Name That Baby
For “Name That Baby”, email your guests prior to the shower and ask them to bring a baby pic with them (and not show it to anyone else). Once all of your guests have arrived, display all of the pics with a number by each one. You can post them on a bulletin board, lay them out on a table, or hang them on the refrigerator with numbered magnets:
Have paper and pencils available for your guests and have them write down their guesses for who each baby is. The shower guest who correctly IDs the most babies wins! It’s a great low-key game to play at the beginning of a shower because guests can wander over to look at the pictures in between grabbing a drink and munchies and/or catching up with friends.
Daddy Knows Best (via video)
For this baby shower game, prior to the shower videotape the expectant dad answering a series of questions. The ones that I asked are:
- What has been {expectant mom’s} biggest food craving during the pregnancy?
- What’s the one word that would best describe {expectant mom’s} mood while pregnant?
- Do you think your baby will be born with no hair, a full head of hair, or in between?
- How many diapers do you think your baby will go through in the first year?
- What are you going to be most worried about if the baby is a girl?
- What about if it’s a boy?
- What parenting skills are you bringing to the table?
- What percentage of the time do you think you will get up with the baby at night versus the percentage of time that {expectant mom} will get up?
- Are you or {expectant mom} more likely to be the parent who says “no”?
- Which grandparent will spoil your baby the most?
- Besides you and {expectant mom}, which family member will be your baby’s favorite?
- What year do you think you will buy your first minivan?
- How many happy hours do you expect to go to the first year after the baby is born?
- How many times a month do you think you will hang out with your friends who don’t have kids?
- From 1-10 how prepared do you feel for the baby’s arrival (with 10 being most prepared)?
- What are you most looking forward to about being a dad?
At the baby shower, gather everyone around and play the video of the expectant dad on a computer or TV, pausing it after each question is asked so the mommy-to-be can guess her husband’s answer. Talk about entertaining! We all got some great laughs out of this one. And the video makes a great memento for the couple to watch years down the road.
Wishes for the New Baby
Give each shower guest a sheet with “Baby Wishes” to fill in (for a printable PDF of the navy & green sheet click {here}, pink sheet click {here}, and blue sheet click {here}). Collect them at the end of the shower and give all of the endearing baby wishes to the expectant mom! 
If you don’t want to spend the time preparing the Baby Wishes cards on your own, you can also buy pre-printed Baby Wishes cards {here}.
Late Night Diapers
For “Late Night Diapers”, give each shower guest a few diapers and some fine tipped permanent markers and ask them to write a message to the new mom on the front and/or back of the diapers. Use a brand of diapers that has a more cloth-like feel on the outside such as Pampers Baby Dry rather than diapers with a more slick material. These diapers are to be reserved for late night changings by mom so the point is to write something funny or encouraging to give her a little pick-me-up in the wee hours of the night! Put all of the decorated diapers in a basket that has this “Late Night Diapers” sign attached (click {here} for this printable sign):
My shower guests came up with some fun messages for their diapers – these are a few of my favorites:
No doubt that these (and a few of the other funny diapers that were a bit too PG-13 to show!) will give new mom a few laughs during those bleary-eyed middle of the night diaper changes. There were also many diapers with sweet, encouraging messages that I know she’ll appreciate such as “Enjoy me, I’ll grow up fast!” and “Don’t ever doubt what a great mom you are”.
I hope sharing these fun baby shower games and activities helps make your shower every bit as fun as ours was! And to help you out a little more with your party planning, I’ve gathered together a few of my favorite baby shower gifts (also see {this post} on decorative growth charts – they’re the perfect gift!):
some favorite invitations:
and some favorite party supplies and favors:
Have fun!
Great ideas! You need a Pinterest button! Would love to pin these ideas for future reference!
Done! Thanks for the comment!
I love the late night diaper idea. I’ve been searching for something to do for a baby shower I am having next weekend and I came across your site! Thanks so much!
I hope you all have as much fun doing it as we did – we came up with some really good ones (many were a bit too PG-13 to post 🙂 but I know will give our friend some good middle of the night laughs!
I might try this
I love this ideal
Great idea…love love love this…will use this at my daughter-in-laws shower. thanks
Hope you have a fun shower!
My son and daughter in law got the diapers with messages on them at their shower. It was a cute idea, but the permanent marker rubbed off on the babys legs and it looked like she was all bruised. Needless to say, they had alot of unused diapers with alot of writing on them. Kinda wasteful.
