When I was pregnant with Alder I felt like wanting to celebrate that pregnancy with a party was selfish and not something you were supposed to do. I felt guilty for creating a registry even though we didn’t share it and only used it for ourselves. It now just seems a little crazy to me because I whole heartily feel that every pregnancy should be celebrated and would love to celebrate all of my girlfriends pregnancies regardless of whether it’s is there first or their eighth.
For me the overall tone around having a baby shower or sprinkle after the first seems a bit taboo. After baby #1 it felt like I should just be quiet about having another child and that no one is supposed to care; add on more than two children and the general feeling is you’re crazy.
However the truth is every pregnancy is a special time and it should be celebrated. Just because you already have a child doesn’t mean that you should feel like you can’t celebrate subsequent pregnancies. It’s important to honor each individual pregnancy because they are all different, all special and by celebrating motherhood and baby it really helps to have a positive pregnancy and postpartum experience.
When it comes to registering or gifting for a new baby after the first consider this:
- Friends or family members may want celebrate a new babe with a gift whether an item that you’ll need for the babe or may less conventional gifts such as a meal or service. A registry helps to make sure that they are able to give something you need/want rather than random items.
- You may not have children close in age or the ability to store and keep baby items from past kids so there maybe a direct need for things.
- When it comes to baby #3 those things you used with #1 and #2 most likely need to be replaced due to general use.
Our personal experience has been that we are unable to store very many things that we aren’t currently using. In that case we have consigned most of the kids things that they grow out of so that we can turn around and use that credit to purchase them new (to them) clothes, shoes and other items.
Also when it comes to a registry we have no expectations that anyone will purchase items off from a wishlist/registry – but if they so desire to I think it’s nice for them to have a clear idea of what we need.
Lastly, for us creating a registry helped us to keep track of items that we felt that we could use this time around. We also took advantage of the completion discount on our Amazon registry which provided us with 10% off certain items on our wishlist. For that reason alone it was worth creating a registry even though we didn’t share that one publicly.
Share your comments and personal stories in the comments below.
