Newborn Parties?????

[wtbmummy]

Me and DH are not religious at all. Neither of us were Christened and are not planning on doing so for our children. (We think if they get into religion themselves then they can make that choice when they are old enough)

Well...... We were thinking it would be nice if we still had a party with all our family to introduce little man into the world.

Is anyone else thinking or already planning a party for their little miracle??

Part of me is thinking that we could do it like a name reveal party as we have now decided on a different name

But the problem with that is when would we do such a party? Few days after baby is born or should we just do a "Welcome to the world" party in the weeks following the birth??

Also who would you invite to such a party? We were thinking just family which will be slightly strange as they have only ever mixed once at our wedding 18months ago. I tried explaining to hubby that we should start getting our families mixing as over the years they will be mixing more and more for baby and even for our big events (30th, 40th, special wedding anniversaries etc..)

We found a cake we want which is kind of how this whole thing started

https://home1.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/baby-boy-shower-cakes.jpg

 

[modified]

I've always really loved the idea of a naming ceremony
https://humanism.org.uk/ceremonies/humanist-namings/

 

[bluejen]

You might not be in the mood for a 'party' with a newborn. It's a lot to organise and you are likely to be shattered. What about having a massive 1st Birthday Party instead? ( I know it seems a long way off but it will fly by!)
I agree if you are not religious a Christening is not for you, but there's no reason to 'replace' this with something else. Unless you really want to obviously! x

 

[BadMamaJAMA]

Love the cake!

I think we're going to do a VERY casual "sip-n-see," in which we open our home up for an afternoon a few weeks after the baby gets here and let people come in, have a drink, and see her.

I'm thinking this will involve making the house look semi-decent, buying some beer, bubbly, and maybe a cheese tray... and that's it.

 

[Storm1jet2]

Cracker cake, but I would rather have died than had a party when dd was a few days or weeks old. I am religious and didn't even get het baptised til she was 6 months, I was too darn tired before that!

 

[BadMamaJAMA]

Yeah, I'm open to that possibility as well. If it looks like I'm gonna be too tired, not gonna happen. But if we start having some not-horrible days in a row, we can do an impromptu, casual thing.

 

[smallpeanut]

Couldn't think of anything worse. I wanted to hibernate and shut our selves off for the first few weeks and just cuddle. Everyone is different though and there is no right or wrong if you do it, enjoy and take loads of pics!! X

 

[wtbmummy]

Love the cake!

I think we're going to do a VERY casual "sip-n-see," in which we open our home up for an afternoon a few weeks after the baby gets here and let people come in, have a drink, and see her.

I'm thinking this will involve making the house look semi-decent, buying some beer, bubbly, and maybe a cheese tray... and that's it.

Wow I really like that idea. Will you be doing that as everyone coming at once or having a sort of open house for a few hours? Have to say I think my hubby will like this idea. Also it means we can get all those family visits over in one day instead of me having to endure it over weeks lol

 

[StarlitHome]

Cracker cake, but I would rather have died than had a party when dd was a few days or weeks old. I am religious and didn't even get het baptised til she was 6 months, I was too darn tired before that!

Same here! I didn't want to be around crowds much before that Probably will do the same with little mister.

 

[BadMamaJAMA]

Love the cake!

I think we're going to do a VERY casual "sip-n-see," in which we open our home up for an afternoon a few weeks after the baby gets here and let people come in, have a drink, and see her.

I'm thinking this will involve making the house look semi-decent, buying some beer, bubbly, and maybe a cheese tray... and that's it.

Wow I really like that idea. Will you be doing that as everyone coming at once or having a sort of open house for a few hours? Have to say I think my hubby will like this idea. Also it means we can get all those family visits over in one day instead of me having to endure it over weeks lol

I'll probably just make a FB invite and say the house will be open from 1 to 4 if people want to drop by.

 

[mara16jade]

Maybe I'm paranoid, but I would not have a bunch of family or friends come over in the first month for a party. Too many germs and outside influences for the baby. Having them come over gradually to see the baby -sure, no problem. But not a party. Plus, I highly doubt I'd be in the mood to see people and entertain a few days after giving birth. haha

Are there any holidays in the few months after you give birth? Maybe you could try and incorporate a holiday BBQ or something into meeting the baby (around 3 months old?)?

 

[wtbmummy]

Mara16jade,
I think the reason we want to do it this way is BEACAUSE I dont really want to socialize much when we have our baby. My hubbys family are VERY over the top, loud and hyper. This is very very draining and I just dont think I will cope having them each coming on seperate days. That alone is exhausting for me.

