BF 12 month old still no ovulation:(

[eva0897]

Hi Ladies!
I have a 12 month old DS and I am breastfeeding and still no period. My husband and I would like to start trying for #2, but it doesn't look like I'll be fertile for a while We co-sleep and DS nurses quite a bit throughout the night. Not full nursing sessions, but suckling on and off for comfort. I know that it is unlikely my period will return if I don't night wean, but I feel bad and I don't think my son is ready for that yet. I work full-time and I cut my pumping down to only once while at work, but it doesn't seem to have helped. Is there anyone else who is/was in the same boat as me and can offer any advice? Anything I can do to help fertility, without weaning? I would really wish to tandem nurse in the future. Thank you so much!

[hollytheteacher]

i didn't get my first period back until ds was 15 months...although i am not sure i was fertile right away....I have been ttc number 2 for 3 months now with no luck but i am pretty sure i am ovulating now (according to ff i am).

Your baby is only 12 months are you sure you want to ttc now? (haha i mean that as a joke) I just know i'm glad i've waited til now (ds is 2.5 years) because man that second year is tough and i'm not sure i could have been preggo and dealing with all that!

I'm sure you'll get your cycle back soon. I think most ppl get it back by 18 months (but it can be longer for others).

[karmab]

i have 4 kids, including a set of twins. after each, i got my first ppaf within a week of their first birthdays. then i had only maybe 2 afs between then and when they were weaned (22, 20, 17, and 19 mths,) except that, i did get pg (not on purpose) with #4 when #3 was 15 mths old. so i was probably ovulating about every 3-5 months while bf'ing.

[jenger]

I didn't get my ppaf until my daughter was 15 months. Believe it or not, she was still nursing at night... It wasn't a night-weening thing for us, just a general nursing slow down that coincided with eating more food...

My periods went quickly back on track - were regular in a couple of months upon starting...

Give it a little time, no need to force weening. Your cycle WILL start again!

[karmab]

adding this too. #3 and #4 are 2 years and 5 days apart in age. a few years back, i did my family genealogy. it was fascinating to see that almost without exception, looking at data going back from about 40 families in the family tree, in the old days, kids were, much more often than not, born 2 or 2/12 years apart. these are moms who had to be ebf'ing (there really wasnt any other practical option) and obviously had no birth control! i think it says that if you do nothing but dtd when you want to, and bf as desired, the sort of spacing that mother nature is inclined to provide is somewhere pretty close to the 2 year range. good luck!

[karmab]

ok, one more thing.... this is it, really...

i would have tandem nursed too, but for me, it wasnt happening. my first symptom of pg w #4 was (because i had only had 1 af, 3 mths before) fainting. i was fainting all over the place. that's how i figured out i was pg. i know a lot of women can pull it off, but for me, bf'ing and being pg was so draining on my body, i was a wreck. #3 was the only 1 i actually weaned myself, instead of letting the baby chose weaning, cuz i just couldnt do it. not that that means you wont, or really has anything to do with your situation, i guess, just throwing that out there for apparently no reason.

[YvonneC-M]

I'm BFing my 11-month-old DD, pump twice a day at work, and have pretty much night weaned (8-hour stretches of no nursing), and still no AF. We're also TTC baby #2. From what I understand, 14.5 months of no fertility is the average.

[enigo]

Originally Posted by hollytheteacher

Your baby is only 12 months are you sure you want to ttc now? (haha i mean that as a joke) I just know i'm glad i've waited til now (ds is 2.5 years) because man that second year is tough and i'm not sure i could have been preggo and dealing with all that!

Funny, I thought the same thing about DS when my getting pregnant on my timeline didn't work out. I thought man, that would have been rough to go through the 2's pregnant. Then he turned 3..Hooooooboy!

[zepchic]

Just because you are not getting a period doesn't mean you are not fertile. I bf'd ds for 27months and didn't have a period. I got pregnant sometime in September '09 (estimate) and stopped bfing in February '10-only after I found out that I was pregnant. Good luck to you ttc! *babydust*

[splath]

I didn't get my period until dd was 16 months old, about a month after we night weaned. It took us roughly 9 months of trying in order to get pregnant with this next one, so I really don't think I was ovulating for the first few months even after I got AF.

[beckyand3littlemonsters]

My ds caden is still bf at night and my periods returned when he was 13 months and also when i fell pregnant with my ds cameron, dd. caitlin, my 2nd angel baby and ds caden i was still bf my then youngest. so you could well ovulate very soon without having to night wean