How to Throw a Nesting Party

What is a Nesting Party?

People love celebrating a new baby. You’ve got your baby showers, your gender reveal parties, and now, enter the nesting party. This might just be our favorite party yet. And we hazard to guess it will quickly become yours, too. Wondering what a nesting party is? It’s when the people you love come together to help you prepare to welcome your new baby into your home.

Getting ready for a new baby takes a lot of work. There are mounds of teeny tiny clothes to wash, diapers to unpack and store, furniture to put together, meals to prep, and more! A nesting party helps tick these to do’s off of the new mom-and-dad-to-be’s list in a fun and festive environment. It’s literally your village coming together to help you when you need it the most!

What Activities Can You Do in a Nesting Party?

The sky's the limit, or, really, whatever you are comfortable with is the real answer to this question. We’ll give you some ideas to help you plan how to throw your own nesting party but the decisions are really up to you. This is a very emotional and vulnerable time for a lot of people and there should never be the pressure to do anything which makes you uncomfortable.

Meal Prep

Those first few days after bringing your baby home can be a blur. But your nutrition is still important. Having easy to heat meals at the ready can be super helpful. Cooking all of these meals in the last weeks of your pregnancy is less than desirable. Planning and cooking these meals as part of your nesting party can make it fun, social, and take the lion share of work off of your aching feet.

Nursery Prep

Having a calming but whimsical nursery is the stuff of many parents’ dreams. However, there’s a lot of work that goes into making this dream a reality. From simply painting walls, to maybe making a fun mural, paint fumes are often not safe for pregnant women. Assembling and positioning your baby’s furniture is also a no-go for pregnancy. 

It’s time to call in the reinforcements. Having extra hands makes light work of getting the nursery ready for organization. Who knows, maybe the very people who gifted you the crib would enjoy being the ones to help you get it set up and ready for your baby?

With the assembly of the nursery going faster and smoother, you’ll have more time for putting away teeny tiny baby clothes, diapers, crib sheets and burp clothes!

Cleaning

Having help cleaning or deep cleaning the home, or certain parts of your home, is another great idea. Not having to get down on your  knees to scrub because it was already done for you during the nesting party is an amazing gift! Kick your feet up instead. Coming in multiple times prior to baby's arrival - or afterward, too - could be a wonderful gift!

Some baby supplies may be coming from storage if it's not the first kid or regifted items from loved ones. These will need cleaning, too! Bringing these items out, whether they are hand-me-downs or family heirlooms, will bring back memories that loved ones will cherish sharing and reliving.

Going through current toys if there are already kids in the home to sort and put all the toys together with their parts isn't glamorous but it's really helpful. Purge the ones that need to go or be gifted onto another home. Getting organized can help to make sure the home is not so chaotic and you have the new baby toys on hand. Porch has more great tips for cleaning, organizing, and preparing your home for baby, check them out HERE.

Birth Prep

Your birth experience is a very personal one. However, it can be hard to know what you don’t know without talking to people who have gone before you. After speaking about your options with your healthcare provider, it might be a good exercise for you to talk to the women in your life. This is especially true if they have recently had children of their own. You can ask them if they would have done anything differently or if what they chose was right for their family. 

These women who love you, want the very best for you and will generally be open and honest about their own experiences. It can be comforting knowing you are not alone in your thoughts, fears, hopes, and dreams!

Feeding Prep

Even if you plan to exclusively nurse, it’s a good idea to have bottles on hand. Even nursing moms can deal with engorgement, and may benefit from hand expressing or pumping milk. Having this milk on hand can help in emergencies, or situations where you need to leave your baby. It can also allow you to involve your partner in feeding the baby. It’s a great way for them to bond. 

If you plan to pump, combination feed, or formula feed, you might feel like you have more bottles than you know what to do with. And the thought of washing them all is enough to knock you off your feet. Grab all of your pump parts, bottles, nipples, etc. and watch your guests make light work of the sterilization and cleaning. This is a great opportunity for them to share stories from their own journeys. 

This is also a great time to share your plans for feeding your baby, and in doing so you can create healthy boundaries. Sharing these plans ahead of time can give your family and friends an opportunity to learn them, ask questions, and get on board.

Laundry

Our own laundry can pile up but add in all of the adorable baby clothes that have made their way into your home and wow. It can feel like it will take ages to knock it all out. With a few good pairs of hands though, you can make that mountain of clothes disappear. Gush over how cute everything is. Talk about your hopes and dreams, or what baby will be like. And transform this from a solitary chore into time spent with those who love you. 

From a Mom Who's Thrown a Nesting Party for her Second Pregnancy

Something really magical about a nesting party is it not being all about the things. It's really great for subsequent children since usually the first one all the bells and whistles are put on. I honestly cannot believe a friend brought this up and the lightbulb went off - this. is. genius. especially when you don't want or need all the stuff but want the help and want to spend the time with folks or don't like being the center of attention as showers can often make people feel that way OR make them not have one altogether so they don't do anything at all.