Breastfeeding and regularity of AF

[Mrs O'M]

So my little man is exclusively demand fed breast milk and just over 5 weeks ago AF returned. It was really light and only lasted a couple of days.

I am just wondering if I should expect my periods to go back to normal again while I am breastfeeding or will they a bit all over the place? Both in terms of heaviness and regularity.

I was really excited to have a bit of brown blood spotting about a week ago thinking it may have been implantation bleeding, since it was such a small amount, but have taken a couple of HPT and all have come up BFN.

So now I am wondering if its just my cycle doing wierd and wonderful things. TIA

[little_O]

Cant help you from personal experience except that AF came back to me at 5 months. Other females in my family say theirs were regular after that, so i will let you know when i get the next one!

Seems to be that with some women even exclusive bfing wont stop AF!!

[Jellyfish]

It really depends person to person (even baby to baby) but if you ask females within your family it might give you some ideas.

With my first it returned around 6 months (exclusively breastfeeding, not sleeping through by a long shot, hadn't began solids) and was regular from that point forward.

With my second it returned at 6 WEEKS and has been regular ever since. At the time I was breastfeeding both my girls!!!

[Starfish]

Every woman is different, but it is pretty normal for AF to be a bit all over the place to the first couple of months that it comes back. For other women it is regular straight away. If you're worried, I'd recommend you talk to your GP, but from the sounds of things, everything seems normal iykwim.

[Mrs O'M]

Thanks so much!

Fingers crossed its just af returnign back to normal in her own way and not something else going on!

[~TT40~]

AF didn't skip a beat for me. Returned straight away and my cycles are the same as they were prior to getting pregnant. although the first time it returned it was extremely heavy, since then they have been 'normal'. my girl is exclusively demand bf too, never had longer than 6hrs between feeds (normally its 3-4 hours, even over night).
But like the other girls have said, it really is different for everyone!

[Taurean]

AF returned to pretty much normal, 28 day cycles (give or take a day) for me with both girls. It returned around 10 -11 months with DD1 and 7 months with DD2.

[njon2]

I wish mine was returning normally. I'm 18 months BFing and for the past 11 months I've only had my period 3 times. I also had some spotting around the 6 month mark but it still took another 2 before I actually got it when my dd was 8 months.

Really, everyone is different and if you plan to bf past 6 months GP's will literally just blame it on that, tell you to wait it will come back When it's ready or suggest weaning.