Fertility While Nursing

I found this a couple weeks ago and it explains rather reasonably how fertility returns post-partum, while breastfeeding:

The greatest level of suppression is not ovulating, but as your prolactin levels go up, your fertility will gradually return. First you will ovulate, but not have the proper hormone levels for fertilization; then you will ovulate and fertilization may occur, but you still may not have the proper hormone levels for implantation; finally, you may ovulate, be fertilized, and implant, but not have the proper hormone levels for continuing the pregnancy, so you have a very early miscarriage, probably along the lines of minutes or hours after implantation, so you wouldn't know you had been pregnant. It is also possible to ovulate without having the right hormonal levels in the right combinations for the uterus to have been preparing for implantation, so yes, it is possible to ovulate without menstruating. For all of these stages, there seems to be incredible individual variation between women. Some women get pregnant again the first time they ovulate, with no intervening menstrual periods. I knew a woman in Indiana years ago who had three children in six years with no menstrual periods! Her doctor couldn't figure out when to predict her due date
From: http://www.kathydettwyler.org/detfert.html

The author, Kathy Dettwyler, has studied a lot of different aspect of nursing. Her site is pretty interesting to poke around:
http://www.kathydettwyler.org/

I found her mentions about the natural ages of weaning amongst other large mammals to be affirming of what I have been observing with my little one.

I love E.C.

This morning I was getting dressed and I heard the baby walk down the hall from his room. I called to him to see where he was and then found him holding onto the toilet seat. He looked up at me and signed for "more" and then I got him undressed and set him on his seat reducer and he proceeded to have a big poop. Yeah for no poopy diapers! Yeah for baby!

The no poopy diapers is pretty commonplace but the baby initiated trips to the bathroom are still relatively new. We invested in a second toilet seat reducer and a foldable seat for use when we are out. The foldable seat has come in handy and the second seat means that we are totally ready whenever he is.

We have a sitter come help care for the baby a few afternoons a week now as I need to get more work done and baby is ready for more than just hanging with mom and dad at the office. He will potty for her as well which is super and great for her as well as no one likes to change a poopy diaper.

Live and Learn

I've been going through my posts from 2005, the time between my myo and TTC again and then my second miscarriage. In there I found a reference I made to having headaches in my luteal phase, and for some reason I made the connection to them being related to prolactin levels. The reason this seems so odd to me is that in the middle of my past luteal phase I also had a killer headache, and since I'm nursing prolactin is easily related, though I'm not sure. That was the cycle I tried Vitex and while a little helped a lot, more didn't help at all, it rather delayed my ovulation.

Now that I'm TTC while nursing my cycles are a little more unpredicatable. I was loosely charting the start of my period since I first got my first post-partum AF in September. I've just started using Ovusoft's Taking Charge of Your Fertility software again to track it in a little more finer detail. I'm just tracking symptoms but not yet have I delved into basel temp taking. I know my little guy would be fascinated by the beeping of the thermometer and want to take it out of my mouth so I don't know that it would be a practical thing to do while co-sleeping. I also pulled out my fertility monitor from the back of the closet and took a look at it again. It might come in handy though now my thought is of all those little plastic sticks and their foil envelopes and the impact on the environment.

I'm trying to be diligent about taking my prenatal vitamins as you are supposed to do while nursing. I try to eat a balanced diet, eating a good 3-4 meals a day plus snacks to keep my calorie count up for nursing. The baby is growing well and my energy level has been good so I think we are doing okay in that regard. My partner is back taking Acetyl-l-Carnetine and Arginine again, plus his daily vitamin. We held off on grape seed extract for now and we have talked about getting some more Preseed again, that's the really expensive lube that doesn't hurt the sperm. I think one of the cheapest places to get that is through Ovusoft

Trailer for The Business of Being Born

Trying Not to Relive the Past...

I recently switched to the newer version of Blogger and I'm trying to help improve access to my earlier blog postings by adding in tags. I started at the oldest posts and was working my way forward but I hit the ones around my first pregnancy -- which is now 4 years later (amazing that it is so far behind me now) -- and I feel like it is going to be tough to categorize those really well. I think I'm going to have to just quickly tag and move on those loss posts and not get too particular about what I'm writing about in the individual ones -- it is a little too sensitive for me to read through them again.

