Bummed - need some good words - period returned

[aumismommy]

Hey mamas - I knew it would return sooner or later...but after we recently (a week ago) decided that co-sleeping was no longer working for DS (he would wake up all hours of the night, nurse for minutes, then sleep, then scream, then repeat all night) we put him in his own crib for all sleeping...and then 5 days after that I had an excruciating pain in my abdomen (I told DH I wasn't sure whether it was major gas or ovulation) and now I have what looks like the beginning of a bleed.  I am soooo bummed about all of this.

Has anybody had anything similar?  I just need to hear something good.

[Zangua]

Mine returned the minute my babe started eating more solids in the day.... when she was 8 months (she's 9 months now). It was depressing as I was hoping to go for a full year.... at the end of the day though its a reminder that you are healthy and fertile and that your son is thriving, thus, he can nurse less at night and free you up to have another babe ;)

[MJB]

Mine came back at 3, 7, and 2 months respectively. I was tandem nursing a 3.5 yr. old and a baby the time that I got 7 months. I was not pleased. The good news about being so fertile is I have never had problems with my sex drive postpartum. 

[BathrobeGoddess]

Moved to fertility...

[staceychev]

Um, my older DD coslept and night-nursed for 3 years (nursed until 4, actually). DD2 is currently 9 months and still night nursing frequently. My period returned at 7 weeks with the first and 10 weeks with the second. I think the co-sleeping thing might be coincidence. Sorry!

[dmpmercury]

I always got mine back after I wanted them. You will have to be careful about birth control if you want to prevent but it not so bad. If you eventually want to ttc again at least you know you will be able to. I actually don't mind getting it because my sex drive returns when I get my period.

[kismetbaby]

Not sure if this helps, but I am in the boat of envying you. My DS is 15m and no return of my cycles yet.  I'm trying to enjoy it, but as previous posters mentioned, my libido is definitely affected for the worse and we can't TTC again yet (well, we can try, but we won't get anywhere!). It makes me kind of nervous about my fertility and its been hard on DH my having no libido for so long.

[2Peaches]

I got mine back at 5 months pp with DD2, exclusively breastfeeding.  I was bummed about it, but I bought a bunch of Lunapads and the Lunapanties as a "Return to Menarche" gift for myself and that helped to ease the pain, lol.  Seriously though, I had no idea how uncomfortable the disposable pads were until I tried mama cloth.... :)

[MammaG]

Saw this from the main page and just had to reply!

Baby #1 nursed on demand round the clock for about the first year and then tapered off a bit. Did give him a paci. Period back at 6 weeks.

Baby #2 I'd discovered fertility awareness, nursed on demand, no paci, no pumping/bottles, tandem nursing a 17mo plus newborn (for 2.5 years). Period back at 6 weeks.

Baby #3. Absolutely fanatical about ecological breastfeeding. Fanatical, I say. Period back at 6 weeks.

I do know that even though I was getting a period pretty regularly, I was only fertile for about half those cycles, so it's worth it to chart and see what is going on with you, but of course we had to be careful. The downside of that is that I had the period, but not the libido. About one year pp, I seem to regulate and get fertile monthly, and then the libido returns.

I don't think you can simply blame the co-sleep thing. Each of our kids co-slept for about 5 years and night nursed to some degree for several years. Baby #3 is 14 mos and nursing like a newborn...every hour or so daytime and 6 times on average at night. Growing like crazy, but I seem to be fertile monthly despite needing nursing pads again.....ugh. Everyone is different. Just chart and observe, and if you are blessed with the libido thing as well, enjoy that....silver linings, right?
Edited by MammaG - 1/12/11 at 6:33pm