Thinking ahead

mrscrcalli

Playing Red Rover has scared me for life from these things. [-O<

RocksInTheWater

The onesie secret santa thing would be fun and I'm definitely in for labor buddies when the time comes.  It shouldn't be a problem to privately ask people to be labor buddies then after a point we can just see who still needs to be paired up then it can be done randomly?  It would be nice to be paired up with someone I at least recognize from posting more than once a month or something.

BiggerinRealLife

@ImnAtari Hmm maybe I should leave it to someone who's don't this before? I'm good at organizing things, but haven't had to keep people's info private before. That's a good point. When I've done swaps online, just the person who 'drew the name' got the address. Otherwise, how would they ship it?

Afterlater

DW has the bump app... Maybe I could convince her to update for me

Katiecave

Oh this sounds like fun! I hadn't ever heard of a labor buddy and the secret Santa onsie is a really fun idea too!

MamaFantastic

i will totally participate.  i haven't read page 2 yet, but a secret santa exchange sounds like fun!

i'll probably recruit my own labor buddy based on proximity and demonstration of feats of strength (because i'm a very demanding labor buddy, and i will obviously be expecting an in-person visit with a foot massage in the hospital )

SeattleMomma

That's funny Spasticfanstic! Can I just say that it bugs the crap out of me that I don't know any of your names? Grrr

Emmalou05

SeattleMomma said:

That's funny Spasticfanstic! Can I just say that it bugs the crap out of me that I don't know any of your names? Grrr

Mines Emma

SeattleMomma

Yes Ma'am.. Mrs. Atrai
I'm Aurelia (A-Rail-Ya) easier too say then it looks.

MamaFantastic

you can call me M

SeattleMomma

All these anonymous ladies
I hate suspense lol
I can respect your wishes though.

Emmalou05

SeattleMomma said:

Yes Ma'am.. Mrs. Atrai
I'm Aurelia (A-Rail-Ya) easier too say then it looks.

Please don't hate me if I forgot that or spell it wrong my memory is awful not even baby brain lol

SeattleMomma

I'm pretty familiar with Kendra. No need to get your name. Heh
I think these ideas are very neat. Especially having a labor buddy.

natpirt

This is a really good idea, and I am definitely interested in participating. 

RocksInTheWater

ImnAtari said:

@biggerinreallife Everyone interested signs up for elfster and then the specific swap (which the swap organizer sets up and invites people in), it randomizes everyone and assigns you a person which is emailed to you and you get the other persons information. It's kind of cool. I use it a lot for secret santas :-P

If I had more time I'd totally organize... but between finishing school and starting the new job I shouldn't even be here right now.

@ImnAtari Elfster sounds like the way to go.  What would go in to organizing this?  I could give it a whirl!

Mandyw75

So what is happening? And what do I do? I live in Ontario if that makes anything different.

Emily041285

I love both of these ideas! Count me in! And I have an addiction to buying Christmas pjs, adding one more would make it more fun!

pineconey

Could we maybe do the onesie swap by country to save on postage?

Christinekeyser

I agree that it's hard to keep up on here and vote for fb.

deidremaria

pineconey said:

Could we maybe do the onesie swap by country to save on postage?

I live in the U.S Virgin Islands. I hope that doesn't make anyone think shipping to me would cost more. It really won't. Especially if we all use those flat rate envelopes

sarlimes34

i'm really liking the ideas ladies. count me in!

pineconey

@jellysparkles if you get me and there's no pyrotechnics I'm going to be insanely disappointed.

sweetmelissa0707

I like this idea. I am happy to do random choosing or being chosen. I just added my info to the blog. I think the onsie idea is very cute as well. I think, for the most part, the crazies have been weeded out, so a random pairing wouldn't really bother me, but I could see how people might feel more comfortable choosing someone they have a connection with.

edoliesmom

This is a pretty cool idea. I would have to agree that time zones don't make much of a difference unless to use as just a pairing factor because what if you go into labor late at night or the wee hours of the morning? I would like the random pairing because I also feel like the others whose thoughts go back to junior high waiting to be picked for dodgeball! lol

christinanoelle

This is definitely an interesting idea. I think we'd have to wait until we're a little further along to decide.. Also, I missed the initial secret Santa idea. Are we doing a gift exchange?? I'm a Christmas baby so am in to anything holiday related

Eta thanks @WifeofaComposer for getting us thinking about this! Just curious as to where the idea came from? Is it something that other boards do as well?

