Still nursing 18mo old, painful first postpartum period

[Julybug]

Hi all -

(I hope I'm posting in the right place!)

I'm still nursing my 18.5mo old son a number of times per day (5-10+ times/24hrs, of varying durations).  I FINALLY just got my first postpartum period last night - since I'll be 35 this summer, we'd like to have another baby, but I have PCOS and we did IVF to have our son, I'm THRILLED to have at least my first postpartum period.  (I haven't been this excited about getting a period since my first one!)  I had started to think I wasn't going to even get a period until around my son's second birthday at this rate, and not without starting to at least reduce nursing frequency, so this is a great surprise.

Anyway, I was never the type to have lots of cramps with my period.  Right now, I'm finding that my pelvic floor is very achy, to the point of being painful at times (especially if I'm lifting my toddler).  I actually took a couple of ibuprofen.  This achiness/pain was a big problem before and after having my son (I had preterm contractions, and then had to have a manual removal of the placenta, which is about as much fun as it sounds like), but not since the first couple of months after having him.  It's not the stereotypical lower abdominal cramps common with your period - it's underneath, for lack of a better way to put it.  Has anyone else experienced this?  Is it something related to the issues I had around the birth, just because I'm having the first (heavy) postpartum period, or is it just another way that cramps can manifest themselves that I wasn't aware of before...?

Thanks for any thoughts on this!

[NEastMomma]

Hi Mama!
Congrats on your "first" period.  My son is also 18mos and I got my "first" period when he was 16mos - I was as excited as you!

I'm not sure about the location of the pain, etc.  Cramps rarely bothered me with my previous periods, but my first one post baby was a killer!  I had severe, severe cramping and just general achiness.  It was also frighteningly heavy.  I mean REALLY heavy.  Advil and heating pad when possible helped a little bit, but oh, the pain!

My midwife told me it was perfectly normal and nothing to worry about.  She also told me that just b/c I got my first period, don't bank on getting it regularly each month.  She said to give it time to regulate.  I have, however, got my 2nd and 3rd. 

Anyway, maybe a quick call to your dr will ease your mind.  Hang in there!