breastfeeding dilemma

mrsmermaid · Feb 8, 2011 3:44AM

Hello ladies I have a dilemma and I wonder if you could help. I had my little girl in October and she's now 15 weeks. She's exclusively breast fed and feeds about 3 hourly during the day (sometimes less) and 3-4 hourly at night. I think some of the time she's sucking for comfort too. We co-sleep so often I'll wake up and she'll be helping herself!

Now I am more than happy to continue breastfeeding but I am 33 and would like at least one more child but probably 2 and maybe more. Also it took 9 months to become pregnant with this baby so I'm not confident it will happen quickly if we were to start trying again.

So the way I see it I can either continue what I'm doing and take a chance with future pregnancies ie difficulty getting pregnant/older age so higher risk pregnancy/having less children or I try and wean this one onto food or formula early than I would have liked.

Also do I have to get her into a cot to stop her nursing at night or might my periods return if I continue to nurse at night? How many times a day were people breast feeding before their periods returned? I'd love to give her some breast milk longer term but not sure if I want to do this at the expense of giving her a brother or sister.

Also if I express milk and freeze it will this be better than formula - surely freezing it destroys lots of the ???????goodness????????

Help please!

(also in baby)

gemm-42032 · Feb 6, 2011 4:51PM

Hi, im still breastfeeding and my lo turned 1 last week. I only feed at lunchtime and bed time and im sure he is only really getting fresh air. Ive had a couple of periods over the last year but its only now my periods have returned. I had one at the start of jan and now another 4 weeks later so im guessing they are back now. I know everyone is different tho.

I wouldnt want to give up bf to fall pg just yet and even tho it took a while to fall pg the first time, im sure it wont take as long the next time. At 33 you are not over the hill yet, i had my first at 32, and ive had my 3rd at 36.

Gemm x

Gail1977 · Feb 7, 2011 3:15PM

I fed my baby exclusively and slept with her until she was 18 months and my periods returned when she was 6 months once she was starting on solids and having less milk.

freezing your milk is still way better than formula though so if you want to do it that way, do it.

I can see why you are worried about getting pregnant but sometimes people get pregnant easier second time once you've had a baby.

Why don't you see what happens when she hits 6 months and once food is introduced things may change. My daughter fed 2 hourly through the day and night and mine still returned x

Reenyree · Feb 7, 2011 3:49PM

I have just gone down to two feeds a day (LO just turned one at the weekend) and periods have only just returned (last week).

michelle07-79314 · Feb 7, 2011 6:01PM

I had my second baby when i was 34 and got pregnant again when he was 4 months old! while still exclusively b/fing and i continued to feed him through the pregnancy and both him and his sister til he was 22 months (she was nearly 10 months)

Then i had my 4th baby when i was 38 and got pregnant again when he was 8 months and still breastfeeding and had my 5th just before my 40th birthday and i am now breastfeeding them both he is 21 months and baby is 4 months

I'm proof you don't need to stop breastfeeding to get pregnant

good luck. xx

mrsmermaid · Feb 8, 2011 3:44AM

Thanks everyone! It looks like there's a lot of variation in when peoples periods/fertility returns. I'm not too concerned about being "old" for the next one but i'm not sure how many more i want and although i know many people have healthy babies in their late 30's and 40's i wouldn't want to aim to do that if i could have them a little earlier and closer together instead.

It would be great if i knew my periods were going to return when i started weaning but it seems some people's fertilty takes much longer to return. Anyway i've started to express and freeze and am going to continue BFing for now and in a few weeks i'll try weaning and see what happens. If periods return when i reduce BFing, then great, if not i'll stop altogether and use the frozen milk. Definitely wont be before 6 months though!

Thanks. x

breastfeeding dilemma

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