Your new baby has arrived and it's time to make an announcement to your friends and family. How can dads help in this task? In this episode of The Lab, Daddy Clay and Daddy Brad tell you how. Watch as they break down the ins and outs of birth announcements. What kind of things should you say? Should you include a photo of your newborn baby? DadLabs has it covered. Brought to you by Stork Avenue. DadLabs ep. 428.

DADDY BRAD So you bring the new baby home. It’s magical. Your new family. So you know what you should do to celebrate this new arrival?

DADDY CLAY Write a bunch of letters to people you haven’t seen in, like, years.

DADDY BRAD That’s right. This week, we’re talking about birth announcements.

DADDY CLAY Welcome back to the Lab, I’m Daddy Clay.

DADDY BRAD And I’m Daddy Brad.

DADDY CLAY So what’s up with birth announcements?
Blast out an email. Post up some pics on my Facebook. Boom. Done.

DADDY BRAD
And yet somehow you’re still married.

DADDY CLAY Twitter. Baby announcement has less than 150 characters.

DADDY BRAD With the help of folks like our sponsor this week, Stork Avenue, making birth announcements has gotten really easy.

DADDY CLAY You can go to the site, pick out a style, personalize the info and you’ve got your announcement.

DADDY BRAD But anything that you have to do with a newborn in the house can seem hard.

DADDY CLAY And birth announcements is one of those things that can really drive new parents, especially moms, nuts. They feel guilty, they should do it, but with the new baby...

DADDY BRAD Make it easy on yourself by getting as much done ahead of time as you can.

DADDY CLAY Make it your job to get your list of addresses put together early third trimester. If you are super type-A you can even order the envelopes in advance and have them addressed and ready.

DADDY BRAD The other thing you can do is give yourself a break on the timeline. Most baby announcements go out is the first month or two, but people understand that you have a new baby at home.

DADDY CLAY One big decision to make, you go with the photo or no photo?

DADDY BRAD We were kind of old school there. Just straight announcement.

DADDY CLAY Which is classic, and it’s what we did. But the pics can be cute.

DADDY BRAD But then there’s pressure to get the perfect picture, and the kids got the conehead.

DADDY CLAY But some of my favorite baby announcements have been when families really say what they’re about. They’re fans and they have the kid in the logo. I saw one where the dad was a big fisherman, and he had the kid kind posed on a net with the caption, she’s a keeper.

DADDY BRAD The other thing to consider is cost. Without photo, you’re looking at about .50 to a buck per. Photo at least twice that, think a buck and a half per. Minimum order usually between 12 and 20. Plus postage.

DADDY CLAY Okay, but some people who get a birth announcement will send a gift. Seriously. It’s like a shower. So what’s the yield? Maybe 10%. Average gift is $15 bucks. So you send 100 announcements at a buck fifty apiece, you break even.

DADDY BRAD That may be the most cynical thing you’ve ever said on this show.

DADDY CLAY I’m just sayin’.

DADDY BRAD Thanks again to our sponsors, Stork Avenue. You can check out their cool baby announcements at Stork Avenue dot com.

DADDY CLAY And if you have suggestions on how to make cool and creative birth announcements, or mistakes to avoid, join us on DadLabs dot com, create a profile, and join the conversation. We’ll see you next time, here in the lab.

DADDY BRAD So you gave a lot of input on the baby announcements.

DADDY CLAY Sometimes on this show, I want to encourage dads to do better than I did.