Nursing Mamas TTC - Page 2

[stafl]

Hi Ladies! I've been gone a while, but I'm back now.
DD will be two next month, still nurses 3-4 times a day, some days much more, depending.
I got first AF at 15 months. First two cycles were anov (I am charting according to TCOYF rules).
Doc thinks I am getting fertilized, but don't have enough progesterone to sustain a pregnancy. I haven't decided whether to get bloodwork done or not, as I'm terrified of ever messing with my hormones again.
My LP has stabilized at 13 days, but doc said that you can have low prog without LPD (luteal phase defect) and that you can have LPD without low prog. he also said I might just have to wean completely before I can get pregnant, even though I am ovulating and all...
Any of you can have my AF when she's supposed to come (sometime in the next week, if I'm not pregnant)!

[chrissy]

Well I am just totally depressed today. I was really thinking I might be pregnant or that at the very least I had o'ed and would get my dang period. But no. Yesterday my temp spiked up so that threw out the period theory. I was so excited and took a test (it would've been 12 dpo) and got a BFN. Today my temp is back down so that throws out the pregnancy theory.

So basically I am just still totally infertile.

I am starting to really consider nightweaning. If I am honest with myself though the main reason I would consider it would be to get my fertility back. The uninterrupted sleep would just be a nice side benefit. I really don't think Noah is ready, even though he is just about 16 months old.

I just wish I didn't want to be pregnant now. I am totally obsessing about this and it sucks.



Stafl, how depressing that your doc said you might have to totally wean to get and stay pregnant.

I will come back when I have something cheery to say. Sorry for the total downer post.

[stafl]

Don't give up yet, Chrissy! Temps can do weird things in a pregnancy chart... I've seen so many of my buddies at ovusoft think AF was on her way when they got their BFPs!!!! As long as you are above coverline (one day below cl doesn't mean anything unless AF shows up) there's still hope! ((((HUGS))))

[chrissy]

Thank you for the encouragement Stafl. Unfortunately I really don't have any hope. I just started charting a week ago (before my possible O date) so I have no idea if I did even O. Does that make sense? I still haven't had a ppaf even though I have been having lots of hormonal stuff going on for over 4 months now.

I am in such a self-pitying place right now. I promise I will cheer up though and be back to support you guys.

[Oceanone]

Good luck everyone. Chrissy! Don't lose hope. Today is CD 5 for me, and at least a couple of weeks before I O, which I think I am. 19 month old babe is sick this week and has been nursing, nursing, nursing. I am so glad to be able to offer him this comfort. I wonder though if it could throw things out a bit. Sometimes does. I should be wise enough not to, but I find I am pinning a lot of hopes on this month....

[citizenfong]

Update

Nothing major to report here, but a theory to float.

First, I am getting a little EWCM for the second time pp, so things are finally revving up, at least a little.

Ds has a cold, but assuming he's better by the end of the week we are going to start trying nightweaning on Friday night. I'm nervous but a little excited, too.

Here's my theory: my playgroup mamas and I have finally been able to begin a workout schedule this week. I'm wondering if that will have a positive effect on getting fertility to return. I mean, I know it won't have a negative effect, but after all this time I wonder if an increase in my activity level won't jump start my system a bit. The other idea floating around in my head that maybe increasing the amount of sex you have could have a positive effect. I mean, all those prostaglandins that soften up the cervix before delivery? I wonder if it couldn't have a similar effect? Just a thought. I'm sure no one really knows.

BTW, Claire--My sweet Aidan was born on his Daddy's birthday too! Isn't it neat? I've secretly fantisized that I'll have a girl on my birthday next time.

Tracy

[Beth-TX]

So sorry about the BFN, Chrissy. I keep checking back here to see if anyone if pg...

I'd like to offer some encouragement if you're still considering nightweaning. I don't personally know your baby, but I think now would be a good age to nightwean.

