Expecting A Baby In May! What To Do About Cake Orders?

Business By supakiki Updated 13 Jan 2011 , 4:29pm by emrldsky

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supakiki Posted 12 Jan 2011 , 4:43pm
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What do you think? Should I not take any for a month or so? Should I take only orders over a certain amount of money? Should I hire an assistant? We can always use the money, but it would be worth it to me to take a break to spend some quality time with my brand new baby! Any other ideas? Thanks so much!

13 replies
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donnlara Posted 12 Jan 2011 , 4:57pm
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I\\'m in the same situation right now, my baby is due in the next couple weeks. I gave myself a pretty wide window, I stopped bookings as of December 15, because my last baby came 5 weeks early...and it\\'s a good thing I did, because on Dec. 14th I ended up in the hospital with complications and have been on bedrest since. I am continuing to get calls, and everyone has been very understanding, no hard feelings and lots of well-wishes...for the cakes that were to be this month, I just told them I was unable ot book. For the one\\'s that are calling now for summer weddings, I am telling them the date I will start doing consultations/tastings again, but that I understand if they would rather find someone else if they really want to start planning now. So far they have all booked consultations with me for next month when I am up and running.
Congratulations on your upcoming baby, good luck! icon_biggrin.gif

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cowie Posted 12 Jan 2011 , 5:09pm
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I am also in the same situation. I am expecting my second mid May. I have been wondering what to do myself. I have stopped advertising for the time being because I don\\'t want to bring people in and then have to turn them away. I think I will likely not take any orders for the month of May (makes it hard with Mothers Day in there too). I would hate to take an order and have to call them to say sorry Im in the hospital and can\\'t make your cake. I am sure that people will understand and would much rather you be honest and say sorry I can\\'t take your order then to take it and have to back out last minute.

Congrats on your baby!

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MikeRowesHunny Posted 12 Jan 2011 , 5:17pm
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I would honestly, at the very least, not take wedding orders from the 1st April - 30th June. Baby might be early or late, and you will just be too exhausted by that stage to cope with a big cake order. JMO.

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leily Posted 12 Jan 2011 , 5:39pm
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when my second child had a due date of July 8th this year i did not do ANY orders in June or July (my first child was 6 weeks early due to preclampsia so i wanted to stop plenty early) Well ended up my second child was born 3 1/2 weeks early due to the same complications. I did take cookie and small cake orders in August and then started large orders again in September. It worked well for me, expecially since i have my In-laws that have fairly flexible schedules or at least a little more time and were able to help when needed (my BF works a lot!!)

I can\\'t imagine doing any orders the first 6 weeks, with lack of sleep and trying to care for my kids it would have been to much, even a small 8\\" cake. I had a hard enough time keeping up on cooking and the basic cleaning items.

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jason_kraft Posted 12 Jan 2011 , 5:42pm
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My wife (who happens to be the pastry chef) is due March 3rd, and we\\'ve already stopped accepting new orders. I posted a message on our web site stating that we plan to reopen in late Spring, but I did not give a firm reopening date. I also set our Google Voice number to go directly to voice mail and disabled the \\"order\\" option on our web site\\'s order form.

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Kitagrl Posted 12 Jan 2011 , 5:52pm
post #7 of 14

Yeah I\\'d probably clear out your schedule from about the month before the due date (or more if you don\\'t have help lifting heavy cakes) to however long you want off afterwards. I can say from experience it is NOT fun trying to do cake deadlines when you are lacking sleep!!!!

If you already have cake orders for that time, write the customers and warn them that it will be unpredictable and ask them if they\\'d feel better getting their deposit back and going elsewhere to where you would refer them.

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Annabakescakes Posted 12 Jan 2011 , 6:41pm
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Contrangulashions, to you expecting new babies! It is just the best thing! My \\"new baby\\" is going to be 2 in March, and I had cleared my cake schedule for the last 2 months because my twins were early. I had a consultation 3 weeks before my due date, but I had some bleeding complications and they took him 3 weeks early. I had to give my husband my password and have him search my email for the girl\\'s number. He couldn\\'t find it, so he emailed. I felt terrible because her mother was in town and she wanted her help.

I did the consultation 6 weeks late, and I really resented having to take the time. I was still weak from the blood loss, and I was nursing non stop because he had jaundice and we both had thrush and I was getting about 4 hours of sleep a day. I would recommend not doing cakes for at least 2 months before and after the birth.

PS, yes I can spell \\"Congratulations!\\" it is just fun to miss-spell it, like on cakewrecks.

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cowie Posted 12 Jan 2011 , 7:27pm
post #9 of 14

I never even thought about taking time after the baby is born. I guess I just thought I could jump back into it lol. I have a c section planned (unfortunately) and with my last child it took me months to recover from the c section. I am so glad for this forum so I can get new opinions. Thanks everyone!

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Annabakescakes Posted 12 Jan 2011 , 8:21pm
post #10 of 14
Quote:
Originally Posted by cowie

I never even thought about taking time after the baby is born. I guess I just thought I could jump back into it lol. I have a c section planned (unfortunately) and with my last child it took me months to recover from the c section. I am so glad for this forum so I can get new opinions. Thanks everyone!




I have had 3 c-sections and each one has taken more time for me to bounce back! With a second c-section, I would AT least double the time recommended for recovery, I had pain from the incision for 4 or 5 months after the last one, but they cut out a lot of scar tissue as well. It mostly hurt to lift things, cough and sneeze or when my bladder was full, if i didn't get enough exercise, I would stiffen up.

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love2makecakes Posted 12 Jan 2011 , 10:29pm
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I had a baby this fall. I did my biggest wedding of the year the week before I had my baby (Planned c-section, so it was a week before my due date), I had already had that cake booked a year in advance before we became pregnant. Anyway, luckily that worked out! So onto after my daughter was born, I completely forgot about the sleep one does not get with a brand new infant and had taken orders for a couple week after (OMG! I was tired!), I did my first wedding 3 weeks after my daughter was born and it really sucked to be working with no sleep and having to come upstairs and nurse every 1.5-2 hours! Do what you think you can handle, but remember you don't get sleep!!! So while your body may be healed 3 weeks after, you still wont be sleeping!

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jenbenjr Posted 12 Jan 2011 , 10:59pm
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I had my 3rd baby in July. I took orders up until about a week before my planned c-section. After I had the baby, I took only about a month off and got right back into it (it was also my second c-section). I think it is just all in how you feel. I didn't take any wedding cakes all summer though, but I stayed busy with everything else. Good luck! icon_biggrin.gif

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DebBTX Posted 13 Jan 2011 , 3:38am
post #13 of 14

Congratulations to all with new little ones, already here or on the way. What an exciting time for you.

-Debbie B.

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emrldsky Posted 13 Jan 2011 , 4:29pm
post #14 of 14

I've already decided not to take orders March -mid/late May, at the least. I don't get too many orders anyway, but it works out better for me. lol

My due date is April 7, but since this is our first, we need time to put together all the furniture, etc. and get the house ready. I have to return to my full-time job 6 weeks after she's born, so I might start taking orders a couple of weeks after that.

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