Prior to becoming a mom I knew that there'd be a ton of things I'd have to learn. Being around my brother and sister-in-law when my niece and nephew were born gave me a glimpse of what parenthood entailed, but I didn't know how vast the ocean of information was until baby boy actually showed up in our lives. And now, 10 months in, I've come to realize that not only has my day-to-day (and night-to-night) life changed, but even my vocabulary has evolved. From "establishing a good latch" to "connecting sleep cycles", these are phrases I was never even aware of pre-baby but are now fairly common in my everyday vernacular with other mom friends.

When parenthood is 90% guesswork, 5% Google, and 5% luck and God's grace, you eventually realize there's a ton of acronyms that are used in forums that you come to learn as you try to keep the tiny human alive. Why all the acronyms? It's cuz there's just so many terms and so little time to type out those terms in full every time you go to talk about it (which ends up being quite frequently as it turns out). So for all you expecting mamas and non-mamas, here's your cheat sheet into the vocabulary of motherhood.

BLW - baby led weaning (method of feeding solids that skips purees and lets baby feed themselves)

BTC - by the clock (refers to sleep schedules that have wakeup, naps, and bedtime at the same time everyday... and no, this is not the norm nor the recommendation as I've come to learn)

CIO - cry it out (a.k.a. extinction method of sleep training, but also refers to any method of sleep training that involves letting baby cry)

CS - c-section (or caesarean section in full)

DS / DD / DH - dear son / daughter / husband (how people often refer to their child / spouse on internet forums)

DWT - daily wakeup time (the time at which you get baby from the crib, usually suggested to be the same time everyday)

EBF - exclusively breast fed

EBP - exclusively breast pumping (and bottle fed)

EWU - early wake up (when baby wakes up any time before 6am)

FF - formula fed

FTM - first time mom

LO - loved one (another common way people refer to their child in forums)

MOTN(W) - middle of the night (waking)

OT - over tired (when baby is awake too long, filled with the stress hormone cortisol and has a hard time napping / sleeping... also, the thing you dread the most and are always heavily cautioned to avoid)

PP - postpartum (the period of time after giving birth, usually the first 3 months or the "fourth trimester")

PPD / PPA - postpartum depression / anxiety

PUPD - pick up put down (a "gentle/no cry" method of sleep training that involves picking up and putting down baby (awake) as often as needed until they fall asleep... somewhat misleading as this method still involves tears)

SLS - sleep lady shuffle (another "gentle / no cry" sleep training method that involves you sitting in a chair by baby's crib until they fall asleep without your assistance and progressively moving that chair further and further away each night until you're out the door)

ST - sleep training (teaching baby how to fall asleep independently with methods ranging from "gentle / no cry" to "cry it out")

STTN - sleeping through the night (the holy grail of parenthood, when your baby finally sleeps through the night which means you get to sleep through the night, unless your body is just conditioned to wake up every 3-4 hours... but that's now on you and not on your child)

TOG - thermal overall grade (refers to warmth of blankets/swaddles/sleepsacks)

VBAC - vaginal birth after c-section (part of the follow-up convo w/ the doctor about family planning and subsequent children)

WW / WT - wake window / wake time (the amount of time baby is awake during the day, changes with age and different for every child... also something you watch like a hawk and requires you to do "nap math" to make sure baby doesn't get over tired, but also something you might have to tinker with to make sure baby isn't under tired and can take those forever-desired long naps)

As evidenced by this list, most of these acronyms deal with sleep. Not surprisingly, when your babe is slow to get on the "learning how to sleep well" train you go down the rabbit hole of trying to figure out why and how to get him there ASAP cuz when baby doesn't sleep, neither do you. My sister-from-another-mother and I often ask each other "would you rather" questions as we navigate our babies' first years together (a blessing in and of itself to have another mom whose baby is a week apart from ours to do life with). One of those questions was "would you rather have a crappy sleeper or a crappy eater?" And we both agreed that we'd opt for crappy eater cuz at least if kiddo refuses to eat you can still eat to your heart's content. But when you have a crappy sleeper everyone suffers.

Apparently learning to sleep is a developmental milestone right up there with crawling and standing. And I've been assured by friends, a sleep-focused pediatrician (yes, there's such a thing and yes, I went to see her), and the internet, that babies do figure it out as some point. I'm happy to report after 10 months baby boy is starting to take longer naps (>45 minutes) and gets decent stretches of sleep at night unless he's dealing with new teeth, new skills, new sickness, or some other regression to keep us on our toes (spoiler alert: there's basically always something he's dealing with every other week 😵).

Now I'm fairly certain there are many more acronyms not on this list, and I'm even more certain that my motherhood vocabulary will continue to grow and expand as our not-so-tiny-anymore baby grows and develops. So for all my mama friends out there, let me know what I'm missing and what else I have to look forward to as I continue to be shaped into this new person known as "mama", sleep-deprived and all.