TTC whilst breastfeeding. Tips, advice and support

[Porridgeaddiction]

Hi all,

There doesn't seem to be a thread for TTC whilst breastfeeding, so I thought that I'd start one. All welcome to jump aboard if that's your journey too, or offer tips and insights if you've managed to conceive whilst feeding a young one.

@A1b2c3d4e5f6g7 thanks for asking! It's okay at the moment. I'm slightly nervous because I'm not as sick as usual. I am still nauseous but it's a lot better than the previous two. I'm not complaining as such, but it makes me nervous that the hormones aren't right and I might miscarry. But nothing to be done except wait, so I'm trying not to dwell on it. Hopefully I just got lucky this time!
How was your Christmas?

Got my fingers crossed for all of you to conceive soon. Still plenty of time for a 2023 baby! I'm still dropping in every now and again to see how you're all doing 🙂

Hope everyone is doing okay, haven't looked back on the thread for a while but just wanted to pop on and update as am wondering if anyone here is in a similar boat. Stopped breastfeeding completely in November. However my luteal phase definitely remains on the shorter side and I've noticed a definite drop in my mood. I've now suffered three chemical pregnancies/miscarriages in a row back to back. This has never happened to me before. On doing lots of reading I'm thinking it's to do with prolactin prohibiting progesterone production and thus the development of the placenta/baby in the very early stages. Anyway, I'm going to take a break for a bit. No more TTC for me, it's very hard hitting month after month and very frustrating as I am obviously conceiving but for whatever reason it is not surviving. We are having a long hard think about whether we ever want to try again in the future as we are lucky with the children we do have. Anyway, I wish you all the best of luck 😊

@Orangio it's lovely to hear from you! Remind me, do you have two children? Maybe this one could be a different sex, or you're used to the hormones this time. Hoping all is well. Early pregnancy is such an anxious time x

@TulipVictory sorry re the drop in mood and three chemicals now, that's really not good. Ive heard of the lower mood post breastfeeding from some friends. Maybe a little break will be good. How many children do you have?

I'm in the same vein as you really, except I'm still working on weaning. I'll start trying again once my little one is not feeding. Every sickness period or teething period pushes my ovulation back and messes with my cycle

I've had two pregnancies, one girl and one boy, but my DD was stillborn. So I just have DS. But the sickness was just the same with both of them, so I don't think I can explain it based on the current pregnancy possibly being a girl! I know every pregnancy is different though so hopefully all is fine ☺️
Sounds like you are trying to reduce the amount of times you're bf daily before cracking on with TTC? Might make sense I guess. You also don't want to conceive and then have to be bf all the time whilst vomiting into a bucket!

Oh @Orangio I'm so so sorry, that must have been unbelievably tough. I can't even imagine.

Hopefully you're just a pro at managing without sleep now and acclimated to fluctuating hormones, hence why not feeling too bad. Also hoping you aren't at the point of puking in a bucket very soon.

Yes decided to try to just try myself out first

@A1b2c3d4e5f6g7 yeah hopefully it's just something like that 🤞 Sure I've read threads on here before where people said their MS wasn't as bad second or third time round so obviously I'm not the only one.
Hope your weaning efforts go well! It's really tough but absolutely worth it 😆

@Orangio yep definitely, and each one is different etc 🤞

Hope everyone's doing okay

Well looks like another chemical for me. Had a couple of vvvv faint frers and a couple of vvv faint ic’s. I’m now 12-13dpo so I would have expected a proper line by now. 😭 I hope this doesn’t mess up my cycles. All my friends are pregnant and I can feel my age gap I wanted slipping away.

