Breastfeeding and TTC

[sammysam]

We are jut starting to TTC DC2, but I am still feeding dd who is 22months whenever she wants it, normally about 4 times a day. My periods returned when she was about 15 months and have been fairly regular (give or take a day or 2) since then.

My question is how common is not being able to conceive whilst breastfeeding? I have read that some women have to stop completely before they do......but is that women with younger babies whos periods have not returned anyway-or are they more long termers iyswim?
I really would like to let dd self wean as she still absolutely LOVES it and is nowhere near ready BUT I'm aware of the gap getting bigger and the length it could take to actually fall pregnant .

I know i'm hopefully worrying over nothing as it is very early days yet but I just wanted to know to hopefully put my mind at rest

I'm still young and fell (by surprise!) with dd so hopefully this will go in my favour! I'm very new to this TTC malarky-it's all very scary indeed!
Sorry for the long ramble!

Hiya, I think it has to do with how long you LO goes between feeds, think I read it needs to be around 4 hours in the day and 6 at night although I'm nnot sure so don't quote me on it!

I was still feeding DD on demand at 8 months and got pregnant no problems (4-6 times a day and occasionally in the night. My periods came back when she was 9 weeks old though and had been every 7-8 weeks. My cycle chose that particular month to get right back to normal though so we were kind of caught out

You may find you have no problems.

Good Luck.

Her feeds are all during the day - first thing in the morning, lunchtime, sometimes in the afternoon and then just before bed, but the occasional small feed at other times if she has hurt herself
so there are quite long gaps in between feeds

Hopefully we'll be ok

Bump-was hoping a BF Counsellor might have the answer-anyone around?

bumping for you

I don't have ststistics but I conceived DD while breastfeeding DS (two and a half at the time) twice a day. I had also conceived when he was 23 months and I was breastfeeding him three or four times a day, but miscarried that pregnancy -- I don't think the miscarriage was related to the breastfeeding, though.

i am not an expert at all and dont knwo anything about TTC. but i knwo its common to have one or two periods without ovulating when they start again. but if yours have been regular for 7 montsh now then you shoudl be ok. why dont you get one of these kits to see if you are ovulating? it might put your mind at rest

the kellymom site has a lot about fertility
here

sammysam - I'm still bf 22 month old DS and I'm 10 weeks pg. My periods were regular from 6 months, don't know if this makes a diff...

It took about 3 months for me to get pg, and it may be a complete co-incidence but the month I got pg I had just cut down to 1 feed a day (early morning).

I think the real answer is that all women are different (sorry) and my experience won't be the same as yours. Sorry if not much help

sammysam - I am not a breastfeeding counsellor however I do know that everybody is completely different when it comes to conceiving during breastfeeding.

I would recommend this book and would also recommend that you start charting and checking your cervical fluid. Your cycle may be completely different to the way it was before your dd.

I have found this is the case for me, breastfeeding seems to make me ovulate much later in my cycle and I am left with a luteal phase (time between ovulation and menstruation) which appears to be too short for implantation. I am still feeding my 2.7yo ds several times through the day and have been ttc for over a year despite having a regular cycle and ovulating.

I guess the only way of knowing for sure if you are back to full fertility is to give ttc a go and see what happens!!

Good luck

I meant to say about the ovulation sticks that they only detect a surge in hormones which occur before ovulation, they cannot confirm that ovulation has actually happened.

Some women's bodies will have the surge of hormones but for whatever reason (breastfeeding possibly being one reason), the hormone level doesn't get high enough to trigger ovulation, so the results of the ovulation sticks can be misleading.

Thank you everyone, i'd kind of thought that it will just be a case of seeing what happens, and everyone is different but i'm so excited about ttc and don't want to get my hopes up if its not likely whilst i'm bf iyswim?
Portandlemon-thats what i'm a bit worried about-surely if you are breastfeeding your hormones are all very different to what they would be if you weren't and that might have an effect. I'm worried that if dd feeds a lot and i'm only just pregnant it might have a bad effect, or it could stop it from heppening at all
mawbroon-i did think about ovulation sticks but wasn't sure but what you say makes sense so will leave that for now....but I should try taking my temp and cf-not quite sure how to though

Seriously sammy, you should read the book that I have linked to. There are charts in there that you can photocopy to use and it give you simple instuctions on how to do you temps and fluid checking.

It also explains how to use the information for pregnancy prevention so may be useful for you in the future as well. I wish I had known all this stuff years ago.

I second mawbroons advice about charting and checking. I was still bf'ing ds1 morning and evenings when I was ttc no.2, so I started doing temperature charts to see if/when I was ovulating. For the 1st few months found I had a short LP like Mawbroon. I didn't want to give up bf'ing either. Fortunately my LP gradually got longer each month and then I become pg with ds2. Might be worth just charting your cycle to see what it's doing now.

Hi DLAMIS.

Mawbroon-will attempt to get the book-dp won't be too pleased though as he doesn't understand my 'need' for books-i have too many apparently!!!

Dontlookatmeimshy-thats what i'm hoping will happen with us-can i ask how old your ds was when you started trying and how long it took to conceive?

forgot to add i got pg while still Bf an 8mo. He was still feeding a lot, including during the night. often [sigh]. in fact so often i have no recollection of EVER BDing either

not sure if that helps you though, as mawbroon pointed out, every woman seems to be different

good luck