“I had never heard of the term before,” she said.

A sprinkle, as it turns out, is a smaller party to celebrate second, third or fourth pregnancies. According to Shannon Guyton, site editor of TheBump.com, which focuses on pregnancy and parenting advice, such parties are on the rise.

“There is this growing mentality of wanting to celebrate every second of parenthood, and sprinkles fit with that trend,” she said.

In general, baby showers are still all-girl get-togethers spent sipping tea and playing games, like guessing the circumference of the expecting mother’s abdomen or designing a diaper. But it’s become more common to celebrate new parenthood with more casual, often coed soirées, like the gender-reveal parties now popular on YouTube or even boozy evenings in bars, where some couples celebrate their last gasp of freedom before 2 a.m. feedings replace last call. With their implication that a community should chip in with baby staples during a queasy economy, sprinkles fit into this more relaxed trend.

But as charming and supportive as the idea might seem, sprinkles are not without controversy: as commenters on TheBump.com quickly and heatedly pointed out, guests directed to spend money on gifts yet again might feel resentful, and, on the other side, moms-to-be can feel uncomfortable with the expectation that they do so.