Bluebird2318

Oooohhh, I want a labor buddy! Random is fine if we end up doing that. Let it just be known that I would make an awesome labor buddy, as I am a SAHM and I can get up at 3 AM and announce your labor with GIFs and shiz. I'll even do it with proper grammar and punctuation! I know; I know. Amazing, right? Don't everybody raise their hands at once now! For real though; I'm interested.

pineconey

DIBS!!!!! I call dibs on @bluebird2318

Rrrrrachel

I think you can also set up Elfster where you give out a link and people sign themselves up. I'm pretty sure ive signed up that way in the past. Idk about how to pick labor buddies. I like the idea of people getting to pick their own, so they feel like they're picking someone they click with, but it also seems like a recipe for hurt feelings and people getting left out. Random, on the other hand, I may not even participate in because I'd rather have no labor buddy than someone who's going to be a flake.

pannk

I'm so torn! I love the idea of this but I also like being anonymous...

Bluebird2318

pineconey said:

DIBS!!!!! I call dibs on @bluebird2318

@pinecony

I am mighty fond of pinecones. Just sayin'! 

B-)

Rrrrrachel

Exactly. I was going to compare it to a group project, too.

BiggerinRealLife

Ooh, now I feel like junior high on valentine's day, where I want to keep checking my locker (bump pm) and see if anyone left me anything!

Bluebird2318

BiggerinRealLife said:

Ooh, now I feel like junior high on valentine's day, where I want to keep checking my locker (bump pm) and see if anyone left me anything!

Until you get one from the kid in the back of the class who's never seen the business end of a deodorant stick... You know the one. 

thomas930

Its a neat idea...honestly I dont even know if I would participate because I would be too scared to ask someone and so I'd probably just end not paired, but I don't know how I feel about random pairings either.

BiggerinRealLife

@LoriMc12 I looked at elfster and it looks pretty self explanatory. The only area where we may hit trouble is international shipping. I don't know anything else about using it though.

On another social site I used to be on we would do swaps, and someone would just run it. They would gather names, people would pm with address and whether they were ok with international shipping, and if they wanted to be a swap angel. Then people would get assigned to each other, and addresses given to people by PM. So I guess people only participated if they were comfortable giving out addresses, and if they weren't then they just didn't do it.

If there's another way to do it that keeps things anonymous that people want to explore, go for it! I wouldn't be comfortable keeping track of lots of people's info on a system I'm not familiar with, though.  If we go old-fashioned, I can organize that one.

SeattleMomma

WAHHH I thought Pine was my local buddy. Trader!!
I'm totally kidding, let's hope no one really acts like this over labor buddies.

pineconey

As far as labor buddies go- maybe 1 brave person could be the coordinator. If you wanted to participate, you could send them 5 people on your LB wish list. That person could match people up and send out the list. If you didn't have a match in your top 5 maybe the coordinator would do a random pairing as needed.
Just a thought.

RocksInTheWater

So this thread is totally about two topics but I'll post the elfster link (thanks @Rrrrrachel) here and if some of you can check it out to see that it looks fine, I'll make a new post for it.  The latest sign up date it let me choose is Oct 30.  Don't know why.  Anyhow, here's the link:

https://www.elfster.com/exchange/view/9313248/fb7829/

You can sign up for the gift exchange with this link. I just used my bump name and figured we will send our home addresses only to the person who draws our names?  

pannk

Bluebird2318 said:

BiggerinRealLife said:

Ooh, now I feel like junior high on valentine's day, where I want to keep checking my locker (bump pm) and see if anyone left me anything!

Until you get one from the kid in the back of the class who's never seen the business end of a deodorant stick... You know the one. 

As long as there's chocolate attached, I don't care who it's from!

Emily041285

thomas930 said:

Its a neat idea...honestly I dont even know if I would participate because I would be too scared to ask someone and so I'd probably just end not paired, but I don't know how I feel about random pairings either.

I'm pretty nervous to ask someone too! I definitely wasn't the popular kid in school. :-S