It showed Monday afternoon

I finally started my cycle on Monday afternoon.  I finally got a call for my cycle review from PPVI this evening and they are supposed to call me back in the morning.  I'm hoping that the significant reduction in K's nursing will helping and that we won't have to wean completely anytime soon.  I'm definitely disappointed and I hope that we can at least have decent timing this cycle.  Last cycle cut it close only using P-2.

My progesterone and estrogen continue to look good and I'm wondering what Dr. H will suggest this time around.

Negative test, still waiting

I had a negative test this morning at P+14, but I'm still waiting for CD1 to show.  I tend to only go to P+13, so I had some hope that I might actually get a positive test.  After a long cycle (didn't ovulate until CD 25), I'm still waiting and I'm frustrated.  I don't want to deal with another cycle of TTC right now.  I'm tired and our schedules are not meshing well on that front.  If I do have to deal with another cycle, I just want to hurry up and get it started and do my cycle review and everything.

The last couple days we have been able to go to where K only nurses when she wakes up, at naptime, when she wakes from nap, at bedtime and then once in the morning between 4 and 6.  This is a vast improvement since she still sometimes nurse an hour apart even a month ago.  I do have to tell her no when she asks to nurse outside of those times (she signs milk please), but she seems to handle it pretty well until just before sleeping.  I have no problem continuing to nurse for at least 3 more months, especially if I can manage to get pregnant.

K had been doing really well with having BMs on the toilet, but she has started going in her diaper again the last couple days.  Yes, she is only 17 months, but it's frustrating when she had been having maybe 1 a week in her diaper for months and now she's gone 5 times in 3 days and isn't telling me.

On Bloomburg and formula, i.e. Formula IS medicine

Bloomburg is a crazy nanny statist, but in the formula area (not a ban if you actually read about it, just having nurses not hand it out like candy really), he is right.  Formula is medicine.  This is coming from someone who had to supplement with formula for 6 months of her child's life (I still continued to breastfeed and am breastfeeding her still at 16 months old).  All  they are doing is having mothers request the formula instead of formula being pushed on them by nurses find it easier to hand out formula than give a mom who is trying to breastfeed the support she needs to be successful.  Breastfeeding is hard work and many mother fail at breastfeeding successfully because of lack of information and support, not necessarily the true ability to do it.  Moms should be given every possible resource to help them to breastfeed their children and women should not encouraged to automatically pop a bottle of formula in their child's mouth at the first sign of problems.  The formula companies spent the 50s convincing mothers that formula was better than the "old-fashioned" breastfeeding, and it has taken decades for people to realize otherwise.   Lack of breastfeeding knowledge from older generations is why we are still having so many mothers chose not to breastfeed or not have success at it.

Cycle #2 of Round 2

I'm on CD 3 of my second cycle.  We had had good timing and I felt really hungry and then nauseous, but it turned out the nausea was just a horrible stomach virus so I felt terrible most of Tuesday and Wednesday.  I had tested Tuesday morning and it was BFN obviously.

I had my annual with my new OBGYN (my old one who delivered K retired and this doctor took over the practice).  I really like her.  She seems to have the same philosophy on birth as I do (minimal intervention).  The only thing that I didn't agree with was that she didn't want me to get pregnant while I'm breastfeeding.  I don't have any plans to wean K soon, and I don't think that it's something I'm going to worry about.  If I can get pregnant while breastfeeding, so be it and we'll continue as long as we both want to.

I did my cycle review with the PPVI nurse on Friday afternoon and they are going to talk to Dr. H and call me on Monday if there is anything in addition to doing the P+7 bloodwork that they want me to do.  By the way, my P+7 levels this past cycle with K still nursing 6+ times a day were progesterone 21 and estrogen 16.4, which is pretty decent.

K will be 14 months on Friday and she is walking indepently part-time.  She still crawls a lot and insists on holding onto my hand, etc.  I'm still hoping she'll be walking full-time by my SIL's wedding, but it's only 2 weeks away now, so I don't know.  She has been having a cranky couple days; we're pretty sure it's the teeth that are trying to come in.  It's really trying dealing with the whining all day long.
 

Part II Round I

So my cycle started back on Sunday.  It's a bit weird to start again after having a 22 month break.  My cycle doesn't seem really horrible like some people have described their first cycle after pregnancy.  I'm still nursing but my cycle seems to have started about 6 weeks after nightweaning.  We'll see how a few cycles go (I had taken a break from charting, but I'm going back now) and we'll be TTC, but won't be doing any meds, bloodwork or anything until at least July or August. I'm not going to push weaning.   I'll continue just to offer her other options for something to drink or take her outside so she's not bored.

I finished my class and passed the final, so now I'm looking for a job.  The nice thing is that I'll be able to work from home, although I'll probably be working like 10 pm-2 am and not getting a lot of sleep.  Thankfully K does usually sleep until 8 am or so, so hopefully I'll be able to get a few hours and then nap some during her naps.

To (partially) wean or not to wean?

K is still nursing probably 10 or more times in a day, even though she eats solid food great generally and is pretty much night weaned. I'm not planning to completely wean anytime soon, but I still haven't had a period and we want to start trying for baby #2 and have wanted to for a while.  I'm not sure how to gently reduce her nursing.  She is pretty persistent and know where the milk comes from.

 She nurses right before bed between 8:30-9 pm, and then usually wakes briefly between 6-7 am to nurse and generally goes back to sleep for another hour or so.  She nurses again when she wakes for the day between 7-8 am.  Once she up, I make our breakfast and she generally eats some fruit, an egg yolk and some yogurt.  Then about 9 we go to take our shower and she nurses again.  She then nurses before nap about 11, but sometimes she will even nurse before that.  She nurses again after her nap (between 12-12:30 pm).  Then we have lunch (meat, veggies, maybe rice, etc.).  She usually nurses again after lunch.  I do try to offer water when I remember, but a lot of the time she just wants to nurse.  She nurses again before her second nap usually between 3:30-4 pm.  She nurses again when she wakes up between 4:15-5 pm.  We usually eat dinner around 6-6:30 pm and she usually has a slice of cheese as a snack before that.  She usually nurses once or twice between finishing dinner and getting ready for bed.  She has a cup of kefir (cultured milk, kind

She seems to tend to nurse more when she's teething (she's getting 3 top teeth right now) or when she's bored.  She also wants to nurse when she is sitting on the potty.  I've started to take her on more walks to keep her from getting bored.  I definitely want to continue nursing before bedtime and naps and first thing in the morning.  Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated.