into the pampers (very well resembles baby poop)*Be sure to number diapers and remember what chocolate is in what diaper!* and the object is for people to guess what chocolate is in each diaper (they end up smelling it and sometime even eating it!- GREAT kodak moment!) and the person that guesses the most wins! another simple game to play is the guessing of the baby food game. Just get some baby food at the store in the baby food bottles, take the wrappers off but remember to jot down what bottle has what food in it and the person who guesses the most wins! well hopefully this helps! write me if you need more help!