I have helped organise three baby showers so I am a bit of a dab hand at them now. Sadly I never had a baby shower of my own. But I will make up for it when my boys wives have them! Yes I am getting a little carried away as they are only 8 and 9 at the moment. However I can’t wait to go to town with cute little cupcakes, thoughtful gifts and fun games to play. It’s a nice treat for the mum to be before her bundle of crying, pooing, vomiting joy arrives. Read on for some top tips to help with organising a baby shower.

Invitations

First things first when organising a baby shower make sure you sort out the baby shower invitations, letting people know when and where the festivities are taking place. One of my favourite from the Paperless Post website is the Book shaped invitation. You can add the wording about guests bringing their favourite child’s book to start a mini library for the new arrival when they appear. I think that’s such a thoughtful gesture. Books make a wonderful gift; they encourage a love of reading and spark a child’s imagination and thirst for knowledge so I couldn’t think of a better invitation!

Gifts

In terms of gifts I have written a baby shower gift guide already to help inspire you, but the book idea I think might be my favourite one! Bibs, muslin squares, a soother, dummies and nappies can also be picked up quite inexpensively to make up a bigger gift to go alongside the books.  But don’t forget to provide a treat for mum too, maybe some luxurious bubble bath, a box of indulgent chocolates and a scented candle.

Games

You need to think about the entertainment at the baby shower, here are some baby shower games you can try.

Safety pin game

Every guest got two safety pins on arrival and an explanation that if they mentioned the word baby they would lose a safety pin to whomever clocked them saying it! The winner is the person with the most at the end of the shower. This idea was given to me by Baby Budgeting and it went down a treat!

Naming baby items

You need some paper and a pen for each guest and an egg timer to do the countdown. I set it for two minutes. Which was long enough for everyone to have a good think. But not to long to start having looks of bored desperation. The winner managed 26 items, I thought I did well with my 16 till I heard her total! But she had the current youngest baby of the group at 8 months old. She was still in the baby zone! It’s amazing how quickly you forget some of the early stuff now mine are 3 and almost 5.

Mummy to be Questions

You need paper and pens again and every guest writes down a question a new mummy might need help with. Like how often do you bath a baby? Then you fold up your question so the person next to you cannot see what you wrote. They then write an answer for a baby related question. This can have hilarious results and went down well in the group. Every six months was the answer to that particular question! Poor smelly baby am sure they would like to be bathed more often!

Guess the Size of Mummy’s Tummy

I had a ball of string and a scissors and the idea was to guess how big everyone thought my friends tummy was by cutting the string to the size of her bump… some of the guesses were positively outrageous, poor girl probably had a complex! Here she is getting ready to pick a winner.

Her own mother thought she was HUGE. Mind my length of string was only marginally shorter! The lady who won the chocolates used the most scientific method she actually measured her own tummy and added a bit on! The technique was successful, so if you want to win that’s how you should go about it.

Other Possible Baby Shower Games

I had a great suggestion from Mummy Vs Work blog but did not have the stomach for it. However if you have a strong constitution you can also melt chocolates and then smear then onto nappies (yikes!) and then play guess the chocolate type. Having done more than my fair share of nappies in my time, I could not face stick my face in one, even with the lure of chocolate. But it might work well for some people.

Just strictly down to budget to get the vests and the decorating materials I did not do a game suggested by Snugglebubby. But this would be great idea if you want an epic baby shower. Each guest has a vest and uses fabric pens etc to make the vest unique and wonderful for the mum to be. They then pick their favourite and that guest would win a prize.

lifeloveandlivingwithboys also suggested having the quickest nappy change competition, armed with a baby doll and some newborn nappies that too would have been fun. You could even wear a cowboy hat if your the fastest nappy changer in the West!

Decorating the room

Bunting always goes down well to decorate the venue, I have also given guests baby bottles to drink from which was quite amusing. Matching tablewear, balloons and even an impressive centrepiece can be picked up in preparation, but it’s down to how much you want to spend and how big a scene you fancy setting. Favours are optional, if you do want to give guests a small treat when they leave you can buy little baby bottles filled with sweets, just a token gesture to thank them for coming to the shower.

Good luck with your baby shower planning. I dread to think how many ideas I will have when my two finally have pregnant wives!!!