I just nightweaned my 2yo about a week ago. She's doing great (the extra sleep is wonderful) and it wasn't that hard, but I often thought that it would have been easier if we had nighweaned before she could talk. Somehow, crying seems to be easier to tolerate than your poor baby saying over and over again, "nurse! nurse! please? please? please? ok? ok?" etc. It is just beyond pathetic .

Anyway, just my $.02. Good luck everyone! I'm still making daily deliveries of baby dust to you ladies!

peace, Beth

[jenniferB]

chrissy, i was there yesterday too. i was so depressed and had the thought to test again, thinking that a positive would lift my spirits. (don't laugh) fortunately i distracted my self by picking up dd and going to the park. (i hear you on the exercising, tracy!)

this morning i noticed some spotting. it's been 35 days since my last spotting episode and (let me count) 4 months since my last af. i started day weaning my 18 month old 2 weeks ago hoping that might jump start things.

beth, i'm glad you came to visit us. i agree with you about the weaning. i decided to wean during the day because i thought it would be easier. she was wanting to nurse almost ever 15 minutes. it was like an uncontrollable nervous tick. however, since i started holding back something wonderful has started to happen. when she comes over to me (still every 15 minutes) instead of going straight to tugging on my shirt, she looks at me. *looks at me*!!! sometimes she even says hi, or sits in my lap, or gives me hug, or points to my nose, or even kisses me.

anyway... now starts my obsession with looking at my underwear every hour to see what's happening with the spotting this time, lol...

~jen

[Beth-TX]

jen

that's so sweet about your dd! A friend of mine, who weaned both kids at 2 1/2 said they always got cuddlier after they quit nursing. I love that I can just rub my dd's back now in the middle of the night and help her get back to sleep.



You all are in my thoughts all the time!

peace, Beth

[chrissy]

I am in much better spirits today. Thank you all for your support. It means a lot to know I'm not the only person in the world going through this confusion.

I decided to give the nightweaning a go. Beth, your story about your sweet dd made me so sad but also hopeful that it could work out. Can you give me some details of how you did it and how long it took? It sounds like it took less than a week. That would be awesome!

We decided that dh would sleep next to Noah and try to deal with the wanting to nurse wake ups. Turned out this was a mistake for us. Noah had his last nursing around 7:45 and was asleep by 8. I went to bed around 9:30 and he was sleeping soundly so I didn't nurse him. Dh came in to sleep at some point and slept next to Noah. Around 11:00 N woke up and wanted to nurse, dh tried to comfort him. He was pissed!! So after about 10 minutes and no calming down at all, I took over and tried to soothe him without nursing him. It took about an hour to get him back to sleep. It was very sad but not awful. He seemed more mad at me than sad, so that kind of helped. He woke up a few more times during the night and each time it took me just a few minutes (10 max) of gently patting his back and saying "shhhh" for him to get back to sleep. Really it was much easier than I thought. We'll see how tonight goes.

Jen, I too am obsessed with the contents of my underwear!

Citizenfong, I like your theory about sex and exercise. I hope it works here b/c I'll be getting a lot more exercise now that spring is here and a lot more sex now that we aren't using condoms!

Oceanone, I agree that nursing is such a wonderful help when babe is sick or sad. I know I will be so sad when it is gone for good- hope it won't be for a while yet though. Let us know when you O so we can all stress over the 2ww with you!

Hey Stafl, So what is your plan of action? Are you going to see a specialist or continue with your regular OB/GYN? I hope this is your month and you don't have to do either though!

Sorry for the epic,

[stafl]

Well, you asked! If I go see a specialist it will be my surgeon for another lap. See, I have endo... it was really really severe before my last surgery (Nov. 1999), but he took most of it out and I had been feeling so much better... and no endo symptoms at all when I was preg with DD... then I had to have an emergency c-section ( can you hear the scary music in the background?) so now I think I have adhesions from the c/s as well as signs that the endo is coming back and getting worse each month.

