Problems conceiving while breastfeeding 18m old daughter

[Rews4321]

Hi all

My daughter is 18m old and I still breastfeed her once, sometimes twice a day. Husband and I have wanted another baby for a while and have tried properly (monitoring ovulation days using an app) 3 times now to no success.

For my daughter, I tracked my periods using an app which also told me ovulation days and we got lucky first time trying at the right time. I am only 30 and nothing's changed with our diet and lifestyle (apart from of course being knackered with daughter!) Before her, I had periods like clockwork every 21 days for similar length. My periods came back when daughter was 11 months (she has always been exclusively BF) and they have been little bit shorter, lighter (but definitely more than spotting) and not as consistent (between 18-25 days apart). So I suppose maybe my body isn't ready yet?

I did use an ovulation test one month on 2 days at the time my app said I was fertile and it came back strong. However, we didnt try this month as I had just started a new job.

So my question is..has anyone else had issues concieving while still breastfeeding? A woman at work swore she couldnt conceive while BF so one month she cut off her 18m old son and the next month she was pregnant.

I have cut down my daughter to one feed a day because of this (before was feeding morning and night on my 3 days at work and other 4 days I was at home, 3 or 4 times on demand.)

I dont really want to cut her off any further as the evening feed is a lovely bonding ritual and I have already felt a little mean weaning her off other feeds as she loves BF. I especially don't want to if I still struggle to get pregnant (this would add even more pressure and disappointment to the mix).

I know its only been 3 months of direct trying but it's been 7 months in total since we stopped using protection (pretty much as soon as I got my periods back). It was so fast the first time and I cant help but worry there might be something wrong with me now it's taking so much longer.. i had an emergency c section with daughter and read horrible things about scar tissue preventing future conception..

As I mentioned, I have some ovulation strips but havent used properly with conception attempts yet since app was so accurate first time and that one time i tried it it seemed to correlate with app.

Sorry for super long post. Interested to know other's experiences.

Thanks x

I was about to write a similar post. My little girl is 12 months and I have only tried for one cycle but am worried I will need to wean her to conceive. Especially since she is a milk monster who feeds on demand day and NIGHT!

My periods came back straight away after birth so I have had about 12 cycles since. I think I read that it takes 7 post baby cycles to start ovulating again.
I have just bought the Ava Bracelet to check if I am ovulating. Last time I temped for one cycle and caught that cycle but I can't temp since I am up all night so hoping the bracelet will catch the odd 3 hours of uninterrupted sleep I might get during the night.

Are you getting true peaks or just a surge on the sticks? Have you tried temping to confirm ovulation?

I conceived first month trying whilst breastfeeding my 18 month old twice per day. Sorry I know you were asking for trouble conceiving but hoping a positive story would help

Thanks for your replies

@Sexnotgender - how long had you had your periods back at point you conceived?

@Soexciting - wow periods straight away - weird how bodies are so different right? No havent thought about temperature, not clued in about measuring ovulation as first time went so easy. Dont know difference between surge and peaks.. Will look into!

I had my period back at around 10 months pp. I was on the mini pill though after that.

No help but I could have written your post! Had a chemical in the summer but apart from that, nothing doing. We are nearly down to just bedtime feed now so I'm hoping that'll be a game-changer. Spoke to GP after 4 months ish of trying and they said give it til after Christmas and come back to us. I have a short luteal phase so am taking a low dose of vitamin B6 on top of multivitamin and it seems to be getting a bit longer. Easily conceived DD though so think it's the bf that's holding us back 😬

I got pregnant when my LO was 13 months old, still bf once or twice a day. My periods had come back at 3 months pp though. I for pregnant on the second month of no contraception.

I hear you OP. My DD is 27 months and I'm still bf and I can't conceive. We have been ttc again for ages now but I also don't want to stop her bf if she's not ready.

I've done a a lot of research into what is happening and fertility comes back in stages when bf. Hormones released during bf suppress fertility hormones. I didn't even get irregular cycles back at all until she was about 20m. Now I am having irregular cycles and ovulating too late in my cycle which is only about 25 days (used to be 27 days clockwork) and the egg isn't mature enough to be viable. This also means my leutal phase is too short being less than 9 days.

Some women seem to be able to conceive while bf and others not at all. I seem to be the latter! Very frustrating.

@Sexnotgender thanks for sharing. Success story is definitely motivating.

