Baby Shower Planning

Pregnancy can be a very happy time in a couple’s life. There are plans to make to add a new person into the family. When a pregnancy is planned and wanted the nine months is a time of preparation. I am fortunate that my niece’s pregnancy has been waited for with longing and the reports are that the baby is healthy.

My niece is also my god child. We have been very close through the years. I told her that I wanted to plan a baby shower for her. I gave her the choice of having the shower prior to the baby or after the baby was delivered so that the baby could be part of the shower. She was concerned that she would be nervous handling the baby in front of a group of family members so she asked to have the shower prior to the birth. She also requested that I would not have any baby shower games. She said she thought they were stupid and she did not like to participate in them.

I agree with her that baby shower games are stupid, but they are also a tradition. When you talk to most women they agree that baby shower games are not something that they enjoy playing. I wanted to come up with some type of exercise that we could do as an ice breaker at the beginning of the shower. I had invited her mother-in-law and sister-in-laws so not everyone knew each other well.

My niece and her husband were having a difficult time coming up with names for the baby. I thought I would use this as a theme for one of the baby shower games. I put different animals on a sheet of paper and had the participants name the male female and baby for that animal. For example chicken, the answer would be rooster, hen and chick. At the bottom of the page I asked each person to also write a boy’s name and a girl’s name, to give my niece some additional ideas.

We had a fun time coming up with the animal names as well as discussing different names. This lead into a discussion on how each of us felt about our names. I was surprised the number of people that said they would change their name if it was not such a hassle. After the shower my niece agreed that not all baby shower games are stupid and that she enjoyed the ones we played.