Possible Signs of Pending Ovulation
* Slightly more "in the mood"
* About that time based on past cycles
* Nipples start to hurt while nursing
* Slightly irritable
* Hair and skin start to get oily, chance of a pimple or two
* Feeling a little more damp than usual (CM)
* Feeling a little softened up during BD

Signs that Ovulation Might Have Occured
* Feeling slightly more irritable
* Even more oily hair and skin
* More pimples showing up
* Can't find a thing to wear that I like

* Headache mid-LP
* Not "in the mood" really
* Slightly drier
* Possibly having odd waves of CM (damp/not so damp)
* Nipples hurt slightly less
* It is about that time based on past cycle
* AF shows up

New Mom's - Watch Out for "Mommy Thumb" (deQuervain's Tendonitis)

You can put yourself at risk of developing repetitive stress injuries if you don't pick up your baby properly.

deQuervain's Tendonitis

New mothers are especially prone to this type of tendonitis: caring for an infant often creates awkward hand positioning, and hormonal fluctuations associated with pregnancy and nursing further contribute to its occurrence.

Last April (my baby was 2.5 months old) I recall seeing a discussion about someone's thumbs hurting and the next day it happened to me. In the space of one day I developed deQuervain's Tendonitis in both my wrists/thumbs. I had to go for physical therapy, take ibuprofen, ice my wrists, try to get my partner to give me wrist massages, wear hand braces and it severely limited what I was able to do.

It can evidently emerge slowly or all at once so you need to try to prevent it if you can. I don't know how common it is but it was very painful -- my thumbs felt like they were going to fall off for a bit that was how weak they were, small movements in the wrong direction would give me shriekingly bad pains running down into my hands, even while sleeping. I almost dropped him on the floor a couple times because it was so bad. It took about 6 months before my hands were significantly improved and that largely was related to my baby learning how to crawl.

Prevention Tips

* When picking up your baby try not to hook your hands under their arms to lift
* If you have to pick the baby up under the arms then bear the weight more on your hand and less on your thumb
* Try not to lift up your baby from lying down to upright using that hold as it increases the likelihood of injury (said my physical therapist)
* Lift your baby by cradling their head and butt with your forearms and lift that way.
* Try to limit how much you have to move the baby around -- don't go to the changing table if you can just do the diaper change where you are.

I had to severely limit how much I moved the baby around so diaper changes were whereever we were -- on the floor, on the bed, etc. I had to bail on handwashing dishes and I would have to have my partner assist with getting the baby into and out of the bath. I also started cosleeping full-time as it really helped cut down on the amount of carrying I had to do.

Here are some shots of my wrist brace, I got two but found I only needed to really wear it on my left wrist which was the more badly injured. The braces are totally worth it as the normal sleeping position of most people involves curling your hands in, a position that actually aggravates the condition. The braces help protect the inflamed and swollen area of the wrist and hold your hands in a neutral position. Ace bandages actually add pressure and contribute to more pain.



Oh, and I wanted to add that the doctor I consulted with, a hand specialist, said that they usually see this emerge in mothers of older infants/toddlers. My baby grew really fast though and I think that contributed to it -- my body couldn't adapt fast enough to the weight I was lifting.
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Note: My health insurance didn't cover the physical therapy, plus it was just one more thing to try to manage to fit in with the baby that I could have done without. Do try to protect yourself and avoid developing this condition -- you will thank yourself later.

On a pottying kick

Jonah's been on a pottying kick since the weekend. It seems as though now that he's mastered walking he can now devote a little more energy to communicating about when he needs to go. I broke out the training pants as I was getting tired of taking his prefold and cover off and on so much. He's been holding for long periods of time, communicating about when he needs to go, and staying fairly dry. Lots of trips to the bathroom and he love washing his hands so much that mine are soooo dry. We are still diapering him but I'm trying to make it easier when I'm able to focus on helping with the pottying.

The Diaperaps Training pants in 2T fit perfectly and are way easier off and on. I've been using them with Babylegs when we are just around the house.

Ack, moodiness

The longer I go post-partum the more my body gets its cycle hormones back into gear and the more I start to feel the affects again. Blah. I'm just sitting here minding my own business after ovulating on Monday and a wave of despair just passed right over me.

