Still nursing and starting to TTC asap... Beginner info needed PLEASE!

[lilgreen]

Been browsing this section and I'm confused about what I should be doing to promote my fertility. DS was a 'pleasant surprise' so I'm new to this whole ttc stuff.

My background: DS is 33mos old and still nurses regularly. He's in daycare now full days (just started last week) so he's pretty much just a night nurser now. He nurses lots at night.

I got my first period at 12mos pp and finally became regular at about 24mos pp. But then from April to Sept.1 we'd been moving/travelling and ds had been nursing A LOT and I have only had one period (beginning Aug.1). I so far haven't gotten my period this month.

So, my fertility is questionable.

I went back to work this month and we put ds in daycare so that I could get enough hours to qualify for maternity benefits for our next child. I hate work and ds finds daycare stressful so I want to conceive as soon as possible!

Please advise!!!!

I read a few things about progesterone cream and B6... would those be recommended? What is LP? Any tips would be hugely appreciated!

Thank you sooooo much in advance.

Take care,
Beth

[BinahYeteirah]

I hope you are able to conceive very soon! :) I am TTC while bfing too.

First I would recommend charting. A great book for this is Taking Charge of Your Fertility. It is a great resource, and even has a chapter on charting during breastfeeding. After charting a cycle of your waking basal body temperature, cervical position, and cervical mucus, you should be able to see when you have ovulated and the length of your luteal phase or LP (the time after ovulation until you get the next cycle's period).

It's hard to say whether your fertility is questionable or not without being able to confirm ovulation, etc. It is normal for ovulation to be delayed (therefore causing the length of your cycles to increase) with increased bfing. If you can have sex around the time of ovulation, you may find you do not need any supplements in order to conceive.

[Quirky]

I second the recommendation for the book TCOYF; there are also a lot of nursing mamas TTC here, so do some searching through past threads.

I wouldn't mess with progesterone cream right now unless you figure out that you truly need it. It is a hormone and not something to monkey around with lightly. You might try some herbal remedies like Vitex (aka chasteberry) - run a search here or on google.

The biggest thing that helped for me was buying an ovulation monitor (not just the sticks) to use in addition to charting. I started using it when I got my first period after ds was born, and it showed me that my first 2 periods were anovulatory (very common as your body gears up to ovulate again) and that then I started ovulating and my cycle normalized. This also coincided with going back to work and ds starting daycare, but that may have just been coincidence.