*READ FIRST!*

sliztee

Welcome to the November 2021 BMB! (I used this template from my last BMB)  If you're new to TB, we're excited to have you! Below you will find information on how the flow of BMBs work, guidelines and helpful links. 

Some links that you may find helpful:

• What do all of those abbreviations mean?
• How do I add a siggy? Tickers? Spoilers?
• How do I gif?

How-To Guides:
-How to quote: Hit the "quote" at the bottom of the post you want to quote. You will be taken to the reply box with the quote set up already.
-How to tag: Add a "@" in front of the username of the person you are talking to.
-How to change your username: log in to TheKnot, hover over My Knot, and click Account Settings. If you are having issues doing it that way, you can email community@thebump.com and ask them to change your username. Give them a few suggestions just in case your top choice is taken. It may take up to 24 hours for the name to update.
-How to insert a spoiler box: click the drop down list arrow next to the paragraph symbol (third from the left, next to bold and italicize) and choose spoiler. It will insert a grey box, and everything that you type in there will go into the spoiler.

For the sake of board organization, here are some simple guidelines for posting threads:

DO: 
-Introduce yourself in the "Introductions!" thread 
-Feel free to start one of the weekly posts listed below: 
-Post your own thread if you have a confirmed loss (please use a TW)
-Post a thread that would apply to the entire community and doesn't fall into one of the categories for daily threads listed below (Ex: what to pack in your hospital bag, baby gear, etc)
-Comment, share advice and show support for your fellow bumpies; this is a two-way street, to get support, you must show it as well

DON'T:
-Start a thread asking about symptoms; please post this in the current weekly "symptoms thread" - this is helpful because it keeps the board from getting cluttered and makes it so we can all see the whole discussion in one thread, rather than having one thread about MS, one about food cravings, another about vivid dreams, etc.
-Ask the community if you are pregnant, it is against TOU
-Start a thread asking for relationship advice; a professional is better suited for this task
-Post pictures of your pregnancy test, this is also against TOU
-Post a thread that asks a question only applying to yourself unless you suspect you may be going through a MC
-Get bent out of shape if someone calls you out for not following these guidelines; if you expect to be part of a supportive board (which we are), you need to be able to take the time to learn the ins and outs of the board

Weekly threads suggestions! Feel free to add any others you think would be helpful/fun. 

MONDAY
-Monday Bitch Fest 
-Weekly symptoms thread 

TUESDAY
-TW Tuesday... TW = Twatwaffle. Who or what in your life is being a twatwaffle?
-High Risk Check-in

WEDNESDAY
-Hump day/bump day 
-PAIF check in 
-Weekly randoms 
-WTF Wednesday

THURSDAY

-PGAL check in
-Unpopular opinion UO
-Thankful Thursday's 

FRIDAY
-Flame Free Confessions 
-TTGP Grad check in 

MONTHLY
-What my pregnant self is eating/crying?               
-AMA mama check in 
-What I found hilarious 
-Healthy mama check in  

Once we all get farther along, we will also have pinned threads for things like ultrasounds, sex announcements and birth announcements.

I've copy/pasted this from previous boards, and it seems to be the way that they are all organized, but of course we should feel free to tweak for our needs! For example, some boards do weekly ticker changes while others do weekly due date check-ins (ex, DD 1st week of Sept.). 

If anyone has a suggestion for other threads, please feel free to comment a suggestion.

PLEASE keep in mind that there will eventually be a lot of us on this board, and an organized board will be much easier for everyone to use. If we can all keep the one-off posts to a minimum the board won't be too cluttered to navigate, and hopefully we won't end up answering the same question 2,000 times.

Let's have a great BMB ladies!

sliztee

@BumpAdmin Can we get a sticky on this post, please?

jackie_dunny

@sliztee thanks for getting this started! You’re so on it! I know some other boards do appointment threads (weekly or monthly) and FTM/STM+ threads so maybe we could consider adding those as well? 

sliztee

@jackie_dunny Absolutely! We had those in my last BMB too, I guess we just never added it to the group guidelines 

sliztee

sliztee said:

@BumpAdmin Can we get a sticky on this post, please?

Bump

myspecialkid

This is a great post.  I've been out of the loop for 5 years, so I appreciated the refresher.  

jackie_dunny

When do we start doing weekly check ins? Also, how do we all want to go about doing that? I’ve seen some BMBs do a whole group check in, some divide it by the week you are in (ex: group 1 Nov 1-7 group 2 Nov 8-15, etc), and it seems to be dated but some groups do it by the day of the week you change (ex: you turn 5 weeks on a Tuesday so you’re in the Tuesday group with so and so who turns 7 weeks also on a Tuesday). I know it’s still early and we’re waiting for the rest of the month to join us but figured I’d get the ball rolling lol 

Also, when do product spotlights start and does anyone know what order they go in? I’ve lightly lurked the BMBs over the years but not enough to know how it’s all organized lol sorry if I’m being too keen 

artsiefartsie

@jackie_dunny I personally prefer a big group update. My last group had them split by week at first and then eventually moved to one big.  When they were split I felt like I wasn't really getting to know everyone just the ones that happened to be in my week.

