TTC while breastfeeding

lazygal

I'm BF our baby who is 11 weeks and there's no sign of my periods to return. I'd like to keep BF as much as possible but I'm balancing this with wanting to conceive as soon as possible. So I wonder should I start to reduce the number of breast feedings and replace with expressed milk or formula. I have extremely long cycles and while I got pregnant within a few months when we were trying the first time, it was a bit hit and miss as to when I was ovulating and the fertile window, despite using ovulation kits.

Does anyone have any advice or are in the same boat? I really want baby to have the breast milk but I also don't want a large age gap between children.

Neyite

I'm in the same boat Lazygal, we decided today that we will try for #2. My baby is nearly 13 weeks, and I'm exclusively breastfeeding. I havent had a period yet, so I guess I'll have to wait for that to show up.

My (loose) plan is that in a month or so, he might be ready for some solids so will introduce a formula bottle around 11pm and maybe the breast feeds will naturally decrease, as he is feeding every 2-2.5hrs) and my cycle will return to what it was.

I have an additional complication in that I had high prolactin before I got pregnant and was on Parlodel to reduce it. So its likely that I would need to go back on it if I want to conceive, and that will dry up my milk.

Add in to that, I took Clomid to achieve that pregnancy so I may have to choose between breastfeeding and TTC.

dublinlady

I stopped breastfeeding at 13 weeks. She's 26 weeks on tue a I still don't have my period back and we are TTC
It's very annoying - and just guessing when ovulation may happen but to be honest I nearly always have fertile signs... No clue!

lazygal

Nice to know I'm not alone! We always wanted the children to be as close in age as possible and I'd nearly love to be pregnant when I return after maternity leave, but as I'd a section I wanted to wait to get the all clear from my consultant, which I got this week. She's advised waiting a year to conceive but also said if I get pregnant at any stage it won't be a massive issue. Now that BF has gotten much easier I feel I'm between a rock and a hard place, I want to keep going with it but I also know that as my cycles are so long I won't know when the fertile windows are.

Decisions, decisions. I hadn't planned on introducing solids until six months but I think I'll see what the PHN and my GP say about it. I might introduce a midday bottle of formula (baby takes about 2oz of formula for an evening feed to give me a break) and see how things work.

LegacyUser

Ladies if your doctor tells you to wait a year before trying to have another baby take there advice as several of my friends were told this.
You need this time to lose your baby weight and to build up yourself up to be as healthy as possible re iron ect. Being heavier than you should be can stop you getting pregnant and could lead to problems with your pregnancy. I have a friend who had pcos and lost 5 stone to give herself a chance to get pregnant and she is now pregnant.
Lazygirl in regards to being pregnant when you go back to work from maternity leave you need to consider the following. You will have to work a full day and be getting up a night with a baby getting teeth when your feeling sick and tired. I know people who this happen to and the said if happened later it would have been easier.
Also it is better to introduce solids when the baby is 6 month old as there system is better able food then.
Dublinlady I would go to your doctor and get a blood test to check out your hormone, iron, b vitiman levels ect. Get your doctor to check out your weight and blood pressure and they can advise you further if they notice any problems in this area.
Some time nature can decide that it is not time for you to get pregnant yet.

iguana

I have read that it's night feeds in particular that signal the body not to ovulate. So if you wanted to reduce feeds it might be an idea to focus on getting the baby to sleep longer between feeds at night, or use expressed milk/formula at night, so that your body isn't producing at night. Quite a few of my extended family were conceived while an older sibling was being breastfed. My mother's oldest brother was a few months old when her next brother was conceived (unplanned - my grandmother thought bf was an effective contraception) but almost as soon as her oldest started sleeping through the night she was pregnant again. And one of my aunts has 4 children, all but the oldest was conceived while my aunt was bfing. And she had an ovary removed between numbers 2 and 3 so had reduced fertility when she conceived her youngest two.

