Mama's Night Out: Big City Moms Biggest Baby Shower

Tuesday night I had the good fortune of attending Big City Mom's Biggest Baby Shower at American Girls' Place in NYC. What a fantastic event these ladies put on! Ironically, I didn't attend one of these events while I was pregnant but I am wishing I had. That being said, there was still plenty to offer for a new mama or mamas pregnant for their second or third time. Although the food spread would have been even more beguiling if I had been pregnant (ummm, cupcakes, cookies, and tarts, oh my!).

On offer were products from tons of baby companies and some really interesting seminars. For gear, I liked seeing the new Product Red Bugaboo strollers, the new iCandy strollers (I like the Peach Blossom for a growing family), diaper bags from Momma Couture and Rosie Pope, the new Cybex line of strollers and carriers (particularly the 2.Go carrier), beautiful knit items from Oeuf, and everything Skip Hop. We also got a chance to visit with our friends from Alex and Sam and Orbit Baby. And that's just a small sample of vendors that were displaying their wares. And you can't miss the gift bags. I was shocked with the amount of schwag loaded into the shiny silver bags. In my bag I found a Bugaboo stroller blanket, 6 bottles from different companies (I'm excited to try out the MAM bottle in particular), pacifiers, bibs, Baby Legs, a crib sheet from Company Kids, a baby t-shirt, scores of flyers, coupons and discount codes and more. In addition to the bags, nearly every Mama walked out laden with prizes from the baby shower bingo and raffles. Mamas won strollers, play gyms, carriers and every other kind of gear imaginable. Skip Hop alone gave away over a hundred gifts.

I also enjoyed two seminars. The first with the amazing Dr. Alan Greene who spoke about his new book, Feeding Baby Green. I was unfamiliar with his work prior to the shower, but now I am a huge fan. His ideas about how to feed your baby in the womb, while breast feeding and for the first year differ from what many pediatricians recommend, but make so much sense they are impossible to deny. I am now reading his book and will be sure to post a follow up when I am finished. I also sat in on the Save-A-Tot seminar that discussed infant health and safety topics and was a great refresher from the course I took before Pooka was born, and I even learned a few new things.

The evening concluded with a talk with the stunning actress and mother of two Kelly Rutherford (The OC, Gossip Girl, and many more) who shared her thoughts on being a working mother, breast feeding, vaccination, and more. I was astonished to learn that she breast fed her first child throughout her pregnancy with her second child, then continued to nurse both children after the birth of her second child. That's one dedicated Mama! Oh, and her children are not vaccinated if you were wondering (but I'm not touching that debate!).

Okay, so I guess I am gushing a bit, but I was very impressed by the whole event. If you have the chance to attend the spring shower I would highly recommend going. Big City Moms knows how to put on a great event!