FAM/NFP and Breastfeeding

goldy

Just a couple quick questions for my TCOYF experts

A sleeps through the night.. I mean goes to sleep around 10pm and wakes up around 8am, so in reality I am getting the hours of consecutive sleep to chart accurate temps.. right? We are exclusively breastfeeding, but since he sleeps so well through the night (hasn't woken up for a night feeding in over 6 weeks), I don't think I have that 6 month window. But, I haven't had a period yet. So will my temps be accurate (and what about cm -- I know it's wacky from the bf'ing hormones) and can I successfully use FAM to avoid conceiving.. or should we just resign ourselves to having to use back-up methods?

A is 3 months 1 week (as of yesterday).

deezee02

We used NFP to avoid pregnancy for a year and some and then to conceive right away. I do not practice NFP the first year after pregnancy just mainly due to my fear of getting pregnant that quickly. I will start charting again next month (when DD is 6 months) and then we will stop using backup methods when DD turns a year

marielle448

Once baby starts having more than one 5 hours stretch of sleep in a 24 hour period it's better to have a backup method than to rely on breastfeeding as a contraceptive method.

Before I got my periods but once baby started sleeping I was familiar enough with my body to track cervical fluid and some bodily cues to get a feel for my returning fertility.

Mamacurl3

I agree, I think that time waiting for ppaf to show up is just too hard to judge when you are ovulating. Esp since you'll probably experience patches of fertile cm, when your body gears up to ovulate (but doesn't quite reach that estrogen threshold to push out an egg). Of course, with temps, you will be able to see a thermal shift and when you know *for sure* that you've ovulated and are no longer seeing fertile cm or low temps, you may be safe to go without backup. Even though you are getting enough sleep and consecutive hours of sleep, your temps may be erratic because of the breastfeeding hormones. GL, it's a little more difficult to do when breastfeeding and waiting for your first post partum af, not quite as cut and dry as a regular cycle, but it can be done if done carefully.