Generally, when is the period supposed to return?

[tykys]

Excuse my ignorance.. I only BF my first child until she was 7 months old, and got my period again shortly thereafter. My son is almost 11 months old and we are still going strong. Generally speaking, do most women not get their period until they stop nursing? What has your experience been? I don't miss it at all, don't get me wrong. Just wondering when it's going to rear it's ugly head!

[PatioGardener]

It depends on the woman and the child and how often they nurse, if they cosleep and nurse at night, etc., but many women here seen to get their period back at 14 months or so. Some will go much longer, and some, despite nursing on demand, cosleeping etc get it back at 2 months!

It's also important to remember that postpartum, most often a woman ovulates first and then (if not pregnant) gets her period. And they can be irregular at first.

http://www.breastfeed-essentials.com/menstruation.html
http://www.kathydettwyler.org/detfert.html

[mamazee]

I nursed on demand with both and I got it back at about 11 or 12 months with one and right away, like 6 weeks or there abouts, with the other. I think this is going to be different for every woman and with each child.

[4evermom]

I nursed ds CONSTANTLY and got mine back at 6 months. My mom was the same as me with her 7 nurslings. My sister tends to get hers back much later, maybe 18+ months.

[remijo]

Cosleeping, nursing on demand at 7 months here and no sign of AF yet...

[KristyDi]

There seems to be a huge range of normal plus a lot of variables.

For us, we nurse on demand, co-sleep and dd rejected all artificial nipples. My first pp period was at 15 months.

[ASusan]

28 mos post partum.

Still irregular (every 3 weeks for 10 days!!) at 34 mos. Guess I'm making up for missed periods.

[curious&eager]

I posted a poll once I here when I was disappointed the despite nursing 3-4 times a night plus all day, I got AF back at 8 months. But, after tons of people responded, I saw lots of people got it back way earlier than me and lots of people took forever, but I saw that 8-9 months was an average. Numbers were all over the place, so people bodies are very different.

[Nicole730]

I really don't think there is a normal.

With DS I nursed exclusively, on demand - about every 2 hours. My period returned at 3 months PP. With DD I nursed exclusively, on demand - about every 3 hours and my period returned at 7 weeks!! After it returns, I get very regular, fertile cycles.

[eclipse]

There really isn't a normal. I've known women who got their cycle back pretty much immediately, and others that last years without it. It took me 18 months the first two times and about 15 months with my youngest.

[T-man's Mama]

I was wondering the same thing. I haven't had mine yet at 17 months postpartum.