However,  I'm pretty easy going about this kind of stuff so I'm down for what the group wants

KNB1027

@jackie_dunny This is my first time being on a BMB so I am happy with whatever but agree with @artsiefartsie that being able to get to know everyone seems like fun

sliztee

If it makes y’all feel better, these guidelines came from my group and I DEFINITELY knew/know everyone super well, despite not being in the same weekly rollover. That said, I’m sure all groups are different and we’ll just have to see how this one shakes out!

sliztee

sliztee said:

@BumpAdmin Can we get a sticky on this post, please?

@BumpAdmin

mayoduck

@BumpAdmin Can we get a sticky on this post, please?

sliztee

mayoduck said:

@BumpAdmin Can we get a sticky on this post, please?

I’m not sure why this hasn’t been done yet! 

jackie_dunny

@BumpAdmin @rosesareblue242 Can we please get a sticky on this? 

daisy0322

When I was a FTM we had thread called ask a pro or something and we could ask any questions from what helps this symptom or I the baby keeps jumping what is that (hiccups lol) or what to expect at this appointment or what to bring to the hospital. I LOVED it 

jackie_dunny

@daisy0322 I think a lot of the BMBs do one generic Questions thread which sounds the same as that! I’m happy for either of those threads! 

cdbaldwin09

So which thread is PGAL? High risk?

jackie_dunny

@cdbaldwin09 one hasn’t been posted yet. I didn’t post PAIF and PGAL last week because I’m not apart of those groups and I didn’t want to be disrespectful but then they just didn’t get posted lol so I’ll post PGAL later today (: 

sliztee

jackie_dunny said:

@cdbaldwin09 one hasn’t been posted yet. I didn’t post PAIF and PGAL last week because I’m not apart of those groups and I didn’t want to be disrespectful but then they just didn’t get posted lol so I’ll post PGAL later today (: 

Might I suggest someone who is in the PGAL start the weekly thread? @cdbaldwin09
@jackie_dunny has already stepped up for many threads and we should share the load!

jackie_dunny

@sliztee I honestly don’t mind starting them if no one else wants to. Just don’t want to come across as like, “controlling” the board or being disrespectful with certain threads 

cdbaldwin09

I'm more than willing to try to figure that out. I'll work on it this weekend.

jackie_dunny

@cdbaldwin09 I made one for this week! If you want to take it over in the future, just copy and paste the format (that I copy and pasted from an old BMB) and change the GTKY question!

tanyadk

Can we start a planning a home birth thread? Or non-hospital birth thread? We’re hoping for one with this baby so would love to get insights from other mamas who may have had one or planning to have one. My first was a hospital birth and went great- Just hoping for comfort of my own home this time around ! 

cd1122

@tanyadk I'm planning home birth as well FTM. If you start thread I'll definitely collaborate 😊

jackie_dunny

How many moms of multiples do we have? I know @kbonita285 is one but is there anymore (that we know of)? I ask because if there’s enough we may want to do a “moms of multiples” thread. I’ve seen some BMBs combine it with the High Risk thread. 

RoseShadow873

@jackie_dunny Some people probably don't know if they are having multiples yet because not everyone has had an appointment yet. But it does seem like there are already an awful lot of separate groups here.

jackie_dunny

@RoseShadow873 I’m not sure what you mean by separate groups. There are different threads because there are different ways people are experiencing their pregnancy/how they became pregnant so it’s nice for them to chat about those experiences 🤷🏻‍♀️ 

RoseShadow873

I guess I meant how there are so many different check-in subjects. And then the same people might fit into any number of different check-in categories at the same time and are then having so many check-ins each week to do and then keeping track of who is who and trying to not miss out on things when it's all fragmented, etc. it's a little confusing to me. I guess it's just me. Sorry I even mentioned it.

MaximumEffort

@RoseShadow873 we can fit into multiple groups and each group has their own trials and tribulations that wouldn't be touched upon in the other group.  Multiples, ftm and stm all have their own contexts, seems fragmented but everyone can decide how many threads they want to be a part of. 

artsiefartsie

I creep all the groups anyway 😆

jackie_dunny

@artsiefartsie same 😂 

@RoseShadow873 sorry I didn’t mean to come across as snarky or anything. If it’s easier for you to just check in at the weekly check-in and symptoms, that’s totally fine! I’m sure I’m not alone in this though that if we only had one weekly check-in, the board would be soooo slow (and it’s already not the quickest). I speak from experience. @doodleoodle and I used to be on the Babies on the Brain board that only had one weekly check-in and it was painfully slow. The other threads just spark different conversations throughout the week. It gets easier to get to know people the more we all interact and it helps when everyone has their own personal username and/or picture. 

RoseShadow873

@jackie_dunny Do you think we could have a GTKY thread maybe once in a while? Like separate from the check ins? 

jackie_dunny

@RoseShadow873 yeah of course, you don’t need my permission 😂 anyone can start any of the threads! The only reason I usually start them is because I’m 5 hours ahead of everyone on the East coast! 

jackie_dunny

So it seems there’s too many check-ins back to back. How does everyone feel about moving the FTM/STM+ to Wednesday’s, keeping the main check-in on Sunday, and so there’s not too many things on Wednesday, moving the Randoms to Saturday? So basically just switching FTM/STM+ and Randoms? Or is that still to close together (Sunday and Wednesday)

artsiefartsie

@jackie_dunny sounds perfect to me!