Postpartum amenorrhea

[Pam2201]

Hello dear mothers, my first thread ever here

My husband and I have an amazing little angel 19 months old, he is exclusively breastfed and sleeping with us/me. Before I got pregnant with him, my periods were regular, every 28 days and we conceived him as soon as we started trying for a baby, so no problem there.

19 months postpartum and I still don't have my period. I've reduced the feeds, so he will only have one in the morning as soon as he wakes up ( 7am- 8am), one before bed (19:00-20:00) and through the night maybe twice or three times. I thought that if I have a bigger gap between the feeds, my periods might return but still waiting.

It's hard for me to stop breastfeeding just so I can get pregnant again cause I know how much my baby needs the milk I'm giving him and all the comfort he gets from being close to my chest.

My question is, are there any mothers in this situation or were in my situation? Did their period return after 20months or so without having to wean their babies?

I would really appreciate any info.
X

Breastfeeding is amazing and youve done a fab job but hun he doesn't need the breast milk now so don't feel guilty :)

How many feeds per day does he take? You said exclusively bf but I assume at 19months he is eating three meals and snacks.

Sorry! I'm so tired I misread your post!
Two feeds per day isn't that much but you must be very sensitive to hormones if you haven't had a period yet. Even with exclusive feeding round the clock my periods never stayed away longer than 16 weeks postpartum. I would speak to your dr although they may just advise you to stop feeding if you want to conceive. You could try some supplements such as Evening primrose, Agnus Castus etc, but these may or may not help. God luck

God I'm really off my rocker, ok so 5-6 feeds per day is still quite a lot for his age, perhaps try encouraging a snack or cuddle/distraction alternative rather than the he mid day feeding. If you can get down to twice per day, morning and night, you might see a change in your hormones.

At 19 months old it definitely could be those 2-3 night feeds that are keeping your periods at bay. I'd be planning to wean him off those if I were you and wanted another baby. I appreciate it will be very comforting to him, but nutritionally he shouldn't need night feeds any longer so you really don't need to feel guilty.

Have you had any signs of fertile windows? EWCM for example?

@calimommy he is having 3 meals a day and snacks but I try not to give him too many snacks cause he won't eat food. He's not a big eater either.
What I means by exclusively breast fed, is that he will only drink milk from me, not milk from the shops not formula. He won't drink those.

@curiosity101. I haven't had ewcm and I'm doing an ovulation test every day so see if I'm ovulating but nothing, yet.
I have decided to take out his night feeds so I will only feed him once before bed and once in the morning. Hopefully it'll be OK. Will also go and talk to a Dr about it, most probably they'll just say the same thing, to stop bf.

@Iastbany, thank you so much!

@Pam2201 toddlers are notorious snackers, they tend to graze on bits here and there all day. That will change as he grows older. As you seem to be so sensitive to the hormones from feeding it looks like you would need to reduce your feeds with him, maybe even stop, IF you want to TTC. Not saying you should for any other reason. I know several women who faced the same issue as you. Some women are able to continue feeding even through a subsequent pregnancy but as you have had no periods for such a long time I think you probably won't fall into that category.

Apologies for my messy posts last night I was over tired and completely misread your post! 😄

Good luck

My period came back at 20 months for my second, I also bed shared and she fed a similar amount I reckon. I suspect you won't be waiting much longer.

I'm a natural term breastfeeder so of course I'm going to say keep going if that's what you both want 😊 you've done really well.

Also when AF returned I did have a short luteal phase for a few months, that then extended although I still have slightly shorter cycles that before. I'm still bf my 4yo, once a day at bed time although I'm not producing much milk now.

Glad you've decided to drop the night feeds, I think that will work.

I dropped night feeds when DS was 10 months and my periods returned within a couple of months.

(Continued to breastfeed morning, evening and daytime until he turned 2.)

I didn't bf as long as you but my periods returned once DS night weaned around 8 months. I now have twins who are still feeding 1-2 times per night (but I guess that's like 4 feeds from one baby) - no sign of AF yet.

@ILookAtTheFloor This is the message I really needed to see, I think. I don't think I'm ready to wean him off and something in me says it's the wrong thing to do, I don't know why. I'll drop one feed at night, so he can have 2 throughout the night and see how it'll go. Hopefully my periods will return and I won't have to wean him off completely. I do dream of tandem feeding both (if I'll get pregnant thought) 🙏🏼