how to say congratulations
Hi,
So I wanted to say congratulations to someone for having a new baby. Should I say "¡Felicitaciones por el bebé nuevo!"
Is this correct? What if I already know she has a baby girl? Would it be ""¡Felicitaciones por la bebé nueva!"
Just my thought, just thinking about the gender makes me think for a couple of second before I can respond to anyone.. this is hard! haha
6 Answers
Yes if it's a girl ... Felicidades por tu nueva bebé. 
Felicitaciones and felicidades seem to often be used interchangeably to mean congratulations although I seem to remember reading that felicitaciones is more appropriate when congratulating someone for something they personally accomplished but felicidades is better when referring to something that happened naturally, by chance or just because of a time of year etc. Perhaps a native speaker could comment on this
You may also find this link useful 
Bebé is a difficult word. Sometimes we say " la beba" if it's a female baby and sometimes you can hear "la bebé". There must be a grammatically good one but what I'm telling you is that people around here would use both. We even hear el bebé if it is a girl.
As for congratulations we here use "felicitaciones" but I've heard in other countries they say "felicidades", which we don't.
Thanks everyone for your answer.
Now I just have to wait to receive a phone call from a customer with a newborn.
I would also have ventured "
muchas felicidades por el bebé, el nuevo bebé, tu hijito, tu hijita"
La bebé...sounds definitely odd, however, I am sure some people use it.
It is "el bebé" even if it's a girl. It's a masculine noun.
Oh, and let's not forget:
el recién nacido!!!