I've been grateful for the break that being pregnant and nursing has given me from my awful PMS. Having these alternate hormonal realities really points out to me how it is likely our species, the female of our species, weren't really intended to go on having period after period after period for 22+ years straight. No wonder my hormones were over the top. Whether we like it or not I think our bodies were intended to switch into pregnancy and nursing and get a break from all the mood swings that come with menstruation.

We did give it a good try for this cycle and then I went in for an acupuncture visit on Tuesday. She was only able to tonify as we had tried but it was good to get that going again. If this cycle doesn't work out for us then I'll go back for regular treatment to see about helping get my body more baby ready for #2. Still there's a part of me that wonders what we are in for -- an easier time? more of the same (miscarriages, infertility)? It is hard to say how I will feel if we start to revisit some of the sadder places in TTC land.

Reflections on Co-sleeping

It has been interesting for me to watch as my baby developed in so many ways from the unique vantage point of co-sleeping, especially coupled with our part-time EC.

I learned that just when things were getting to me at night that a few weeks later things would change. That between 3-6 months he was pretty disturbed from his sleep by his elimination but that around 7 months sleep trumped middle of the night diaper changes.

Or how big developmental changes, like learning how to crawl, would really get him going to such a degree that he would be trying to crawl across the bed in his sleep.

At three months you are entering into the window of developing hand control as I recall. I travelled with my little guy last year around that time so it's kinda fixed in my mind as well about how much he was up and down all night long. That was particularly rough since I was alone, without my partner.

A mom of twins I know, who co-slept through the first 18 months or so, said something that for me really helped me put things in perspective -- that her really bad days were ones when she had lists. She realized that setting her expectations too high for what they could get done in a given day would just set her up for conflict, frustration and aggravation. Better to go with the flow.

I also found that when I would consult my baby advice books about what my baby was supposed to be doing that it often set me up for conflict with my little one as well. It's reasonable to test out certain theories and then back off of course, such as my recent try as dropping one feeding during the night with my 14 MO. While no one said it would be easy I realized that it also was majorly disrupting both of our sleep, and my baby sleeps pretty well other than night nursing, so why mess with that.

For you, there could possibly be other causes that you might rule out such as food sensitivities, physical changes, perhaps medical issues like reflux. But it might just be a passing thing.

Co-sleeping can be a challenge at times, and it doesn't work for everyone -- parents, family or baby. Still, it is such a sweet thing to be able to hold your baby near you at night, to be right there to help comfort them and then to watch as they grow in your arms over so many days and months.

PPAF While Nursing - Return to Fertility

I've just gotten my fifth PPAF at 14 months PP and finally its a little more normal, indicating that my body was able to put up a reasonable lining. My cycles have evened out to be about 5 weeks long, though the time between when I and when arrives is pretty consistently 2 weeks now.

We are wanting to start to TTC for #2 soon so it was rather worrying to me that my lining was so thin. Nothing's really changed in terms of how much I am feeding him I don't think. Perhaps my body is just getting back fully into the swing of things.

14 Months Old

I can't believe that its been over a year since Jonah joined our family. I also can't believe that he's been pottying for a year as well. I think back to different points over the past year and its funny to my brain when I recall that he was smaller, less developed, had fewer capabilities, etc. Like how sitting up unassisted took forever. Or how tall he was when he first started learning how to slide off the bed backwards.

Jonah is such a sweet little baby boy. Overall he's really even tempered, interactive, conversive, and curious. He's getting more into little tantrums now, mostly when we don't do what he wanted -- such as putting him down when he didn't want to, or if his dad gets him when he wanted me to do something with him. He arches his back dramatically and its hard to hold him up. We either lay him down on the floor and ask him to stop or we pull him in close and hug him for the most part, and that's the best we can do as he learns how to express himself and modulate his feelings. It must be so frustrating to be both independant and dependant and also not fully able to express yourself.

He likes walking around holding our hands or pushing his little Radio Flyer car that he got for Christmas. He also can crawl up and down the stairs really quickly now and some days I have a hard time getting him to wait so I can go with him to help keep him safe. He is also really digging walking the stairs while I hold his hands. He wants to master all these skills and then some. Another favorite is giving him a plastic water bottle with a cap and let him try to figure out how to take it off and put it on all lined up properly. That can keep him occupied for a good half hour or more.