Thanks for the comment – my friend didn’t have problems like that with the diapers we made. Maybe the friends who made the diapers for your grandbaby didn’t use Sharpies??
I love the diapers! I am going to share on my FB page now!
Thanks Jen!
Just what I have been searching for on Pinterest! Thank you for the great new ideas.
Glad you like them 🙂
THese are fantastic – you are so creative and timely. The shower is in 2 months! thanks!
No problem – have fun at your shower!
I’m seriously contemplating running to wal mart right now to get a box of diapers for my future sister in law’s shower tomorrow…
Hope your shower was fun (with or without the late night diapers 🙂
what are sharpies?
Sharpies are a brand of permanent marker but any permanent marker should work.
I feel like the sharpies smear alittle. Is there a certain type of diaper to use. Has anyone done this and what diaper and type of writing utensil did you use? Thanks for your help!
The Sharpies do bleed a little into the diaper but if you use a fine tipped Sharpie and don’t press down too much while you’re writing, the messages should still be easy to read. We used Pampers at our shower – it could be that some brands of diapers are better for this than others. Hopefully some others will also add their experiences!
Couldn’t crayons be used. They are colorful without smear and just wax so not harmful to baby?
I’m sure it depends on the type of diaper used but I tried crayons originally and they just didn’t write well to easily read the sayings on the diapers I had.
so… did your neighbor have a boy or a girl? 🙂
A girl of course!!
Where did you get that really cute navy/white basket?
HomeGoods!
Can you tell me some oof the other saying that were put on the diapers? I think that it would be great to write them ahead of time and use them as decoration.
super cute idea..
There was a comment inadvertently left on the wrong post today stating “The sharpie on the diapers will bleed and stain clothes when they get wet.” and I wanted to address it. I have done the Late Night Diapers for two baby showers and have now spoken with both moms about this issue. They both say that they had absolutely no problems with the Sharpies bleeding and/or staining clothes. I can only guess that the people having these issues aren’t using permanent markers or that it has something to do with the diapers being used. With permanent Sharpies and Pampers, there were NO issues!
It is best to use the diapers that are fabric/cloth like instead of the ones that are more of a plastic material(that allows the marker to smear on) Hope this helps. We had no problem…GREAT idea. Thanks.
Thanks for the helpful comment!
We had the late night diapers from 2 showers. One used pampers and that one seems to be fine but the other used a different brand (maybe luvs) and that one definitely gets all over everything.
Thanks for the comment – it sounds like we’ve sleuthed it out and the type of diapers is the culprit for those people having issues!
Martha Stewart needs you as her right hand – WOW thanks for the great ideas my sister’s baby shower will be even sweeter, much success to you!
Thanks for the sweet comment – I hope you have a wonderful shower!
Doing this for a friend’s sprinkle I’m throwing this weekend. Thank you for the wonderful idea. I also appreciate the helpful tips on using Pampers (or similar type diaper) and permanent marker. As a mom who cloth diapers, I would have no idea what to us. I know this will be much appreciated.
Good luck with your planning – I’m sure your sprinkle will be a big success!
Found this through Pinterest.
May I politely suggest that the statements written on the diapers are of actual encouragement? Lack of sleep tends to rob people of their sense of humor. A little kindness or a sweet pick-me-up during those times would have been much appreciated, but a sarcastic or witty zinger (like the bottom two of the posted examples) would have made me cry during that stage… even though I could laugh at them now that I’m no longer sleep deprived.
Hi Kris. Thank you for all these great ideas! I love the late night diaper idea, but am a little nervous using even permanent pens as I would feel terrible if they ran onto clothes and ruined them. Have you had any negative feedback about this or would you say permanent pen is a pretty safe bet?
Oops, just read your other posts. Thanks for addressing.
Kris – How did you give the directions for this activity? Were they written or oral instructions? We are using this awesome idea for a rather large shower this weekend!
Hi Sara,
Both times that we did this activity for baby showers, it was very casual and I just told everyone what to do. Hope you have a wonderful baby shower this weekend!
I’ve been looking on Pinterest for a little while for baby shower game ideas and I think most ideas out there are either cheesy, or take away from the overall “community” feeling of the party because everyone has their heads down trying to think of answers to some sort of word scramble or questionnaire . With that said, I love every idea you gave! Thank you so much.
Thanks for the sweet comment Lindley!
What did you use to attach the “late night diapers” sign to the basket?
