Breastfeeding...irregular periods and TTC?!

[Smileandtheworldsmileswithyou]

Hi,

My baby girl is about to turn 1 in September. I want to start trying for another baby soon but my periods are all over the place! I am only breastfeeding her twice a day, once in the morning and again before she goes to sleep. My periods came back when she was around 9 months old but my cycles have been between 36 and 25 days long so I have no idea when I am going to ovulate. Is this normal? I was just wondering if anyone else had been in a similar situation and had any advice.

Thanks.

Hi op, no advice but in a similar situation. DS was also born in September and we wanted two close in age so we started switching to formula at five months. Last breastfeed was at 6.5 months and it then took almost 8 weeks for my period to arrive. Second cycle was six weeks and two days. Currently on cycle day 30 of this cycle and no sign of AF and negative pregnancy test. I've been using OPKs but haven't seen a surge but I also didn't get one when trying for my son.
I've read it can take up to a year for things to settle down. I'm a bit gutted as thought I'd be returning to work at least three months pregnant!
Hope things settle for you soon!

Hiya OP.

I had really irregular cycles before my first. I also breastfed her (and still do), and my period returned when she was 11.5 months. I had about a 45 day cycle before the next period, then ovulated on cd33 and fell pregnant ‘first try’. I used OPKs to know when I was ovulating and even with the irregular cycles and breastfeeding I fell quite quickly. Unfortunately it ended in miscarriage but it was reassuring I could fall quickly while feeding still.

I would use OPKs as pp suggested but you may need to consider dropping BF if tracking ovulation doesn't help. I only say that as you said your periods are quite irregular. However if you are ovulating then you should be fine to continue feeding. And it is only two feeds per day so not very much. My periods always come back a few weeks post partum despite back to back feeding so for me breastfeeding hormones don't have a strong affect whereas they can affect other women much more.

Thanks so much for your replies! I guess I should try to track my ovulation, I was reluctant to go down that road as I did that when trying last time and found it disheartening as I never had the much wanted flashing smiley face and they were pricey. I’ll maybe order some cheap ones on the Internet and see. Currently having the worlds longest period, on day 8 which for me is twice as long as normal!

Femometer cheapy tests or similar are just as good

Thank you! I’ll have a little look now. I’m not in the UK so will see what can be delivered here without a massive delivery fee.

Neither am I haha

Just an update to say that I used the ovulation sticks and got pregnant first time! I am now about 10 weeks pregnant.