TTC and still breastfeeding? Thread #4: Pull up a chair for some support from others on the journey!

[Augusthomotherium]

Yes, we know all about how emotional and hard it can be! All the pros and cons, all about missing Aunty Flo's and wtf cycles with no ovulation, all about children being cute and pointy. No matter if you are five months or twenty months down the breastfeeding timeline, if you're ttc again, this is the thread to join! Welcome!

DD2 is 16 months and still feeds to sleep and once or twice overnight. We cut out daytime feeds when she was about 13-14 months and AF returned at 14 months. First cycle trying (I know we're very lucky) and was OPKing - managed to DTD the day before and 2 days following positive result.

All being well I will have only had 2 AFs between babies

Thanks One! I'm encouraged by the fact that you feed overnight once or twice and to sleep, like DD and I, most nights. Congratulations again, and best wishes for your pregnancy

OneCurrent I am so ?? with envy! Good luck with it all. Hope it's a smooth pregnancy and that we won't see you on here again

Yay congrats One! So excited for you.

Sorry for the bfn trin. Hope it's just too early for you.

Ava, step away from the hpts!!

Quick question - do you call the day after a positive opk 1dpo, even though you may not have ovulated the day of the pos opk? Hope that makes sense!

rushes back in I'm so behind! Sorry for disappearing there. Mad housebuying stress - we finally just exchanged on our new house!

Anyway more importantly - CONGRATULATIONS ONE!! So happy for you! And very reassuring that you're still feeding.

Ava - amazing progress on the weaning front! Sounds like it's going really well, and your DD must be loving all the treats! Hopefully it pays off this cycle for you.

We're now consistently day weaned (hurrah!) for almost 2 weeks straight, bedtime feed included. But the night wakings have stepped up a notch, so she's now feeding probably at 11pm, 1am, and then latched permanently it seems from 3.30 - 6 :( worried I'm still feeding the same amount but just through the night instead!

wax When I stopped bf my ds during the day he starting feeding more at night to begin
with, but then it settled down
again after a few weeks. Hopefully it will be the same with your dd. It's no fun being the all-night milk buffet .

Congratulations on exchanging, Wax! Yay!

I've had the most awful headache all day (probably after my loooong and far afield team away day yesterday) so I've had a chocolate biscuit or three since having my dinner....I was doing so well.... oops

But, I do also have something awesome to report - today is exactly one year since I returned to work following maternity leave and it's also the very first time DD hasn't wanted boob as soon as I walked in the door! When she eventually asked I managed to distract her with a prize or three then it was bath then bed. Short feed and fast asleep - that's a record of 13.5 hours of no boob for us

Wax, I was afraid that DD was going to consistently feed more overnight too, especially after one night where she awoke 6 times , but there have been a couple of nights where she hasn't at all. Hang on in there, you're doing a fantastic job, and like Trinpy said, it will settle down - good luck

Omg well done Ava! That is HUGE progress! Honestly, I think the 'just back from work' feed is the absolute hardest one to crack, so that's brilliant :) and thanks to you and Trinpy for the reassurance...I'm telling myself the nightime milk feasts are just a phase and will settle down. DH has done some amazingly miraculous work with her sleep recently and has now got her self settling in her own bed, happily, without him even in the room. So she can self settle, we just need that to translate into the night wakings somehow....she's never been a good sleeper but between that and the house stress, I feel like an absolute zombie right now!

Ava, how're you getting on with waiting for the ov window this month? I started opking this morning...bored of waiting for the dtd window to arrive! Fertility friend says there's another week to go...