Okay, skip to the end of February (just a few weeks ago). I had my annual pap and my ob says he thinks progesterone suppositories might help me sustain a pregnancy. He wants me to keep ttc a few more months, at least, before calling my surgeon to talk about another lap (since pregnancy was such a good endo treatment for me). But I'm scared of messing with my hormones because of really bad side effects from every hormone med I've ever taken. And since I was out of town and don't know when I ovulated this cycle, I have until next cycle to get my blood drawn - he wants me to come in at 3dpo.

So to answer your question - I don't know, haven't made up my mind yet. But I don't really want medical help getting pregnant, even if that means I won't ever have another baby. I'm kind of leaning towards trying some prog cream instead, if I do anything. Temp today looks promising, though!
http://www.FertilityFriend.com/home/18347/

[Spark]

Stafl, yeah, those temps look really good. In TCOYF, I think it says that high temps for 10 days w/o period after O is sure sign of pregnancy. i think that is. I need to get a new copy. When I got pregnant with Jude at day 6 or 7 post O my temps starting rising from their already high levels (triphasic). I did have to toss out one lower temp from that third tier, but it was defininately there. hmmm, I wonder if tomorrow will bring you another high temp. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you (and my toes, too).

Tracy, that's wild that your Aidan is born on his father's Birthday, too. It's so strange and wonderful. This past year was Jude's first Birthday and we had so much fun with two cakes. What month were you born? Dec? If so, now's the month to concieve that little girl! My Birthday is in February. I must admit, i've thought having a babe on my own Birthday would be cool, too.

I had some light spotting the last couple days from the IUD removal and temps are still holding on right around 97.7. Chrissy, i haven't been temping too long this time. But, keep posting what happens with your charts & I'll keep posting what's going on with mine. I hope you get some positive looking signs soon. I wrote before that my interpretation of these is that it's not anovulatory. Maybe, I'm wrong. I think it's just our bodies revving up for the big O. What makes you think it annovulatory? I thought that was when the temps went up and down sporadically with no rhyme or reason -- 97, 99, 96.8, 98, 99, 96.9, 97.9, etc, etc.

Night weaning with my 15 mo seems next to impossible. I nurse him to sleep on a twin mattress on the floor and then head over to my bed (husband works late into the night and Jude wakes up A LOT when he's right next to me). Then after going to bed around 12:00, he'll wake up at 4 and then come to our bed. I nurse him probably 4 times or so until he gets up at 9 or 10. We've tried limiting nursing at night & just didn't take. Any pointers? Beth, I'm curiuos what you did, too.

Happy BDing

[citizenfong]

Actually, I think it's 16-18 days of high temps that indicate pregnancy. You may be thinking 10 days because you need a luteal phase of at least 10 days to sustain a pregnancy. I think! It's been a while since I've studied the info, too.

Claire, MY birthday is in Feb. too! It's the 26th, when's yours? We still have time to hit that mark...

About nightweaning--
One thing I had planned to do originally was to have ds sleep on the far side of dh and let him be comforted by Dad when he awoke at night. Also I'd heard that keeping covered up at night would reduce temptation to nurse during the weaning process. But when Aidan was sick for those four days in Jan and couldn't nurse, he would ask to nurse, I'd get it out, and he'd lay his head right against my breast and fall immediately asleep. So I don't plan to try to limit his access to my body--just to limit the nursing. And now you guys can see what started me thinking he might be open to trying nightweaning in the first place!
I'll let y'all know how it works next week.

Tracy

[stafl]

Tracy - My birthday is Feb 26th, too!!! And my name rhymes with yours (Stacy)

Sparklin might be talking about triphasic charts, but it's not that unusual for my temps to stay high until the day after AF shows. And yeah, it's 18 days past o that means preg... or a cyst

Since I'm not real sure when I o'd, I'm going with the latest it could have possibly been. With my lp at 13 days, I'm going to try not to POAS until the morning of 15dpo...one more week to go!

