Suggestions for baby shower gifts? (2nd baby)

[clh2]

What about a shower with a "meal" theme - i.e. meals that could be frozen that you thaw and reheat - for the first couple of weeks home for the hospital?

 

[PrincessSuzanne]

I am not trying to be rude, I really am interested in the answer. Are showers for second babies normal in your circle? The reason I ask is that you really do not seem to need anything, you are having a baby of the same sex in the same season and are challenged for space.

Under these circumstances I would think showering for the second baby is a little overkill unless your family celebrates every baby this way. People will bring a gift when they visit if they choose but an invitation is not easy to get out of. I know folks say "Just decline." but that is not always as easy as it sounds and asking people to bring gifts that you do not need and really do not want could be misconstrued.

I think that if my Mom really wanted to celebrate the birth of a new baby I would ask her to make it a party and make sure that she let people know that you do not need gifts. This would take the pressure off of family and friends whose finances are as stretched as yours are.

Completely agree with this. Also, there really is no polite way to ask for specific gifts. It's tacky to even mention them in the invite.

I am so glad someone said this. I frown highly upon showers for 2nd babies. I can understand a family gathering to celebrate after the baby is born, but I guess I just get this disapproval from my mother and grandmother, it just wasn't done in their day, unless you were very rich or like a snobby relative of ours who has a party for everything (but then again, she carried her only daughter around on a pillow, like she was a princess).

I did give a friend a shower for her 2nd baby, a girl, but she wasn't given one for her first baby which was a boy.

Also, agree that there is no polite way to ask for a gift anywhere, that is rude. I don't even like registeries, that is like begging for things.

If your mother is insistant on giving the party (which in my are is also frowned upon), and you get things you don't need, swap them for things you do need, or donate them to charity.

Suzanne