Eta; http://kellymom.com/bf/normal/ttc-while-bf/

lazygal

fab lady wrote: »

Ladies if your doctor tells you to wait a year before trying to have another baby take there advice as several of my friends were told this.
You need this time to lose your baby weight and to build up yourself up to be as healthy as possible re iron ect. Being heavier than you should be can stop you getting pregnant and could lead to problems with your pregnancy. I have a friend who had pcos and lost 5 stone to give herself a chance to get pregnant and she is now pregnant.
Lazygirl in regards to being pregnant when you go back to work from maternity leave you need to consider the following. You will have to work a full day and be getting up a night with a baby getting teeth when your feeling sick and tired. I know people who this happen to and the said if happened later it would have been easier.
Also it is better to introduce solids when the baby is 6 month old as there system is better able food then.
Dublinlady I would go to your doctor and get a blood test to check out your hormone, iron, b vitiman levels ect. Get your doctor to check out your weight and blood pressure and they can advise you further if they notice any problems in this area.
Some time nature can decide that it is not time for you to get pregnant yet.

All good points but I also think its an individual thing. I'm back to my pre baby weight and didn't gain a huge amount besides the bump and boobs during pregnancy. I kept up a fairly good exercise regime until about seven months pregnant and have resumed it post baby.
I also know people who regretted leaving a gap between children as just when they were done with the intensive parts of child rearing, they had to start over with a newborn and had issues of jealousy etc with older children not taking to the new baby. I know well the exhaustion of pregnancy, but that would be the case no matter what age my first child was, I'll be going back to work anyone so even if we had a large gap I'd be juggling work, pregnancy and children.

wmpdd3

I only feed at 10pm and 8am and no sign of periods, baby is 6 and a half months old. after my first, i stopped bf at 3 weeks, never had a period but got pregant when she was 6 and a half months old. It was also the month i returned to my pre pregnancy weight.

LegacyUser

Please don't hate me but a friend of mine had her kids back to back for all the reasons outlined above.

Obviously she loves the children dearly but she wishes there was a bit more distance between them now because the one year old needs so much attention and stimulation it's hard with a newborn baby. Plus harder to get around with double buggy etc
But the main thing was the amount of nappies and wipes she goes through a day and the cost of childcare.
There's no room to save.

Take care

lazygal

Baby has started sleeping through the nights for the past couple of weeks. I was afraid to get my hopes up but she's doing at least a 7 hour stretch at night and the length of the final bedtime feed is now only about ten minutes. I've still had no sign of a period but we are still using contraception. I'm wondering if and when a period will show up (I have cycles of 40+ days). We have decided to start trying 'properly' when she is 6 months old, but as BF is going so well I'm going to continue with it as much as possible.

dublinlady

lazygal wrote: »

Baby has started sleeping through the nights for the past couple of weeks. I was afraid to get my hopes up but she's doing at least a 7 hour stretch at night and the length of the final bedtime feed is now only about ten minutes. I've still had no sign of a period but we are still using contraception. I'm wondering if and when a period will show up (I have cycles of 40+ days). We have decided to start trying 'properly' when she is 6 months old, but as BF is going so well I'm going to continue with it as much as possible.

Still no period for me.. 27 weeks now. Clear blue fertility monitor says I'm going to ovulate soon but to be honest ur only meant to use it once periods back so I don't think it has a clue! I've read it can be a yr or more before period returns... I'm hoping it's not that long - we've been trying anyway for a couple of months now, no joy.

dublinlady

Meant to add - I'm pretty much back to pre preg weight, and will be working full time until have baby number 2, then will be back again after that. I'd say I'm fairly healthy - walk / jog v occasionally etc but v tired so that may be preventing my period coming back also!

NextSteps

Taking an iron supplement such as Floradix might encourage your period to come back - this worked for me, although baby was a bit older.

Digs

Hi girls

I have no experience with bringing a period back after having a baba but I did find Accupuncture really really good for regulating my periods when we decided to ttc. I've heard it's good for bringing on a period after giving birth too....just a suggestion, it's very relaxing too.

Hope ye get back on track soon