NTNP age gaps?

[WifeofAnt]

Just curious.  I know the approximate times when fertility can return but not everyone is going to get pregnant the first time they ovulate.

(Sorry if this is in the wrong area!)

[jodi5]

My kids are all over 4 years apart but we basically used a form of NFP in between them but my cycles returned at 11 months post partum for my first 2 and 14 months postpartum with my third so likely with the first 2 pregnancy would have been possible at 12-15 months and 15-18 months this time round.  I think if I would not have gone back to work when I did, I could have been longer than 14 months this time round as he has been very attached. My cycle returned shortly after I stopped pumping.  I had been back at work 3 months. 

[mt_gooseberry]

I DID get pregnant the first time I ovulated pp!  It was around 10mo, and I hadn't got AF back yet. 

[dejagerw]

DS1 was 18 months when I got pregnant. If I remember correctly, it was my 3rd or 4th cycle pp and we were trying.

[Jaimee]

Two oops pregnancies here... one at 27 months postpartum and one at 14 months postpartum.  I personally believe that when women conceive again is influenced by the children she already has.  I think that the gap between kids tends to increase if the first is high needs/spirited and decreases when the child his more mellow.  But that is purely anecdotal!

[JMJ]

I don't really qualify since we were preventing and then trying, but my first fertile ovulation was when my daughter was about 25.5 months old and then conceived the next cycle with ovulation when she was a few days shy of 27 months.  I can't say what it would have been if we were NTNP, but it would have been very unlikely before 25.5 months, probably pretty likely then if we hadn't been preventing because I remember it taking a lot of self control to abstain then, and certainly possible at 27 months if timing was good.  My children's conceptions were 6 days less than 3 years apart and would have been just over 34 months apart if I had conceived one cycle earlier.

I'm not sure what you count as not preventing, though.  We used ecological breastfeeding as a mothering style, knowing that it also provides a natural child spacing effect.  I'm a little bit of an outlier for an American woman using ecological breastfeeding.  Most women using ecological breastfeeding will experience 1.5-2.5 year spacing.

[WifeofAnt]

Originally Posted by JMJ 

I'm not sure what you count as not preventing, though.  We used ecological breastfeeding as a mothering style, knowing that it also provides a natural child spacing effect.  I'm a little bit of an outlier for an American woman using ecological breastfeeding.  Most women using ecological breastfeeding will experience 1.5-2.5 year spacing.

Well, doubting your sole reason for ecological breastfeeding was for pregnancy prevention, I don't count it as actively preventing.  Its just a side effect of a lifestyle.

[JMJ]

Well, I have been accused of using my baby as birth control before for promoting ecological breastfeeding.... but you're right, it's more attractive as a mothering style, regardless of how much birth spacing it gives, and I haven't given up the mothering style (for the most part, nursing isn't quite unrestricted at this point) even now that I'm pregnant.  It just seems to be what my daughter needs.

[Monkey Keeper]

With DD1, I WOH part-time and pumped and she STTN very early and consistently. My fertility returned at 6m pp, and we got pregnant again at 9m pp. We were neither trying nor preventing.  DD2 was high needs and did not nightwean until 15m. With her, though I still WOH and pumped, my fertility did not return until 10.5m pp, and we loosely prevented until she was 19m when we started trying for #3. I am currently 11m pp with #3, and we are NTNP. I no longer WOH, and I am still waiting for my fertility to return. 

I think there are so many variables including lifestyle but also the individual baby's temperament and habits.