sunbelle, not compulsory i think. agree w cherish it deps on ur family tradition. some families require cakes to be distribute to relatives who are not coming for the buffet... esp those who gave or will give ang paos.
for #1, i only invited my parents & PILs. mini-lunch cooked by ex-CL who is excellent in her cooking. my parents felt tat it's my PIL's call cos it's their direct grandson. my FIL is traditional type but since he's not paying and not alot of relatives in Spore, my very liberal MIL ask him to keep quiet and let us decide. hehehee...
my hubby is very practical saying that it's basically for the adults and not for the kid so it doesn't matter. but since i insisted we shud hv a gathering of some sort, he went with my miniscule idea. even for #1 birthday, we did a mini celebration only cos i personally found it boring to attend frens' 1yr old birthday parties after awhile
gave 1 big cake to department only cos there's a "tradition" in the old team that one mth we bring babies over cos they gave group ang paos. hmm.. now that reminds me, there were other colleagues who gave ang pao and i din bring cakes to them!!! aaahhh.. make up for #2.
cherish, ya... cos i'm still working!!!! lotsa things to close properly as i really hope to relax once my work fr home starts. no cravings at all leh... so nice of you to suggest. i jus had a few mouthful of ice cream jus now. hehehe.. but still dun feel gd. btw, ur hubby is so so so sweet!!! 4mths is indeed very long and am glad baby and you survived till now. not easy huh? every pregnancy is so different. my #1 was an absolutely breeze in the park.