birth control?

[blairinargentina]

is anyone else delving into this topic these days now that we have new babies around and "things" might be getting back to normal? i have my 6 wk checkup this week and i need to start thinking about what we really wanna do. we were huge fans of fertility awareness/family planning pre baby. but i just dont know how reliable I will be at sticking to the method with a little one.

Has anyone else done fertility awareness with with a newborn? i really don't wanna think about taking the pill but man, oh man, it's not time for another baby just yet!

anyone else trying to decide these things?

[myhoneyswife]

None for us, and we DTD <did the deed> (lol, I had to be on my back because of the blacking out still from blood loss) last night at 2-1/2 weeks PP. I told my DH that he got extremily lucky and he should brag on me for the rest of my life! I'm not eager to have another post partum period like this, hopefully it will be better next time, but we couldn't decide when we wanted another baby so we figured we leave it up to God to decide

I had no tears and just a bit of streatching, so that's why we were fine.

Cara

[crazyeight]

i will be getting the mirena IUD (most likely). i am so horrible in remembering to take pills and it will be even worse with a baby in tow and toddler into everything!

i am kinda curious to see what would happen if i didn't have a birth control and just used the occasional condom. i didn't have anything before dd after ds just condom's and i know my body got pregnant as soon as humanly possible without us trying nor "wanting" to get pregnant. i only had 3 periods before i got pregnant so i wasn't to worried about getting pregnant for the first YEAR after ds was born......but better safe than sorry. we aren't planning on another but i think that in 5ish years i MIGHT be able to convince dh to have another...maybe.

[noteworthy]

I had seriously considered a tubal ligation. In fact, was all signed up for it for after delivery, but then changed my mind. I am too hormonal right now to make any perm. decisions.
I just can't imagine closing the door yet on this part of my life, especially when holding her. (except when I think about how sick I was the first 16 weeks)
We did FAM for years, but I have never been able to figure out the whole breastfeeding thing. So, we use backup. Can't take the pill and skipping the IUD.
Lucky me, my period always returns at 8 weeks pp, no matter how much I bf. :

[blairinargentina]

When the period will return... that seems to be the big question. i would like to think that breastfeeding fulltime would give me a nice year or so of no-stress lovin' but we are not willing to risk it at the moment!

We thought about vasectomy but it just seemed too permanant (although i know it can be reversed).

The search continues...

[dvons]

DH is supposed to be looking for someone to do the big "V" I'm kind of sad about that but we did agree to only 3. Of course I wouldn't be heartbroken at all if he did what he typically does and put it off until it was "too late".

I had a Mirena IUD between 2 and 3 and loved it. If we were planning more that's what I'd do now.

Deb

[cafechi]

i don't think i'm going to use anything. i didn't use anything between my first and this one so probably not.

although dh did suggest the tube-tide until the next one but i don't know much about it.

[mojumi]

This is very much on my mind since we were using a diaphragm when this babe managed to be conceived anyway. So I'm not sure I want to go back to that method. We've talked about IUDs (paraguard since it is the one without hormones) but I'm concerned about ectopic pregnancy and also since I usually don't get my period for a year after a child is born b/c of breastfeeding, I don't know how I'd know something was going wrong with the IUD. (I guess you are supposed to monitor your periods for signs of trouble with an IUD ... but with no periods ... what would I monitor??)

I'm interested in the nuvaring (sp?) since it is just like the pill but without having to remember a daily pill. However I've heard nuvaring users, if prone to yeast infections already, do have them more often while using the ring. Plus, of course, it's still hormone based and I don't want to mess with breastfeeding ...

Anyway, for now it's LAM (Lactational Amenorrhea Method)) since I've been able to rely on that in the past.

[Mimi37]

i will be doing mirena IUD as well. excited to try it.

[time4another]

Originally Posted by dvons

DH is supposed to be looking for someone to do the big "V" I'm kind of sad about that but we did agree to only 3. Of course I wouldn't be heartbroken at all if he did what he typically does and put it off until it was "too late".

