Assuming there is a preferred window.
Late. Really late. Well into the 3rd trimester; ninth month if possible, 8th at the earliest. A surprisingly large number of all pregnancies end with something other than a live birth. It is horribly depressing to have a collection of baby gifts if you have a miscarriage or stillbirth; these become less likely the later you go.
When the attendees can coo over the baby also works.
Moved to IMHO.
-xash
General Questions Moderator
I vote month 6 or 7. While MLS has a point, there are also a substantial number of pregnancies that end with healthy baby, and healthy mommy but mommy spends the last 2, 4, 6 or 8 weeks in bed or in hospital waiting for baby to be born. Or baby comes a couple (or more) weeks before the due date. Either of these can put a damper on a scheduled baby shower.
God, it is too early in the morning still.
The mental image that evokes – a teeny weeny shower being thrown through a window at a pregnant woman…
I think I need more caffeine…
I’d say around 32 - 36 weeks.
If you’re Irish you give baby clothes/toys etc either when you visit mother and baby in the hospital or when you bring around the casserole after they come home. Bringing around casseroles is a traditional way of ensuring that the family doesn’t die of food poisoning from the new daddy’s cooking.
We don’t do showers, it’s not considered lucky (in a counting your chickens sort of way). Traditionally you order your baby stuff (cot, pram etc) from the shop 3 months in advance and the new father picks it up and takes it home while mum recovers from the birth.
Really, since all a newborn actually needs is 3 babygros, 3 vests, a cardigan, a blanket, a nappy (diaper) and a hat, if baby does arrive early it’s a 15 minute shopping trip to Mothercare by a friend or mother-in-law while baby wears hospital issued nappies and a blanket for a few hours.
The Irish generally replace the shower party with a huge christening party, and shower gifts with christening gifts. You end up with the same amount of stuff, just a few months later.
I think MLS pretty much nailed it.
When I was a kid and my mother dragged me to baby showers constantly, 90% of them were thrown after the baby was born…that way we were all positive what sex it was, and the “star” of the show was present to coo over.
Now it seems like most women have them before the baby is born. I guess it makes more sense, b/c you’ll have all your loot before you need it, but personally I find it just a little bit less fun than when the baby is present.
If mom-to-be is going to travel for the shower, do it earlier. I ended up missing my baby shower (thrown by MIL in a different town), because I had developed preeclampsia and my doctor wouldn’t let me fly. (My husband went without me, and I attended via speakerphone. Most of the participants did have a good time listening to him attempt to describe gifts to me. “It’s pajamas! <laughter in background> No, I’m told it’s a party dress!”)
Don’t feel bad. My instantaneous response on reading the thread title was “About 10 feet”
And mine was simply to drop the word “shower” from the thread title. Reading the rest of the OP brought the word “defenestration” to mind.
Mine (yes, plural. Three. For one baby. Ugh.) were all scheduled for my seventh month. Early enough for me to be comfortable at (sitting for an hour opening presents can really hurt when you’re nine months along!) but late enough to rule out the most common times of miscarriage.
Well, as most of you know, WhyBaby foiled that plan by being born 4 months early, at 23 weeks. Ah well. We had enough notice to reschedule (the invites had not yet gone out, of course).
We waited until she was 34 weeks to send out invites, when it looked pretty certain she was going to make it. She came home three weeks later, just in time for the first shower. (Where I wouldn’t let anyone but my mother hold her because of infection fears.) She attended all of her showers and the guests had a ball googling over her, even if they couldn’t hold her.
7-8 months.