He loves being outside and we try to let him have some good exercise as the weather permits. He does get a good 45 minute stroller walk every day, rain or shine, to our office downtown.

He's still nursing and while he eats solids he still favors milk more. Both for comfort and in place of other foods. He eats, he really does, but he's not yet entered the phase where solids are tops. Also, he needs a good few hours between meals before he's hungry again it seems. He doesn't mind little tastes in between but he can be picky about it as well. We eat dinner in the livingroom as we only have the formal diningroom and no eating area in the kitchen. I sit on the floor by the coffee table and he comes over and stands next to me and shares with me most of the time. He's very interested in learning how to use table cutlery so I try to grab him a teaspoon so he can practice jabbing at the food on my plate. With supervision I will also let him use my fork. It all seems really natural and with our continued nursing realtionship I don't worry too much about him being picky about what he eats.

We go to a class at our local community college once a week and he loves it there. They have a ton of toys and all the other little ones around his age, plus a toddler sized slide and more. We sing songs and when I sing them when we are away from class he gets into it.

He is also a music lover. Most kinds of music will get him waving his hands in the air, even passing cars with their radios on. He has a guitar and a new toy piano, lots of rattles and shakers, some drums and a Leap Frog music table. I have a bunch of music CDs just for him and keep the car CD player loaded up with them for when we are driving around. He also loves when I put his music on to play from my iPhone.

Now that Spring is here I've bumped up his wardrobe a bit as he's going to be in the 2T sizes for a while and it's time to learn how to play outside. He loves the parks in our neighborhood, the swings and slide best but he is also learning how to climb around on one with a platform and a tunnel, which has just enough of a structure that he can climb up it with supervision. Some of the parks have shared trucks and sand toys and he loves trying those out as well.

We are expert truck and airplane spotters in our house now as well. Even when he isn't with me I will think -- "oh look, a cement truck!". We've seen cement trucks, tank trucks, bulldozers, dump trucks, bucket trucks, utility trucks, tow trucks towing cars, drilling trucks, flatbed trucks, and so many more. It it funny how your perspective and attention shift when you have a little one around, you notice things that you took for granted before. Our house is also lined up with the most common coorider for plans approaching Seatac from the north. As a result we can look at planes flying overhead day and night, with lights blinking, peeking out from behind the clouds. And all kinds of planes. And helicopters. He also loves buses -- city buses, little buses, school buses.

His language skills are still developing and right now everything is "UTt" but he has tried out the following words - bird, bus, truck, dog, cat, that, yes, daddy, out, up, done, moon, plane. He also signs, in varying degrees of consistency, for: more, milk, eat, done, diaper, potty, sleep, wash/bath. I'm working with him on: airplane, helicopter, friend, moon, open door. He uses the sign for more a lot. I'll ask him if he is all done or if he wants/needs more and he will sign more if he isn't finished -- as in still needs to go potty even though his diaper is wet, still hungry, wants to swing more at the park, wants to nurse more, etc. It is pretty sweet.

Also, I cancelled the diaper service a few weeks ago and we are exclusively using our own diaper stash of prefolds. We wash every other day and it sure helps to keep the smell down compared to the weekly diaper pick-up. He still uses about 10 prefolds a day, but he is also pottying on top of that. He usually pees three times in the morning when he gets up and three times before bed -- so it is hard to convince him to get undressed all that many times which is why we are using so many. He also hates having his diaper changed now. Something about being mad about being wet and being interupted from what he's doing and who knows what else. I try to tell him that if he doesn't want to use a diaper then he will have to use the potty but its too soon for him to be fully trained.

A few weeks ago he transitioned to one nap and it was a little bumpy. Depending on the day though and how his nap falls, some days he still needs a second nap. Most often we just take a rest in bed and nurse and read books for some quiet time before dinner which seems to help take the edge off.

I'll see about posting more soon.

TTC While Nursing

I asked about this on a breastfeeding forum this weekend and didn't get any replies. I had a little extra time so I looked it up on Kellymom.

