Awesome Baby Shower Ideas

If you are expecting a new baby, or planning a shower for a special mom-to-be in your life, then this is the hub for you! As an Ultrasound tech I have the pleasure of learning the latest crazes and most amazing ideas for an incredible shower from my expecting patients. Read on for the top tips I have learned from people in all different walks of life. I have actually tried a couple of these ideas at my showers and highly recommend them.

That's right ladies (and/or gentlemen)....choose a theme and stick to it! Talk to the mom to be. How will the new baby's room be decorated? Do the parents like certain colors? If so, try to incorporate all of this into the shower. For example, my boss knew I was decorating in sage greens and browns and pinks for my daughter with ladybugs being incorporated in her room. Check out the cake she had made below! It was more than I could have imagined! Make sure invitations and decorations are all related to each other.

That brings me to the next must-do for a wonderful shower. Order an incredible cake. Even better, have someone you know make it. It will be admired and delicious and not to mention it doubles as a centerpiece. Pregnant women generally like to eat (no offense ladies, hence the "generally"), so if possible give them a yummy and beautiful cake to remember.

• Invite Everyone: Some mom's want Dad included on everything too. If the mama- to-be you know feels this way, then just invite everyone, men, women kids, whoever. It is a celebration of a new baby....there is no rule stating only women can attend. Plus cook outs are a fun option for this scenario. (As we did with my first.)
• Do a Gender-Reveal Party or Shower: There are two scenarios for this one. They have both been growing in popularity. A gender reveal party is where the couple plans a get together on the day of or weekend after their 20 week ultrasound where they generally find out the gender of their baby. They will announce what they are having at the party so everyone finds out at the same time. This is a cool idea, however as a sonographer, I must warn that there is always a possibility that the baby will not cooperate, and the gender may not be determined at this appointment. Also I must inform that ultrasound is never 100% accurate in determining gender. My suggestion: ask the sonographer how sure she/he is before leaving. We are generally honest if we are not confident in the determination.
• At a Gender Reveal Shower: Parents have created two baby registries (one for a boy, one for a girl.) At the 20 week sonogram the parents have the tech place the picture of their baby's gender into a sealed envelope with out finding out themselves. Then the parents mail the envelope to a person involved in planning their shower. That person deletes the registry for the incorrect gender and informs everyone not to tell the parents the gender. At the shower, the first present that is opened is a framed image of the baby's gender. This is so creative, but takes a lot of work and closed lips to accomplish it correctly. Imagine how fun it would be if all went according to plan though!
• Decorate Onesies: Hang a clothesline with clothes pins somewhere accessible at the shower. Provide plain onesies and fabric markers. Have each guest decorate a onesie for the baby to wear. (Make sure they put their name on the tag.) Hang them on the clothesline for mom to see and be sure to get pictures of it. Then mom can take pictures of the baby wearing the "designer" onesies and send to everyone. I actually did this at my first shower. The onsies turned out great! I love that. Plus, I will always have these for my son to know how excited everyone was that he was coming!
• Have a Diaper Raffle: This idea is mostly intended for people who are not having a shower due to traditional beliefs that each mom only has a shower for the first baby. It can work in any situation though. This is how we did it.... Because I didn't have a shower (outside of work) for friends and family to attend for my daughter, I had a "meet the baby" get-together after she was born instead. We had our entire family come to a pool party when she was five weeks old to meet her. It was a great celebration and we asked not to receive gifts. Instead we held the diaper raffle. We had everyone who was interested bring a jumbo box of diapers ranging in sizes 2-6 in exchange for a chance to win a $100 giftcard (ours was to a restaurant) and a framed picture of our daughter. For each box provided the person's name was entered into a drawing. It was a huge success. In exchange for the cost of the gift card and framed photo, we received so many diapers that we still havn't bought one pack ourselves. My daughter is eight months old and we have three jumbo boxes remaining. This is my favorite idea for a baby celebration. It works at a shower as well, but I chose in in place of a shower and feel it was a great choice for our family. We could not be more grateful.

 I hope these few ideas are helpful.  No matter what type of shower you have, the main ingredient is fun!  Make sure the guest of honor is relaxed, stress-free and well hydrated. Pamper her and she is guaranteed to have a fabulous time that will create memories to last a lifetime.