The return of fertility?

Friday, July 18, 2014

The reason that I started this blog was because of fertility (or lack of fertility) reasons and lately I have not been focusing any of my writing on this subject.  My early posts are pretty much all about pee sticks, CM, temping, charting, etc.  These days I am more concerned with preventing pregnancy that trying to get pregnant, but I have ZERO interest in ever taking hormonal birth control ever again.  I learned a lot with regards to natural fertility signs when we were trying to get pregnant, so I am going to hope that I can stick with that method of birth control until we decide with 100% certainty that there will never be another child.  I just can't close the door...and lock it...yet.

I am still breastfeeding quite a bit, even now that B has hit the 15 month mark (today) and more so the past few days since he has been sick with an ear infection.  He normally nurses before I leave for work, as soon as I get home from work, before bed, and occasionally once in the middle of the night.  I am also still pumping once a day at work and he gets a sippy with milk at that time.  This seems to have continued to suppress my fertility since I still have not gotten my first postpartum period yet.  Every couple of weeks I seem to have a patch of EWCM (but negative OPK) followed by some cramping a few weeks after that and the feeling that I am going to get my period, but not getting it (and having negative HPT).

This past week has seen the return of my normal pre-baby CM levels, which for me is a lot.  A couple of days of watery followed by a TON of EWCM.  Yesterday I was curious as to whether or not I might actually be ovulating, so I took a Wondfo and a Clearblue Digi test and this is what I got...

Ovulating again??

I know it is possible to get a positive OPK and not ovulate, but with all of the fertile CM, too?  I'm not sure.  Googling found me some forum posts about nursing moms having this happen before an actual return of fertility.  You get fertile CM, a positive OPK, maybe some cramping, but no actual ovulation.  I guess your body can gear up to ovulate again many times before you actually do, while breastfeeding or in the months after having a baby.  Who knew?  

Either way, I think it is best that my husband and I are careful from here on out.  Getting pregnant right now (if it were possible) wouldn't be something that we would be able to handle right now, for many different reasons.  We did DTD last Sunday and didn't use protection per-say, other than the very unscientific pull-and-pray method, which I know is not very effective on its own.  We'll see what happens in the next few weeks.  I am really hoping that we didn't screw up and bank on the nursing/PNP form of birth control when we should have been using condoms.  

Anyone else using nursing/PNP as birth control?  Anyone else nursing past 12 months out there that still hasn't gotten a PPAF?

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One Response to “The return of fertility? ”

  1. DeeJuly 20, 2014 at 11:20 PM

    Yes, there are a handful of us still period-free on the April boards. Nursing at this point is not birth control; look at it as a way to assist in spacing children but not a way to avoid pregnancy if you couldn't handle it right now. There are Catholic-based NFP classes offered by the Couple to Couple League that specifically deal with the lacational amenorrheic time after birth, which can be challenging in terms of spotting and charting returning fertility signs. Perhaps do a class search on the CCL's website.

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