first postpartum AF? major nausea...

[LHcj2008]

I'd say for 3 full weeks now I've been feeling nausea on and off pretty much the entire day, every day w/o fail, along with feeling really hot and headache-y (it gets worse after I eat).  I've had some cramping and one day it was particularly noticeable but overall I just sort of feel...sick. I can't concentrate and am close to laying my head down at work on most days.

I am still breastfeeding my soon-to-be 10 month old but went back to work full-time recently so am pumping 2-3x a day at work and BFing after work and 2-3x during the night. I have not gotten my postpartum period yet.

Could this be my period returning? I never had major nausea like this during PMS and only felt this way when I was pregnant with DS.  I took a HPT one evening last weekend and it was negative. I don't necessarily have this undeniable instinct that I'm pregnant like I did when I actually was with DS, and it's more reasonable to conclude that my PP AF is coming back, but yet I feel so sick and weird that I am just wondering what is going on.

[Tear78]

I'm not really experienced with this, but it's possible to get preg without ever getting your 1st ppaf. That being said, your hormones could probably be changing and causing it too. I'd call your doc cause nausea stinks. Keep us posted!

[Jaimee]

I'm sorry you're feeling lousy.  It's completely possible that your hormones are fluctuating quite a bit as your fertility returns due to decreased nursing sessions and the fact that you're 10 months pp.  This is a very common time to have things start to gear back up again.  Are you tracking your fertility signs at all?  Like fertile cervical fluid?  Noticed any creamy or eggwhite in the last month or so?  As soon as I started noticing fertile CF again, I started to chart my temperature to see if I could catch that first pp O.  If my CF dried up for a couple of weeks and no spike, I would stop temping and start again with the next patch of fertile CF.  You could give that a try and see what you get!

It is also certainly possible to catch that first pp egg.  About 2/3 of women will ovulate prior to their first pp bleed, but only about 1/3 of women will have a long enough luteal phase to sustain a pregnancy.  If you do nothing to prevent pregnancy prior to your first pp bleed I think the statistic is about a 6% chance (breastfeeding is doing something).  So your chances of pregnancy are not high, but it is possible.  Three weeks of nausea, however, would indicate to me that implantation occured at least three weeks ago, which means you really should test positive on an HPT at this point.  Granted, there are some women that "fail" HPT's, but if you didn't have an issue testing positive with your first, it is unlikely you would have an issue with a subsequent pregnancy.  So a BFN at this point would say to me that you are almost certainly not pregnant and that something else is going on.  However, a check up with some blood work (including an hCG quant test) wouldn't hurt!

Keep us posted!

[LHcj2008]

Thank you so much for such a detailed response. It's been about a week now where I've had limited to no nausea, so I'm so much happier. I guess it was a fluctuation in hormones. I've also been breaking out a bit more than usual so I suppose things are just rearranging themselves, hormonally-speaking.

I've never informed myself on charting/natural family planning but am starting to really get into it and find it fascinating. However, I am unsure as to when to start charting since nothing seems regular with me yet. I have been getting a lot of CF but not the eggwhite, stretchy kind that I read about. More of the chunky, glue or rubber cement-like stuff (sorry...). But I should try to do what you said and start taking my temp. to see if I see a spike.

Oddly enough, I've really started to get a major itch for baby #2 these last few weeks (maybe because I felt so nauseous...might as well have been morning sickness). It doesn't seem like AF is going to kick in anytime soon though. It is almost as if it's trying to come but the BFing is still suppressing it. I guess it just isn't the right time.

[Jaimee]

Sounds like sticky mostly.  You're probably  not going to O with just sticky (though it has happened!).  I would wait and do what I suggested below...
 

Originally Posted by Jaimee 

As soon as I started noticing fertile CF again, I started to chart my temperature to see if I could catch that first pp O.  If my CF dried up for a couple of weeks and no spike, I would stop temping and start again with the next patch of fertile CF.  You could give that a try and see what you get!

If  you really want to get into it, though, you could splurge on the CBE fertility monitor and see what you get with that!

[heatherr30]

I got nausea a few months before my cycle resumed.  It only lasted 3 days but was very ms-like.  (ie eating made me feel better not worse.)  I'm convinced it was hormones.  I also never get nausea during a normal cycle. 

If you want to help things along, you could consider taking a vit B6 supplement which aids in fertility and regulating the menstrual cycle.  Thsi would be best taken alongside other B vits.  I take 40 mg along with a folic acid supplement.

[BaileyB]

I didn't take the time to read all of the other posts, but I had a lot of nausea when my PP AF was trying to come back. I think it lasted for a month or 2, maybe 3 I can't remember. I was really tired, I think I had some headaches, no cramping, but def nausea. And I got pregnant with my second baby 6 weeks after having my first so I was plenty paranoid about the nausea.

[BaileyB]

Originally Posted by LHcj2008 
It doesn't seem like AF is going to kick in anytime soon though. It is almost as if it's trying to come but the BFing is still suppressing it.

Yes! This is exactly what I felt like!

I wouldn't start charting until after you have regular periods, maybe 3 or 4 in a row, either with or without using birth control. In other words, maybe continue birth control, if you are using it, until you get 3 or 4 consecutive periods and then go off the birth control when you want to start learning your cycle.