Ready for another, still nursing

[RosemaryBaby]

The title says it, really. We want another baby, but I'm still nursing, tandem actually. I have a 3 year old who nurses several times a day and 9 month old who is pretty attached day and night. I (obviously) didn't make the first one stop when I got pregnant with number 2 and I don't have plans to stop nursing any time soon. But, we want to start trying for another baby. I know people have gotten pregnant while nursing before, but is it just luck/accident? Are there any tricks to making it happen? I'm no spring chicken so I don't want to wait until my cycle returns if it takes forever since I'm nursing (didn't come back for 13 months with DD and I think only because I had to pump for a week). Any thoughts?

 

[ellina]

I'm in the same boat! Well, I only have one baby (15 months), but I'm also ready to be pregnant again - and also am no spring chicken, heh.

I really haven't found any specific advice for encouraging fertility except weaning, which I'm not willing to do. Kellymom has some nice info here on the subject. Apparently, the longer it takes for your period to come back, the more likely you are to ovulate before that first period. So I guess that's encouraging?

Do you temp, or use OPKs or another method to track fertility? I've started having a few symptoms of fertility returning (such as cramps, and my first-postpartum hair loss) so I've taken the odd OPK, but can't be bothered to do temping every day if it could still be months before anything happens. Not to mention the fact that my BBT would be totally thrown off since little one is still getting me up a lot at night!

 

[RosemaryBaby]

I haven't started tracking but I might buy some cheap ovulation sticks. CM is not and has not been the eggy kind so I just assumed I'm not. Temping seems annoying to me and it is likely I would forget! But yeah, I also cosleeping and LO likes to nurse or comfort suck a lot so my sleep is off anyway. I won't wean either so I guess I'll just cross my fingers and hope for the best. Wouldn't it be awesome if the secret to getting pregnant while nursing is to eat a bunch of chocolate or something!?

 

[ellina]

Haha, yes . Come on science!

 

[HopefulEm]

I'm still nursing and pregnant with my second. Never did anything special, and we bed share, so DD does feed for comfort in the night still as well.

I've read many statistics online and it's quite normal for your period to come back after about a year postpartum if you're nursing. Came back pretty much exactly on time for me, when DD was just about a year.

Good luck!

 

[pachamama92]

I got pregnant in our first month ttc and I was still bf 3 yr old. DS ended up weaning off breast partly because I was in agony and partly because milk dried up at 18 weeks.

 

[SarahBear]

You don't need your period back. You just need to be ovulating. That can happen even when your period hasn't returned.

 

[ellina]

Yep, it's true. I've actually been using OPKs every now and then. I had a near-positive both the other day and almost exactly a month before that, despite no period yet. So hopefully that means things are getting started.