[Beth-TX]

Chrissy

Your method of nightweaning sounds very similar to ours. We had originally planned on having Dad do the comforting, but it didn't work. Dd was used to me comforting her in the night. She slept between us (still does) and whenever she woke up, I'd pat her back or sometimes lay her on my chest and rub her back and legs until she went back to sleep. As long as she stayed laying down, we stayed in bed with her. If she crawled out of bed, dh would get up with her and walk or take her for a car ride. Or, if she wasn't crying, we'd just shut the bedroom door (our bedroom is baby proofed) and let her crawl up and down off the bed until she layed down and went back to sleep on her own. The first 2-3 nights, she would sometimes stay awake for 1-2 hours per episode (those were some l-o-n-g nights) but after that she gradually learned to get herself back to sleep. Now, if she wakes, it's usually just for a few seconds. If we make any kind of body contact, she goes right back to sleep again.

It took a total of about 10 days for her to be totally nightweaned. It was hard (harder on us, I think. She always seemed well rested in the morning despite how much she had cried the previous night) but I feel like the way we did it was the right way, for us anyway.

Ok, so that was *way* off topic. I hope it was helpful to some of you though. Take care, all.

peace, Beth

[citizenfong]

Stafl--cool! Happy (2 weeks after your) birthday

My sister's name is Stephanie. Put them together <Stephanie and Tracy> and you get Stacy--I've been called that mistakenly all my life!

Also. what is POAS? I'm usually pretty good at figuring out acronyms I haven't come across before, but I can't figure out that one. Perhaps because it's after midnight?

Tracy

[stafl]

OOPS! Sorry bout that!
POAS = Pee On A Stick (take a hpt)

And I've been mistakenly called Tracy and Stephanie all my life! So are we sisters of some sort, with different parents, or what? You know who else has our birthday? Johnny Cash!

Wish I had some input on the nightweaning, but DD did that on her own quite some time ago... leaving me engorged and with plugged ducts! So let that be a warning to you all not to push it too fast!

[Spark]

Yes, I really have to get another copy of TCOYF. I miss it. It's just too hard to remember when I changed Jude's diaper last AND all the rules. I remember a lot of the basics, but not all the details. Alright, i'm off to Border's tonight.

Tracy and Stacy -- my Birthday is 10 days before yours. I was born Feb 16. I can't believe you're both on the same day. So, Tracy, even if you don't get a dd born on your Birthday, you get Stacy. I still think you're husband has a cooler claim though. Let's see -- Feb 26 baby for you two would be June 5 to concieve and my conception date would be May 26. Alright, so let's see if we can command our bodies!!! ;-) That would be very cool, but I know we'll take whatever we're supposed to have!

As far as night weaning goes -- I just don't think I'm ready for it. I don't think Jude is either. He still does not eat too much solid food & nurses quite often. I know that cutting back on night nursing might bring my period back, but I'm just not quite willing to give that part of parenting up. I want my cake (fertility) and eat it too (nurse like a fanatatic). I guess, we'll give TTC a try for a while & if we think we need to do something different, then I'll think of night weaning.

[Oceanone]

Ok, you guys, this is a nursing & O question for you. Since nursing my o times have been all over the place, but this seems weird. Babe and I have been so sick, and he has been nursing constantly, at least every two hours around the clock for 4 days. Like when he was a newborn.

I thought for sure this would delay my O right?

Well, this morning I wake up on CD 7 and find (sorry if too graphic) lots of yellow ew mucus. Cervix is low too. Could I be o'ing extra early? Could this be the nursing? Does anyone else get this just as their period ends? I know I don't usually. I would be crazy not to take this seriously and not bd tonight come what may, right?

I'm so confused. Exhausted from being sick and nursing. What is going on with me? :

[AnnR33]

I think you could be starting O early due to hormonal changes from increased BF and maybe from being sick. I know after I m/c a few yrs ago I ovulated very quick after AF-this really messed me up thinking I would O on day 15 and it was only day 8. Then I went back to normal-maybe it was from stress, hormones-who knows.
So in short, either you're ovulating early or maybe it could be a yeast infection or something?? You never know when you get sick.
Good luck,
Ann