Breastfeeding and Fertility - Kellymom.com

It looks like there are a few factors to consider.

Does your nursing pattern match the conditions for ecological breastfeeding(using nursing for natural birth control? )

* keeping baby close
* breastfeeding on cue (day and night)
* using breastfeeding to comfort your baby
* breastfeeding in a lying-down position for naps and at night
* using no bottles or pacifiers

Are you away from your baby at all during the day?

Does your baby sleep with you? Does your baby sleep for long stretches through the night?

Have you had a return of AF? How regular is it?

Is your baby eating solids? More solids than nursing?

Have you lost too much weight while nursing?

Make sure you have enough body fat and are getting the right nutrients so your body is able to nurse and return to full fertility.


My baby is 13 months old and I've had AF four times now. My flow has been scant and my ovulation signs look to me like my body is struggling to get over that hormonal hill -- waves of EWCM but not quite ovulating (I can kinda tell). I had to bump up how many calories I eat and the frequency, plus adding in extra calcium -- a hormonal building block. The biggest gap between cycles seemed to be related to when I lost the most weight from nursing.

A couple strategies I'm thinking of employing are:

Increasing his intake of solids. While he loves nursing, I'm trying to make the extra effort to offer solids (snacks and meals) and make sure he eats as much food as he wants.

Night-weaning -- trying to eliminate the 3AM feeding seems to be the key definition of night-weaning from what I've read.

If that doesn't work I'm going to see if acupuncture might help.

Yes I've been negligent. I can't make it up to you all but know that taking care of a baby while trying to run a business while working part-time doesn't leave a lot of personal time. What time I do have I end up reading or knitting, just to have a little break.

Jonah is a year old now and super cute as always. He's close to walking, trying to talk, and is getting into mischief more and more. He tries to fake us out and do things he's not supposed to such as playing with the stereo receiver.

My partner and I are starting preparations for trying to conceive another baby starting with taking our vitamins diligently. That really helped with his morphology issues last time. We're shooting for a big effort come May -- it is when we always/only get pregnant.

I also need to visit my OB/Gyn and check out that existing fibroid. It hasn't really bothered me except for the few times I've ovulated since Jonah was born.

We're still nursing, cloth diapering, co-sleeping, doing elimination communication part-time, and some sign language. Sounds like a lot of work but it isn't. Pottying the baby is a really good thing though and I definately recommend trying it out.

Talk to you soon.

-A

What's this about? Anxiety around #2 all of the sudden

Here's my big EC challenge. My little guy, almost 11months old will wake up from naps or in the morning and occasionally will have to have a BM. He hasn't been signalling as well for BMs -- though it was the place we started with for EC and he was most consistant about since we started pottying at 2 months old.

Lately it seems I can get half of it in the potty, usually the second half, but just now and one other time it was the first half. I got him to pee and poop and then he started to freak and wanted off the toilet. It seemed like he had to go more but he wanted to have nothing to do with it and then just went in his diaper while playing but didn't say anything about it.

He seemed freaked out by having to go so much or perhaps because we've been feeding him solids more it feels overwelming to him now that things are starting to firm up more. I'm still nursing him quite a lot so things are still on the softer side.

Happy pottying at 10 months old

I just wanted to give another update. Our little one is now 10 1/2 months old now and we're still pottying part-time.

His recent thing to not want to go potty, even if it looks like he has to go (little boy's penises stick out a little when they are full); he arches his back and doesn't want to do it. One thing that helped was to change how I set him down on the seat (toilet seat insert), instead of draping him backward into the seat to sit him down by holding him under the thighs and setting him down more exactly.

The other thing he introduced over the past week which seems to be working better as well is to bring him into the bathroom and then asking him if he has to go. I'll let him crawl over to the toilet and then he tries to help set his little seat on (either I help lift the seat up with him if if it is on the floor or else he wiggles it if it is already on the toilet). I then undress him while he stands and he will go pretty agreeably. Yeah!

The problem with this was putting him back together again with the
prefold diaper and Snappi -- you can't really Snappi well while they are standing, at least in my experience. After reading something in the Sears Baby Book I decided to try out using diaper pins. I can unpin one leg and get him undone and then just have to slide that leg back through and repin when he's done. The cover I can do okay while he is standing. Pants of course are a different story --stretchy or snapped are better than ones that need a lot of pulling to get up.

