Breastfeeding and Temping

kitkat2731

Just wondering who here temps as their primary form of bc. I was temping while TTC, but now with a 6 wk old who wakes up 2-3 times a night to eat, I hate the idea of setting an alarm to take my temp. If I could be guaranteed it would coincide with DD's feeding, I'd be all about it, but she wakes up different times every night. Usually 4-5 hrs apart, but sometimes only 3, and rarely on any sort of regular schedule. I know proponents of temping say it only takes a second to take your temp and roll back over, but that's one more wake up than I'd like at this point. Any advice/experience/alternatives welcome!

mltarrio

My baby is almost 6 months old and I have been temping and using FAM since she was born. My natural cycles haven't returned yet, but I am keeping on top of it so I know when they do (and don't get pregnant again until I am ready). 

Does your baby have one reliable stretch of sleep at night? Or one reliable wake-up time? Even if is 2am, taking at the same time will help keep things reliable. I also mark my questionable temps for times when I have only been asleep for 2 hours, or when baby is in bed with me when I temp. It may not be perfect but it is working for me right now. That being said we are also using withdrawal until my cycles regulated because I am not up for a surprise. 

I highly recommend Kindara for tracking, and there is a robust community on there who might also have some ideas.

delujm0

Here is what I did/am doing.

 

I didn't temp until after my first cycle.  I peed on a stick on DD's month-birthday every month (used that day because it was easy to remember) just to be safe.  Going into my first cycle, I noticed several batches of EWCM, recurring for several weeks, so I knew I was going to ovulate soon.  That was enough for me to know what was going on - if you don't know how to read CM, that might not work for you.  My cycles returned right around DD's 6 month birthday.  They started up again about 3-4 weeks after she started regularly sleeping 9-10 hours at night (and I stopped pumping while she slept for my stash).

 

I started temping, and would basically just take my temperature any time I woke up at night, and then use the lowest one I got for the day.  it worked well for me.  I was also tracking CM as a backup.  I stopped temping after 3 cycles though, because I was getting really frustrated about my short LPs (common when breastfeeding).  And then I had mastitis and an anovulatory cycle, and I just threw in the towel.  We want #2 to happen soon because we're a bit older, so for a few cycles I just tracked CM and my periods.  My cycles pre-DD were normally 34 days, so I figured I'd take a test if I ever made it to day 35, which hasn't happened yet.  This cycle, now that I'm pump-weaning, things look a lot like they used to pre-breastfeeding, which is awesome, so I wish I had started temping again.  I tried at the beginning of this cycle but had a few nights in a row of rough sleep and gave up.  I plan to start again next cycle.

 

Temping to avoid wouldn't be super stressful...I just hated seeing my short LPs.  Before DD they were 14 days and the first few cycles PP they were between 7-9.  I figured with LPs that short, the chances of me getting pregnant were basically zero.  Last cycle it looked to be 11-12 days though, so I think I'm back in the game now.  Expect your LPs to be wonky at first.  I am hoping to be able to continue nursing DD at night and be able to get pregnant with #2, but if that doesn't happen i'll probably force her to wean around 18 months.  we'll see how it goes.