When did you get your period back after birth while breastfeeding

[curious&eager]

Day 1 of Aunt Flow at 8 months postpartum. I'm less than thrilled. I thought it would be longer off. How long was it before you got your period back?

[pacificbliss]

19 months when DS nightweaned. 8 Months? No fun, sorry.

[Bokonon]

I got it back at 4 months with DS. Yup, 4 months, exclusively breastfeeding, not STTN...and he was 8 weeks premature, so I didn't even have a full year without a period!

So far I'm at 10.5 months with DD and AF has yet to return. Me likey.

[MamaPhD]

I got my first period around 11 months. Then nothing! Just got the next one at 15 months. We are down to nursing 2-3x a day now. I never thought I would say this but I'm kinda excited since we are thinking about #2 soon!

[ein328]

6 months pp, practically to the day. I started pumping 2x a day when DD was 3 months because I WOTH.

[AllyRae]

Baby 1: 6 months
Baby 2: 4 months (the baby passed away, but I was nursing baby 1 still)
Baby 3: (adopted, so not breastfeeding)
Baby 4: 13 months

[woodchick]

With my first I didn't see AF until 20months post partum.

DD2 just had her first birthday and still no AF.

[Belle]

More than two years with Dd1. I got pregnant without having a period shortly after her second birthday. I miscarried that one and had three normal periods. Then I got pregnant with Dd2. I got my first PPAF at 18 months with her.

[mamazee]

#1 - 12 months
#2 - just a few weeks, like maybe 4 weeks. And she hadn't had a pacifier by that age, she slept with me and nursed at least sometimes at night (though she wasn't a bad sleeper, which might be why it came back so soon), and was breastfed 100% with no supplements.

There are no guarantees.

[AFWife]

I got mine at 6 months almost to the day. That was with no nightweaning (so I didn't even get the comfort of "at least I'm getting more sleep"), no cut backs during the day, and we didn't start solids yet.

[major_mama11]

#1- 9 mos
#2- 10 mos

Both times, it came back a few weeks after I picked up more hours away from them at work or school.

Makes me wonder how long af would stay away if I was able to be with them 24/7 even as they got older...

[honey-lilac]

2 weeks first time
9 months second time

[maptome]

DD is 8 months and not yet. AF is like a ticking time bomb...

[Teenytoona]

8.5 months, about a month or so after we started trying solids.

[KristyDi]

Got my first pp af at 15 months and at 24 months my cycle is really long. Like 40-45 days. Of course I had a long cycle before pregnancy too, just not this long (around 32 days).

[doubledutch]

ds1, woh ft, bf on lunch hour, night nursing but not cosleeping, lots of babywearing, and nursing on demand (2 bottles of expressed milk per day while i was working): 7 months.

ds2, woh ft, bf on lunch hour, cosleeping, less babywearing because he didn't love it, nursing on demand including cluster feeding in the evening because he wouldn't take a bottle: 14 months.

eta: it's interesting that many of the moms with more than one child had very different experiences from one child to the next.

[FreeRangeMama]

#1 - 17 mo
#2 - 8 mo
#3 - 17 mo
#4 - 16 mo


For me the biggest deciding factor is night nursing. The only time my cycle came back early was with the baby who slept through the night from birth. My cycle came back as soon as my older nursling stopped nursing at night (I was tandem nursing). The other 3 times it came back rather predictable in the 16-17 month range.

[iamme]

I got mine back 12 weeks to the day with both kids. Very, very weird as I bf them till they were just past their 4yo BDs. Pure bm only till 12 months-no pacifier, coslept, the whole shebang.

[akind1]

I said before 3 months, but really, not sure - had a light bleed at exactly 6 weeks PP and another 4 weeks after that. nothing like my pre-pregnancy AF's. and have had nothing since. I was nearly exclusively pumping for the first 7 weeks because I was engorged (and only lately realized the pumping probably did not help that too much!) and since I went back to work (WOH 2 days a week, WAH 3 days) at 7 weeks, he always nurses, only gets expressed milk on days I am in the office. I don't know since he is nursing more, and I am pumping less, if that has thrown a switch, or what? we are now 16 weeks PP. and have had nothing since 10 weeks (and that was light and lasted like a day and a half) don't know if that even counts as AF

So, AF is back, maybe, sort of, kinda in a way

[moondiapers]

With the first 2, at 6 weeks pp. This time I started the minipill at 2 weeks pp to aviod it. It's been 7 weeks and so far so good.