The other exciting thing was that my parents are visiting and my dad pottied the baby while I was out the other day. That's the first time anyone other than my partner or I have tried to do it.

Hoping you are having happy potty experiences as well.

Happy Halloween

Sorry for the no posting. I have some stuff I can repost here to catch up -- when I have time. Perhaps you can read about how Jonah's first year went after its over (sigh).

Enough about that. I wanted to share his Halloween costume and some other spooky photos.

This year Jonah is going as the infant Harry Potter, from the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. He's got his little cowlick and toy broom from his godfather Sirius Black.



Here are also some very sca-ary pictures --- oooh! are you scared yet?

Using a Potty Seat

Jonah grew really fast and was getting a bit heavy to hold, particularly as I've got tendonitis in one wrist from lifting him (since last April, sigh). I decided to try out the Baby Bjorn Little Potty. He liked using that potty for a while (4-6 months), though I noticed that he really did need to have the ability to sit upright with some support to use it -- so I don't think it would work that well before then.

Now that he's gotten even bigger (wearing 18 month sizes at 7.5 months!) he has decided that he doesn't want to use that little potty anymore. Now I keep it by the bed and use it to stash wet diapers from changes overnight so I don't have to get up and don't wake him with rustling plastic.

We bought a toilet insert at Fred Meyer on a whim in August as we thought he was large enough for one and he likes that a lot. In fact, he won't really go now if I try holding him over the toilet by the thighs -- except when we are out.

With the toilet seat insert, a cushioned vinyl covered on with Blues Clues pattern, its not as cold as the baby bjorn potty was. Also, we don't have to clean it up -- everything just goes in the toilet which is a plus. We have some light up ducks that we use in the bath next to the toilet, on the edge of the tub which help keep him interested in sitting there. He also is liking learning how to turn the tap on the tub off and on -- usually if he's that distracted he's done or didn't have to go in the first place.

We keep his bouncer seat in the bathroom so often I will set him down in it and then go potty myself afterwards which seems to please him as well -- everybody goes potty dontcha know?

I think talking to him about pottying and introducing hands signs early on has helped out a lot. Also, anticipating when he will need to go next. He tends to signal more when he's sleepy, and less so when he's playing.

A recent development is that he doesn't want to pee in his diaper when we are out and often makes a fuss, which takes us a bit to figure out of course. My partner thinks its some sort of social behavior learning -- to not want to wet himself when he's in social settings.

He's only pooping every other day or so, which was a little harder to keep track of. He ended up soiling himself a couple times in the mornings and since then I think he and I have realized we need to make a better effort -- as he doesn't like it as much as I don't when he's got that kind of dirty diaper.

Seven Months Old

We’re calling him a pre-toddler now. He’s got opinions about stuff, he can sit up by himself, he has his first tooth, he’s getting ready to crawl, splashing all over in the bath, and taking steps with help from mama. He also likes working on a computer keyboard, talking on walkie talkies and playing the guitar with both hands.

He’s so big he’s officially fitting into 18 month sizes and I’m not buying smaller than 18/24 or 2T now.

I came across a few interesting links and I thought I would share...

 

Interesting site about baby food

http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/

 

Site with links to American made toys - if you are concerned about the lead paint scare (and so many things are made in China these days)

http://www.toysmadeinamerica.com/

 

Also, I don't know if you have heard about the BPA (plasticizers) in plastic bottles - but evidently this compound is in baby bottles as well (see http://www.bisphenolafree.org/). Polycarbonate bottles aren't safe either. The few brands I've heard of that are BPA free are Sassy Mam Assurity (what we were already using coincidently www.sassybaby.com), BornFree (http://www.newbornfree.com/) and the Playtex bottles with the drop-in liners.

 

The pacifiers I've bought both have silicone nipples made in Germany or Austria (Gerber Nuk and Sassy Mam), you might want to double check yours, though I think silicone is the norm these days.

Jonah just had his first dip in the wading pool at park this afternoon and loved it. We're off camping this weekend, Jonah's first camping trip. It's been an annual event for the past 5 years or so, I hope it goes well. Should be interesting if nothing else.