I had a Mirena IUD between 2 and 3 and loved it. If we were planning more that's what I'd do now.

Deb

Me too...

although DH wants to look into the big V in about a year and I don't want mirena for only a year (I had spotting for about 6m when I had mine placed). Though I really liked mirena...

I suppose for now I will probably do the POP (and pray that I can remember to take it on time every day).

Heather

[quinbearzmama]

My husband and I practiced FAM after DS was born and it worked great...Now, I should mention that my period didn't return until he was 17 months old and my ovulatory signs are really clear, which made FAM really easy for us. We're planning on doing the same this time around and as I now am tandem nursing, I'm expecting that I won't ovulate for quite some time. We are hoping to try for a 3rd in a year or so, so Mirena really isn't an option...and I can't stand taking the pill, so this is the best option for us.

[maciascl]

Originally Posted by blairinargentina

When the period will return... that seems to be the big question. i would like to think that breastfeeding fulltime would give me a nice year or so of no-stress lovin' but we are not willing to risk it at the moment!

The average is 14 months. However I know some women who get it back after 6-8 weeks & others who don't get it back until they stop nursing totally. Mine came back at 9 months & then was irregular, anywhere from 5-8 weeks inbetween.

I learned to listen to my body & watch for my signs of ovulation. It didn't take long for me to learn when I was ovulating. Often I could even feel it as it happened because it would hurt. This worked well for us & is also how we got pregnant both times on the first try. Obviously this won't work for everyone & I am very lucky that it worked so well to avoid & to get preg, but it is a starting place.

[nichole]

i think we will use a diaphragm or condoms until we decide if we are done or not. i didnt get my period back for 14 months last time but i'm tempted to use a pasci so we will see.

[ErinBird]

We'll be doing FAM again. I'm also practicing ecological breastfeeding cautiously.

[noteworthy]

What is ecological breastfeeding? Just wondering....

[AutumnMama]

Just a side note here: PLEASE be aware that a hormonal method of BC can mess with your milk supply!
I didn't think to question my OB/medwife when they put me on the patch when DD was little, and it drastically cut my supply.
She said that it wouldn't be an issue since my DD was over 6 months...her reasoning being that she wasn't 100% breastfed so apparently in her eyes it didn't matter if my supply was compromised :

So just a heads up, I wish I would've known back then!

As far as what we're doing for BC, so far nothing. Of course we've only DTD twice, and with my other two DC I didn't start cycling till 9 and 14 (I think..) months, so I'm not too worried about it yet.
I will be watching my fertility signals (I've done FAM previously), and we'll probably end up with a combination of FAM and condoms.

[liseux]

A lurker here, who also had a Sep baby ( in August)

Ecological breastfeeding is:
-nursing in an almost tribal way, totally on cue
-napping with baby every day
-sleeping next to baby & nursing all night
-no bottles or pacifiers
-delaying solids

Following alll of that, most people have 6 months of no fertility but can go up to 18 months or more.

[HomeBirthMommy]

We're doing some serious talk about the big "V" for dh. There is a big part of me that feels like 1 more would be perfect, but we don't have the space or the money, so I think 3 it is.
I had the Mirena IUD between 2 and 3 and would not get it again. I know it's a light dose of hormones, but it did awful stuff to me. I was moody, gained about 10 pounds and had HORRIBLE acne. I might consider the Paraguard, although the thought of heavier, painful periods is not fun. I think we'll just keep an eye on ovulation and use condoms as needed.

[littleteapot]

I was just going to do ecological breastfeeding again, but Xan sleeps for long stretches at night (3+ hours, sometimes as long as 5). So that's not going to work!!

Hormones and I don't mix, they just plain old don't work.
I've gotten pregnant on the pill, on Mirena and with a condom. FAM works, but only when I actually have some semblance of a 'regular' sleep cycle. Which I don't currently.

So I'm going to ask a doc about the copper IUD today. No hormones, so let's hope it works!