Whereas if I do the same as badmamajama and have like an almost open house then I can get it all over and done with in one day rather than spending the weeks after baby has arrived dreading each day with each new visitor.

I guess it depends on you and your family and friends. I just know if I do an open house if I feel like crap I can leave hubby to it for a while but it wont be a constant thing.

Thank you for the idea badmamajama I'm now pretty sure that is the kind of route we will take. If I dont feel up to it I can move it to following day or whatever and dont really need to worry about food or anything

 

[BadMamaJAMA]

No problem! I stole it from another BnB user, sojourn!

 

[supertabby]

I can't think of anything worse than a party in the first few weeks postpartum - sorry! It's going to be the most tiring, emotional time of your life. If you manage a day in that first month when you achieve brushing your hair, finding a top with limited vomit on it AND running the vacuum round it'll be a massive achievement. When I was told in antenatal class how exhausting a typical newborn day was and how little I'd achieve, I thought it was an exaggeration - it wasn't. They're worth the hard work of course and it does get easier.

We had our daughter's christening at 5 months and it was hard work organising. My sil has had naming ceremonies for hers - around 6 month old stage each time. You don't have to wait that long but I really wouldn't commit to a party in the newborn phase - at least see what it's like first.

 

[mara16jade]

I think you should just play it by ear OP. Me personally, no way. lol I know I'd be too tired and need to recover (and be terrified of all the germs for a newborn).

You could always tell people that you *might* have a welcome home party a week later, and then decided after you actually get home.

 

[RaspberryK]

I had a funeral to get ready for and go to when ds was 4 weeks and it was a nightmare.
We'd had no sleep , I just wanted to stay in bed in my pj's and I had to get up and shower, make up, etc etc.
I would not choose to attend or host any kind of function that early ever again!
Xx

 

[StarlitHome]

I think you should just play it by ear OP. Me personally, no way. lol I know I'd be too tired and need to recover (and be terrified of all the germs for a newborn).

You could always tell people that you *might* have a welcome home party a week later, and then decided after you actually get home.

I think this is a really good idea.
Like I said earlier - even with a fairly amazing birth experience, 24-hour stay in hospital, no tearing, and getting the feeding routine down fairly quickly... the first few months are hard. You're tired, you're learning your baby, you have new routines to figure out. The last thing you want is to add planning and hosting a big party on top of that!
By 5, 6 months in you'll be better suited for it.

 

[linz143]

I was so exhausted in the first 2 weeks of DD's life that I don't even remember them. She had her days and nights mixed up so I was literally a zombie all day from being up all night with her. So any time she slept, I also slept. If someone came over to see her and she was sleeping, but I had to be awake because a family member was there, it would literally reduce me to tears that I was going to miss an hour or two of sleep that I so dearly needed. I would NEVER invite people over during the first month. Luckily, DD was 5 weeks at Christmas, so we just saw our family then.

We are also not religious so we never had any kind of baptism or christening or anything.

 

[Starry Night]

There are times I'd like to do an open house for our upcoming baby especially as we don't do showers for second born but I want to celebrate our miracle after several losses in a row. BUT I do remember how exhausted I was after my son arrived and I even got to spend 5 days in hospital after his birth AND I had my mom living with us for 2 weeks to help take care of the house. I went to a family reunion a week after coming home from the hospital and I ended up regretting it even though everyone did their best to help me relax. My bleeding got really bad afterwards so I was paranoid about all the clots. I couldn't enjoy seeing everyone. So I think even a simple Open House would be too much the first few months.

 

[sojourn]

No problem! I stole it from another BnB user, sojourn!

Haha glad you liked it! I was just going to pop on and spread the word about the "sip-and-see"! It really is just the best kind of gathering for babies.

OP- My husband is from a town about 4 hours away. We definitely don't want to host overnight visitors/guests, but we want his family and friends to get to see the baby when he's all tiny and new. So, we're going to go down there and have an open-house kind of party. Luckily, a friend is hosting. We just show up with the baby! Maybe if you have some close family/friends around you could see if anyone might be willing or interested in it.

Everyone will have different opinions about who should be around your baby and when. Keep in mind, you're taking them to the doctor's office at 2 days old, they just (probably) came out of the hospital (the most disgusting place on earth) and those same people are probably going to stop by anyway. I'd say slather everyone up with hand-sanitizer and ask people to stay away if they are/have recently been sick. I work in pre-school though, so I am pretty sure that I am one, giant, walking germ anyway!