@justwantobeamum sorry this is happening to you. How old is your little one now? My age gap has slipped away too. My daughter is two now. I stopped breastfeeding in November but the chemical pregnancies continue 😩

@justwantobeamum so so sorry to hear. Sending so much love, it’s heartbreaking 💔. I know it’s so easy to say but please try to be a little gentle on yourself about age gap if you can. I was the same and had these expectations about what age gap I wanted , when that didn’t work out I felt so stressed and ech month that went by , piled on extra pressure. After my baby 2 came, if anything I realised that the gap was perhaps too small! I think we put on so much extra pressure on ourself with these arbitrary milestones. Just know that it will happen for you, I’m so sure, and when it does it will be the perfect baby and the perfect gap ❤️❤️❤️❤️

Also @TulipVictory so sorry you are going through the same xxxx

Sorry I’ve been MIA. I’m 9dpo here but not hopeful, we only DTD once this month and it was day after O 🤦🏼‍♀️ as DP was away. Also dd is feeding round the clock. We still cosleep and Last night she walloped me on the head at 3.30am to wake me up to feed her 😩😂. I think I need her out of my bed!!

@A1b2c3d4e5f6g7 how are you?

Thanks @Golaz 🤍 now I don’t know what to think… had this this afternoon at 13/14dpo but if I first saw a vvvfl on Monday (4days ago) it’s not recently implanted so I suspect it’s probably increasing too slowly and not going to be good news?!

That looks like a good line to me!! 😍

@TulipVictory I'm so sorry hope you're okay.

@justwantobeamum that looks like a decent enough line? How dark did they get last time?

@Golaz how're you? Any more news? I'm similar to you, didn't have sex right time I don't think this month (still staying with family) but I'm a day late on my period. After last month and the faint indents or whatever, I haven't bothered testing

Oooo day late on af 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻. What day did you DTD? How long do you think you will hold off testing?
im currently 10/11 dpo. Last month I got my af at 12dpo , so we shall see what happens tomorrow. I don’t have much hope though. I’m holding off testing too.

@justwantobeamum this was mine at 14 DPO with DD. Yours looks great.

Take a step back (hard I know) and stop POAS! Next week use a blue dye digital so it can show you weeks. Good luck

@A1b2c3d4e5f6g7 @Golaz good luck! I didn’t think I’d DTD at the right time this month either. Did another this morning as I hadn’t told dh yet… still not sure I’m not getting excited yet, what will be will be I suppose. I’m more annoyed that if I am going to lose it it will lengthen my age gap even longer. With DS and my last chemical I was sick before I tested positive. Was pregnant jan21 and had a mmc at 10 weeks no sickness before positive test then… I’m just not feeling very hopeful but then this is my 4th pregnancy and I only have one baby so…

Cycle day 18 today and got my lh peak yesterday so surprisingly my cycles have gone right back to what they were pre pregnancy straight away.

Hi all, i hope you don't mind me jumping on this thread.

I'm tentatively TTC, I still haven't had a period yet so just going with the flow at the moment x

@Golaz period arrived today! Just a couple days late. Think that means I've an 8-9 day luteal phase. 12 days is awesome, you must be pleased with that? How're you feeling today?

@justwantobeamum it's so much more an anxious time after miscarriages. Hoping that this is okay for you this time and all is well

@lemondrizzlecake20 welcome. How old is your baby?

@A1b2c3d4e5f6g7 DC is 7 months old, hence the tentatively trying. It took over a year of TTC for DC1.

How old is your LO?

Ah no sorry to hear your af arrived @A1b2c3d4e5f6g7 . I guess that means your luteal phase is getting longer though?

No af for me yet. My luteal phase before bf was typically 14 days, so this is shaping up to be my first normal cycle 🤞🏻

good luck @Countingchicks and welcome @lemondrizzlecake20

@lemondrizzlecake20 mine is 11 months. Tbh it's not great timing, we are living between houses atm while ours is renovated, and both working full time, so a bit tired. But I'm 38 so we need to get on with it. I am trying to wean my baby a bit more, to give it a good chance of happening hopefully.

@Golaz sounds like a very positive cycle for you whatever happens! I just read back as well and that's so funny your baby whacks you on the head to get milk. Mine slaps at me and pulls my hair if he's in bed with us. Part of the reason he needs his own room 😅