Wax, that is amaze balls re the self-settling! And in her own bed too! Go DD! That is something that we've yet to even try - selfishly, I sleep better with her On the plus side though, she fell asleep with DH the other night and totally missed her bedtime feed, hoping that'll happen more often now

My fertile window starts Sat/Sunday and I've been so busy I think it's come round fast I guess I'll start poas then, trying to curb my addiction haha but I do poas 2-3 times a day so as not to miss my peak so I can't test too early as I'd run out

Ooh, just realised, DH has a few days off work next week - that was so not planned around my cycle, but it could not happen at a better time

Weighed this morning and the cookies haven't done too much damage tg I'm 5 lbs lighter than I was last cycle, ideally I'd lose another 3 or 4 lbs before my hol in July and be back to my target weight (and hopefully stay there)

Ava - wow! What are you eating or not eating! Can't believe I put on this week when I had been working so hard towards it. Also very ?? that your DH has timed his holiday so well! It's been confirmed that my mother is staying on Thursday and Friday next week I may ovulate on Sunday. It's going to be tricky I somehow just have to take a very relaxed approach about it all otherwise I will totally stress myself out before it all begins!

Well done Ava! that's great .

Well done Ava

I've been trying to find a good balance food-wise today it's been a cookie in each hand, sorry about the bad joke

Ds was pointing to my chest tonight so I said "yes that's where your milky came from" The look that he gave me was like I was a complete nutter It's been 2 months (and a bit) since we stopped bf and he's completely forgotten all about feeding! How can that be so? 22 months and he has no memory! It's bizarre, the only memory left is our closeness

Haha pear, so odd how quickly they forget!

Any answers to my question - if you use opks which day do you call ov day & which day 1dpo? Thanks!

OMG I'm totally in shock-woke up to find AF has returned! Ds is 19mo today I thought it was never going to bloody happen!
I'm also a sporadic poster but long time lurker. My stats; age 31, ttc #4, ds is 19mo and bf on demand (we co sleep and still feed at night) this is my first (wtf I presume) cycle, have been trying since ds was 9mo though! I'll tell you a secret-having decided to let ds self wean I assumed having a decent age gap was out of the window and had virtually decided to stop ttc. I know I'm a massive step closer now but having been on these threads for so long it's probably only the beginning
Pear, still here?!
On a lighter note, I recon the thing that brought the return of AF was the last minute booking of a pool holiday, doh! Also have a houseguest and no sanpro, luckily ds is cloth bummed so have nicked a bamboo booster for now!
I'll catch up on the thread soon but in the meantime good luck to all!

Mumofone - Sorry I was meant to answer. Before I started temping I used to say this...

1st Static smiley - OV day
2nd static smiley - OV day 2
Next day - fertile
Next day - DPO1

Isn -great news

Great news iSpy

Sorry Mumo, I only use ic opks, but the day I get a strong positive on them I know that ov is approaching. The following day I get a temp dip - this confirms ov. So the day after that I am 1 dpo. Hope this helps at all?x

Mumofone - sorry I didn't get to finish my message. Unless you're temping it is guess work so if I was you I would go with what Ava says. Dpo1 being the day after your second static smiley. What day would that make you now? Last month it turned out looking at my temps that I ovulated the day before my first static smiley. Really odd!

I started testing with my smiley sticks. Today. Got a very faint second line so only a few days to go now!

Tested this morning - bfn as expected.

We had an awful night last night. Ds woke up crying at 10.45 and continued for 45 minutes. Nothing we could do would calm him down. One of the neighbours came round to complain . Finally settled him to sleep at 1am and he was up for the day at 6am .

Off to have a strong and then I'll be better able to catch up on the thread!

Trin was it you interested in the No Cry Sleep Solution book? I have one somewhere I'd gladly send you if you want to pm me your address? I'd address it to Trin for anonymity

And wow your neighbour was rude!

ispy - thanks for the offer, that's really kind of you, but I actually already have it. I think he was overtired because he didn't nap for long enough yesterday. I was a bit annoyed with the neighbour because we suffered through years of her teenagers shouting, band practice and all-night parties so I don't think think 45 mins of a baby crying is that bad in comparison!

Right, I'm a bit more with it now!

Pear that really made me laugh! It's amazing how quickly they forget, isn't it? And yet at the time it seems like such a huge step to stop bf. I've read (I think on kellymom) that when a new sibling comes along weaned toddlers sometimes ask to bf again but they've usually forgotten how to do it so can't latch.

ispy Great that af has shown up so you can hopefully start to get back to normal cycles (hate wtf cycles!). Did your other dc self wean?