Wtt for baby number 2 & breastfeeding!

[lucy_smith]

Anyone here stopped breastfeeding to ttc ? There doesn't seem to be much information on it, but I'm desperate to have my children close in age! My lo is 8 weeks now and I would love to have them close together. Am I a bad mother for wanting to stop breastfeeding? It's not just to ttc but it's also to help with our lifestyle, sitting on the sofa all morning and evening while cluster feeding is not the easiest when I have things to do! Is that wrong? I feel bad for wanting to stop for personal reasons and not medical

 

[hardd2011]

There is a way to achieve pregnancy while breastfeeding. I would continue breastfeeding. Especially if you want to get pregnant again because trying to bottle feed through the night will be hard when you are tired and maybe not feeling well. Good luck. Search the internet. They have techniques to jump start your period while breastfeeding

 

[stefdan]

I read some related articles couple days ago. I hope you'll find this helpful!
Once the hormone levels start to drop (the hormone that suppresses ovulation and products milk), your chance of getting pregnant will be higher. But you don’t have to stop feeding completely, teaches your baby to sleep thorough the night without feeding can do the same job.
Do what is best for you and your baby! Don’t be too hard on yourself ☺

 

[staralfur]

No idea about TTC but just wanted to say that the clusterfeeding does dwindle (and you've already made it through the worst of it at 8 weeks). Soon breastfeeding will be WAY easier than formula feeding and you've already made it through the hard part of establishing breastfeeding so it'd be a shame (imo) to ditch it right before you get the perk of it being really easy!

 

[Scarlett P]

^^^^ what she said!!! It defo gets easier and beats making up bottles I think! But I guess it depends on how close you want them. One of my friends didn't start ovulating until she stopped breastfeeding at 9 months and then got pregnant straight away. Another of my friends got pregnant when her first was 15 months and is now feeding both her sons. But by then she was only feeding a couple of times a day so her cycles had come back.

Maybe see what happens over the next few weeks? Some women can exclusively breast feed and then still get their cycles back really quickly (one of my friends at 12 weeks) so if you're happy feeding it would be a shame to stop if you turned out to be one of those women anyway.

But you're defo not a bad mama and at the end of the day need to do what is right for you. I happy mummy means a happy baby! xxx

 

[Amygdala]

as others have said, breastfeeding doesn't necessarily mean you can't get pregnant. I exclusively breastfed both my kids and my periods returned 6 weeks postpartum with both.
Only you can know whether it'd be right for you to stop breastfeeding for those reasons. But, seeing as you asked, I personally think it'd be a shame if you did. As you no doubt know, breastfeeding comes with lots of benefits for the baby. It helps protect against lots of things, from obesity to colds, asthma and even some cancers. I know it's not a popular way to put it, but by switching to formula, you would be increasing your baby's risk of those things. So for me, if breastfeeding is working out, it's not worth giving up for anything. You'd only be exclusively feeding for another 2 to 4 months anyway and after that, you pretty quickly get more freedom. I know that may sound like a long time, but it really isn't, and would make a big difference to baby's long-term health.


DISCLAIMER: I'm not judging anyone who can't breastfeed or even chooses not to. I'm only answering Lucy's question because she's asked for people's views on the topic. Obviously every mum has to decide herself what's right for her baby and herself.