Registries? Showers?

TeamHayes

In general, when do people start registering for baby items? Is it usually around 20 weeks or so when you find out the sex of the baby? Is there a benefit to registering for smaller items you intend to buy yourself or do you think that would confuse people looking at your registry?

I have heard of people putting their due dates 2 or 3 weeks before they are actually due so they can get a completion coupon to buy what wasn't purchased. Does this also confuse people?

I am not planning on having a very large shower - maybe 20 to 25 people so DH and I will probably buy the majority of the babies things. All the extra coupons will help so we can start buying a few things here and there so we don't have to get everything all at once. We already bought all of our cloth diapers and lots of books for the baby but we want to try to spread out the costs as much as we can.

 

Babies R Us seems overwhelming, any suggestions on other places to register that are still easy for family to buy from? Something along the lines of a brick and mortar store in case some family isn't too savvy with the computer. 

 

Here is the second part of my question. When do you  have a shower? I am due at the end of April so how many months before I am due would be shower generally be? Would it be in late February or early to mid March? For some reason when I pictured my baby shower I always assumed it would be in the summer time. Obviously I am having a winter/spring baby so that won't be the case.

 

ramble over. 

Thanks in advance for your help and sorry if this doesn't make sense.