Nursing and Fertility

[MyKidKissTrees]

Hey All!  First time I have ever been on the TTC side of things!  Even though this will be #3. hehe 0:)

Anywho, we have a 15 month old and are ready to add #3 sometime next year.  But our son is still nursing pretty much full time!  

I haven't gotten AF back yet and I'm just wondering how soon after baby did AF return for any other moms who were still nursing?

Is there a point where it just comes back?  Or could this lack of flow continue as long as my sons nursing addiction continues?

Wasn't sure if I should post this under BFing or TTC, so I thought I'd start here :)

Thanks Ladies!!!

[aHikaru]

I didn't start AF until DD weaned at 18 months 

[Chloe'sMama]

I just got firtlst pp af at17 months with dd2 and i got it at 13 months with dd1. Come join us in the nursing mamas ttc.

[mio2323]

I did not get my first post-partum period, until I got my son down to 1 time a day, maybe 5x a week.  He was 27 months old. 

We are trying for #3 too!  My first 2 I was pregnant on the first try, so this having to work hard at it is a whole different experience.  It makes me appreciate how easily it happened the first 2 times!

Good luck!!!

[eistrach]

My DS was 30 months when I night weaned him. AF came back a month later.

[nstewart]

I think it depends on how sensitive your body is to those nursing hormones...as you can probably tell from the variety of answers to your question!  My uncle's girlfriend (same age as me, 30) got her first PP AF 4 months PP even though she was exclusively BFing.  Now, I don't know if she used a pacifier or not, or if my cousin was sleeping through the night early on or not...that matters for some I think.

I had AF return 15 months PP, after I'd been back working full time 2 months.  DS was still nursing probably 4 times per day (bed time, and about 3x or so through the night and sometimes once extra on work days when I got home from work) and a couple more times than that on weekends.  So he went about 7:30am-6pm without mamma milk bare minimum, and that seemed to get AF going for me.

[MommyKlein]

I've had AF return anywhere from 13-15 months.  Still waiting this time around and DD will be 14 months on the 10th of this month.  I think my body tried to O well over a week ago. Been feeling crampy and nauseated but w/o AF its hard to tell since my temps are not stable while nursing at night.

[carmen358]

My AF started at 13 months. My cycles were fairly regular right away but I had a short luteal phase for the first 2 or 3 cycles. DD was still nursing a lot (through the night too!).

[MyKidKissTrees]

Wow!  That's quite a variation!!  Thanks for all the responses!  I just heard from another mom I know that her AF didn't come back until her first was 3 and had totally weaned!  I feel like that could totally be us.  Certainly no sign of it as of yet.  He still nurses to sleep at 9pm, then again at midnight and kind of off and on forever after that (drives me nuts as I use to be a belly sleeper).  And then during the day about every two hours.  Basically nothing has changed since he was about 6 months old.  Must be natures way of telling me DS isn't ready to share his mommy just yet.  I'll have to trust his judgement. ;)  So official TTC will be on wait and we will just continue to not try not to until I see a dip in his nursing frequency!  Thanks again ladies for all the feedback!!

[katelove]

Originally Posted by nstewart 

I think it depends on how sensitive your body is to those nursing hormones...as you can probably tell from the variety of answers to your question!  My uncle's girlfriend (same age as me, 30) got her first PP AF 4 months PP even though she was exclusively BFing.  Now, I don't know if she used a pacifier or not, or if my cousin was sleeping through the night early on or not...that matters for some I think/p>

Mine started again at 3 months. My LO was EBF, never had a dummy and was *definitely* not sleeping through the night.

[etsdtm99]

Average is said to be 14 months  - Mine came back at 6.5, 10, and 4 months  - average that out with some of these 30 month ladies and i guess thats where the average comes from! lol   The longer it takes for your fertility to return the more likley you will be able to get pregnant sooner... i've really experienced that this time with the 4 mo return of AF, its been over a year since i started cycling and i still don't have my 'normal' cycle back, i still ovulate late (day 20-30) and have a short LP (7-8ish days)  My DD is almost 19 mo and she nurses several times a day/night..  when my 1st was little, i tried and tried to get pregnant as soon as AF returned and my cycles had to get 'normal' before it happened..  As soon as i had a 10-11 day LP and ovulated in the 16-18 day range, i got pregnant. (that took a year, and one miscarriage to end up with normal cycles - cutting back on nursing didn't really help, or it took months to help either way. )

[jj1107]

Mine came back at 12 months pp (on my DD's birthday!), I was nursing 4x/day but had cut out one overnight feeding about 6 weeks prior.  My first cycle was long (41 days) but after that they returned to what they had been prior to getting pregnant. 

[TiredX2]

As you can tell, there is a huge variation from woman to woman and even from nursling to nursling.

From what I have read, the average age for return of AF for breastfeeding women who schedule is around 8-10 months and for women who ecologically breastfeed the average is 14 months.  Of course, since there are women who get AF back under 2 months, there are a lot of women who go two years or more.

For the same woman, there seems to be a few variables.  One is weight: in general, a woman at an optimal body weight (not too heavy or light) will get it back earlier than either extreme.  Age is also a factor--- women generally get AF back *later* with each subsequent pregnancy and nursling.

Personally, I got AF back with DD right before she turned one year.  She was still nursing day and night.  My periods were very irregular (from 21-42 days in the next year) and we got pg with DS right before she turned two.

With DS, I got my period back when he was 25 months.  I was lighter than with DD (a much healthier weight) and was definately not nursing more than I had been with her (though he was still nursing day and night at that point).

I wish it was easier to predict, but it really seems fairly random a lot of the time!

[Monday]

Oops I didn't see this thread, I just asked pretty much the same question..

My DS is 15 months and he has been nightweaned for 3-4 weeks, I THINK i ovulated last weekend so will find out in a week or two when I either have a period or a BFP..  Nightweaning made a huge difference from the beginning, I suddenly had a lot more cm and lots of surges on my opk's, and I felt very hormonal.

We nightweaned specifically to ttc #2 and I as soon as I am pregnant I will be nightnursing again.  During day times he feeds anything from 2x to 6x (mainly during the evenings but always first thing in the morning and bedtime.

Now I'm stressing about luteal phase defect  due to not letting my cycles commence in their own time.

M x