Baby showers are a great tradition that we inherited from the United States. A baby shower is a party thrown by friends of the bride to: (1) celebrate the coming of a new baby, and (2) "shower" the baby (or technically, the parents) with baby-related gifts.

Since the main point of the shower is to give gifts, the parents don't throw a baby shower for themselves; rather, other people throw the shower for them. Based on the baby shower that my friends threw for me a few days ago, I've learned it's really helpful if the organizer consults the bride, especially to find out what items she really needs in preparation for the baby's arrival. My friends did that, and circulated the list I'd prepared among themselves, so thankfully, we were spared from receiving eight rattles, and instead had a good supply of very practical things--hangers with clothes pegs for drying cloth diapers on the line, baby nail clippers, storage boxes for diapers--along with the more cutesy gifts like fashionable onesies. We also got a good stock of gifts from wise friends who were parents themselves, and who had a better sense of what we would need: one friend gave us a three-stage transition cup for weaning from breast to cup -- something I wouldn't have known to buy myself.

There's at least one establishment in the Philippines that has a baby registry service (Rustan's), but Rustan's, as we all know, is a rather high-end department store, and a lot of baby's things really don't need to be high-end at all. Newborns can't tell the difference between a P50 cotton side-tie shirt and a P500 one, so implicitly limiting your guests to an expensive baby registry puts a bit of unfair pressure on them. In contrast, one of the most useful gifts I received was a directory of suppliers in Divisoria who sell really cheap baby products, from a good friend of mine who frequents Divisoria.

My friends also prepared a few games to break the ice (since the guests were from different groups of friends), and to keep the mood of the get-together light-hearted and funny. We played a baby-related version of charades; we had a guess-the-baby's-name competition; and we also had a guess-Mommy's-belly-size contest which was very funny.

Since my friend had warned me in advance that she was throwing me a baby shower, it permitted me to pause my baby-supplies-buying for a few days, to see first what gifts I was going to receive. Now that the baby shower is over I have a much better sense of what else I need to buy....

Finally, I thought that the timing of the shower--2 months before my due date--was perfect. It gives us enough time to do the rest of the shopping that we need to do, and is at a point when I still have the energy to attend a four-hour-long party. :)