I used Glue Dots, which you can buy at craft/scrapbooking stores. They are kind of like the clear sticky stuff that holds credit cards to the paper in your junk mail – sticky but pretty easy to peel off.
I’m going to do this for my daughter’s shower, but she recently had a preemie. We decided to use separate pieces of paper (in baby related shapes) to slip in each diaper (we are concerned with the sharpies and their smell) That way, she will be able to save the well wishes instead of pitching them with each diaper.
Love this idea Leigh Anne – thanks so much for sharing it with us!
I love the late night diaper idea! Do you by chance have an editable version of your label that you’d be willing to share? My sister-in-law is having a girl, so I’d like to modify the coloring a bit.
The Late Night Diapers sign was made with PicMonkey and once it’s saved as a JPEG, unfortunately you can’t modify the colors. Sorry!
Love this idea, putting a pink and white basket together for my best friends shower on Saturday! I appreciate the comment of using uplifting and encouraging messages, I will include this in my verbal instructions! I’m thinking we’ll do a separate bunch of diapers for “Daddy’s Late Night Changes” too. Thanks for the inspiration!
Love the idea of doing a few for daddy too! Hope you have a great time at your shower!
Love this idea for my daughters baby shower. Would you happen to have a pink Late night diaper sign for a girl baby shower to print? thank you.
You can find a pink sign and other color options here: http://www.drivenbydecor.com/2014/02/late-night-diapers-baby-shower.html
Love these baby shower ideas! Do you happen to have any clever bridal shower game ideas as well?
I wonder about asking each guest to bring a picture of themselves as brides and have people guess who they are would be fun?
Hi Paula! I actually have never hosted a bridal shower before so I don’t have any great ideas for you. But I actually LOVE the idea of people bringing a picture of themselves as brides – how fun is that?!
can you please share some other comments that were written on the diapers?
It’s been two years since the shower now so honestly I can’t remember what everyone wrote! As I mentioned at the bottom of the post, in addition to the ones I pictured, there were some encouraging ones such as “Enjoy me, I’ll grow up fast!” and “Don’t ever doubt what a great mom you are”. Hope you have a fun shower!
I found this idea on pinterest while looking for ideas for my friends diaper shower. Since this is her 5th baby & 3rd girl, she doesn’t need any of the traditional stuff but we love her & want to shower her. Instead of a traditional shower with games, it’s just going to be an open house/luncheon, so was looking for something the guests can do for fun while they are here. This is great!! Thanks for sharing!!
The first game has been played at showers I’ve been to in past years. The others are great new ideas.
Glad you found some new shower games to try 🙂
What are other ideas to write on them
I love this idea and will be doing it at the baby shower I’m hosting for my daughter-in-law this weekend. Can’t wait to see some of the messages!
Hope it was a hit at your shower! Would love to hear some of your favorite messages that people came up with!
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Love the ideas! Wondering if anyone decided to have 2 baskets (one for Dad and one of Mom) see who gets through the diapers first? As a fun game for the new parents!
Searching around the Internet for shower ideas look where I ended up, and the late night diapers is going on the list, hysterical!
Ha! That’s so funny! We seriously laughed so hard showing each other what we wrote at the shower – there were some PG-13 and R ones not suitable for the blog that had us DYING!
Would this diaper work? This is the kind she’s registered for. I’m clueless about diapers! I know you said Pampers work best, but not sure if that applies to all Pampers.
Sorry Millie – I’m not sure unfortunately. I don’t have any little ones anymore so I don’t know how the different types of Pampers differ from one another. I would just make sure the diapers you choose for this have a more cloth like feel rather than plastic feel.
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this idea! My daughters are co-hosting a baby shower next month for their first nephew! We cannot wait for this! Anxious to see what everyone comes up with and I hope to keep my son and daughter in law from reading them until they use them. That is doubtful though. We’ll be doing one for Mom & one for Dad!
I hope it’s a fun shower! Love the idea of having a set for both mom and dad!
We did this at my daughters shower. When the baby peed, the marker stained her clothes!! Bad idea!!
Sorry you had that experience. I’ve done this at several baby showers now and haven’t ever had an issue with the marker bleeding (and I’ve asked the moms!). I’ve also literally gotten hundreds of emails and comments from people who have done this successfully since I posted it years back. If there’s an issue with bleeding I would guess that it’s either because the markers weren’t permanent or the diapers were the slick surface type instead of the cloth-like type I recommended in my post. Congrats on being a new grandma!!