@Heyha Can I ask how did you find out you had a short luteal phase? Never heard of it before but interesting to read that it says one can be developed by `too much hormone produced by making milk' amongst other factors. And yet no BF professional says there's any scientific link between BF and trouble conceiving as long as you're having periods..strange. out of interest, @Heyha how many months PP are you now?

@WhiskersPete Thanks for sharing. Yeh it's weird isn't it how different bodies can be. And you didnt get periods back till 20m PP? Either your body didnt like having periods or your baby guzzle the milk!
Until last month, I had told myself that my body must not be ready because my daughter still needed me (thought body is intuitive and all that) but last month my period felt back to normal, I was feeding only once a day and felt like really stood a good chance - no luck. All talk of different ovulation dates and times though is really helpful - thanks. I will definitely use the sticks throughout this month to get a grip of what my cycle is doing.

Makes you realise how lucky we were the first time!

Xx

@WhiskersPete also how do you interpret your egg's viability? How many days is there supposed to be in a healthy ovulation? X

@Babybaby432 Congratulations :) interesting that basically it was 10 months after periods came back so maybe I need to be more patient!
Never have had that quality

I’m ttc number 2 while breastfeeding my 21-month-old DS. He feeds at bedtime, 11pm ish and when he wakes up. I want to cut down a bit as while I’ve had periods since he was 17 months old we haven’t had any luck getting pregnant. I’m also convinced I had a chemical last month as I had a weird one day bleed, faint positive on a test then a really heavy period accompanied by a hormone crash.

I want to cut down feeding anyway, but I’m not sure how to do it as I have no other way of getting DS to sleep. By morning he’s in bed with me and he feeds on and off from 7ish until we get up. I could just take him off and start the day but I’m lazy!

So I used opks and temping to pin point ovulation. Since DD My cycle has gone down to about 25 days and I ovulate around day 18. So my leutal phase is only 7 days which is way too short.

I did a lot of research into why this has happened to my cycle and basically bf hormones are causing the egg to not mature properly before it is released which is delaying ovulation. So I'm still ovulating eventually but the egg is useless as it's not mature enough.

She still bf A LOT! I'm trying to gently discourage her from it but she loves boob!

Normal leutal phase after ovulation needs is 12 to 14 days as fertilised egg needs time to implant

@Rews4321 I did conceive while breastfeeding my son. He was 21 months when I conceived, we weren't tracking anything and weren't using contraceptive it just happened. Like you I didn't have periods until he was 14 months and he fed until I was 7 months pregnant then stopped as milk had dried as he was down to 1-2 feeds daily as I worked long hours. Fingers crossed it happens for you soon.xx

OP if your periods have been back for a while then chances are you are ovulating and it's just taking time to get pregnant. That's completely normal and it's different for everyone. It must be very frustrating when you've conceived quickly the first time though.

Another positive story to give you hope. It took me 11 months to conceive my first. I was exclusively breastfeeding him but my period came back at four months and three months later I was pregnant, having only dropped a couple of night feeds. I was a bit shocked as I didn't expect it to happen soon at all, which is why we weren't taking any precautions.

Some people think it's stopping night feeds that can trigger ovulation, it seemed to with me. Others have to stop breastfeeding completely. Everyone is different.

Hope it happens for you very soon.

@Rews4321 I'm 18 months pp now, periods returned after about 12 months.

I've self-diagnosed my short LP 😂 but I've been using ovulation sticks alongside monitoring other signs of ovulation and then counted days til period...it was as few as 6 days (so v short cycles in general) over the summer but seems to be more like 11-12 days now. DD is feeding a lot less lately, more comfort than a proper feed, so I'm inclined to think it's the reduction in milk production that's made my periods start to normalise back to being absolutely textbook as they were before we had DD. But B6 is dirt cheap so I'll keep taking it as well I think 😃

I've read the rest of the thread now and @WhiskersPete I completely hear you!

Thanks @Mishmased
Thanks @DramaAlpaca
Yes I've heard crazy stories of how easy it can be for some to get pregnant second time after first time finding it hard..probably why I'm feeling impatient now as didnt expect the opposite. Hearing all these different experiences is helping though. Thank you and thank you @WhiskersPete, fingers crossed for you soon too! X

@Heyha great to hear from someone in basically exactly same situation! I have mum friends with babies the same age but you cant compare with BF and ttc..sounds positive for your cycles now...fingers crossed for you. I might look into B6 Xx