Mommy Forum Acronym Cheatsheet

The moment I found out I was pregnant I needed to learn as much as I could ASAP. What is going to happen to my body? What foods should I stay away from? Are these pains normal? 

So I jumped on Amazon and ordered a few books, downloaded a bunch of apps and joined a bunch of pregnancy forums. Talk about information overload. I immediately realized what I found to be most helpful was just talking to new moms or other pregnant women.

So I ended up spending most of my time on the forums reading what other people were going through or had already gone through. But during almost every post there was always something that stumped me – what the heck do all these letters mean? Everyone seemed to be using them like they were as common as LOL or WTF. I constantly found myself doing a google search to find out what these acronyms stood for or I breathed a sigh of relief when someone else before me asked exactly what I was thinking.

So here is a cheatsheet of some of the most common acronyms to help understand what everyone is talking about in those mommy forums.

AF – aunt flo (period)

BBT – basal body temperature

BFN – big fat negative

BFP – big fat positive (pregnancy test)

CIO – cry it out

CM – cervical mucus

CS – caesarean section

DD – dear daugher

DS – dear son

EBF – exclusively breastfeeding

EDD – estimated due date

FF – formula feeding

FTM – first time mom

LC – lactation consultant

LO – little one

MIL – mother-in-law

OP – original poster

OT – off topic

PP – post partum or previous poster

PPD – post partum depression

SAHM – stay at home mom

SIL – sister-in-law

SO – significant other

STM – second time mom

TTC – trying to conceive

VBAC – vaginal birth after caesarean