<p>I haven't read through the rest of the comments yet, so I might be repeating some things.</p>
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<p>The return of fertility postpartum, while breastfeeding varies a lot from woman to woman. There are some, like me, who's cycles didn't return until almost 2 years. There are some who, even when breastfeeding exclusively, co-sleeping, no pacifiers, etc. have their cycles return within 6-8 weeks. I think average for an exclusively breastfeeding on demand woman is 14 months.</p>
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<p>If you are formula feeding, you should expect your cycles to return 4-8 weeks after birth.</p>
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<p>You can get pregnant before your first period - I did!</p>
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<p>Regarding birth control options - I also didn't like the idea of chemicals altering my hormones, and DH didn't like barrier options. Instead we have used natural family planning successfully to avoid pregnancy prior to my first pregnancy. It can be rough during the return to fertility to interpret your what's going on, but if you have an instructor to guide you, you can get through it (I didn't have an instructor). After I was lazy and missed the signs that I was ovulating, (we were okay with getting pregnant again - baby was 16 months) we caught the first egg out. I had been using one method of charting my cycles, but found it confusing with my signs, and we ended up abstaining more that we cared for. after baby #2, I switched to using a different method that uses a fertility monitor and pee sticks to chart my cycles. It made life a whole lot less confusing, and there was a lot less abstaining! That is the catch about NFP is that it requires some days of abstinence around the time of ovulation.</p>