AIBU to be worried my period hasn’t returned?

[MalcolmMoo]

Baby is a year now, I only breastfeed her once before bed, occasionally in the morning. But my period hasn’t returned yet and we’d like to try for baby number 2 soon. I plan on stopping breastfeeding altogether very soon as I have a work trip away in January.

Just curious when others periods came back as I’m worried? Everything I read online seems to imply that once you don’t feed overnight it should return soon.

Think it's just different for everyone.

Mine came back 16 months after giving birth to each of my babies. With my first, this was exactly a week after I stopped breastfeeding, so I thought it was that; but I was still breastfeeding my second probably 2 or 3 times a day when my period came back at 16 months.

I do have PCOS, so might not be representative, but I fell pregnant with my second extremely quickly and easily.

Everyone's different. Some people's periods return right away even if they feed around the clock. Some people's periods don't return until they wean completely.

My periods returned both times at about 9 months when my baby started eating solids in earnest even though I continued to feed in the night until about 18mo.

Mine was 18 months both times, bf as you are now more or less.

Mine didn't come back until about 20 months with my 2nd. I'd stopped breastfeeding at 18 months but even that had only been once a day from about 16 months.

Part of the issue though was being underweight. DC2 was a big baby and a big eater. And extremely active requiring a lot of chasing after.

Mine was about a month after I stopped breastfeeding (which was a little less than 6 months with the first two and about 5 months with DD)

I BF 2 babies- I was one of those whose period came back right on schedule. If we hadn't been using contraception I might have been having a baby every year.

Thanks to those who have responded so far. Reassuring to hear there really is such a range. Google seemed to imply months which in my head I thought would be less than a year! But seems over a year is pretty common too.

14 months. And I'd reduced but not stopped the overnight feeds.

I’m in the same boat. LO is one, I breastfeed a couple of times a day and sometimes at night and zero sign of period returning.

i don’t really want to stop breastfeeding, but we’d also like to start trying for number 2 so not sure what to do either!

It was almost a year for me, but then I got a Mirena coil put in so they never returned. Haven't had one since I got pregnant, so almost 6 years ago now.
It's great ...

I was three years to the month from my last one. I was breast feeding for all that time, though.

I think I read somewhere that in places where women don't use contraception but extended bf between dc, the average age gap between siblings is around 3 years.

Which would suggest that on average conception of the second happens at slightly over two years post birth.

Mine didn’t come back until I’d finished breastfeeding, which is normal.

First baby - period came back at 14 months, 2-3 weeks after stopping BF. Like you, had been down to one feed a day for some time before that.

Second baby - stopped BF at 13 months in order TTC number three. Didn’t have a period but conceived a week or two after stopping BF. Still pregnant so don’t know what the situation will be for baby three.

Maybe my periods would have come back soon if I’d waited longer with the single daily BF, but age wasn’t massively on my side in terms of waiting it out! Maybe I personally need to stop BF completely in order to ovulate.

When my baby was one I was only feeding once or twice a day. When he was 15 months he self weaned and my period came back about two days after his last feed! He’d only been feeding once a day for a good 1 or 2 months before we stopped.