Intro - Breastfeeding through IVF.......

dp21 · May 2016

I'm back!

Hello everyone!

I have a beautiful DD conceived through IVF born Jan 2015. She is 16 months now. I have DOR and my hubby has low sperm count. We are a double whammy.
Motherhood has been intense. I work as a nurse and I'm in full-time graduate school to become a nurse practitioner, it's been a crazy year. We are thinking about going through IVF again this summer when I have a nice break in school, be pregnant last year of grad school, and hopefully pop out second baby when done...figured it would be acceptable to take year off after graduation for baby before starting new career. So I have a lot on my mind regarding baby, careers, etc. I am turning 32 this month and with DOR we don't want to wait longer.

So here is the dilemma. I am still breastfeeding my 16 month old. We had lots of breastfeeding struggles in the beginning and we finally have it going strong and I love and cherish my breastfeeding relationship. It's one thing my body has done right. I highly value our bf relationship and don't want to wean. Have any of you breastfed through IVF? What have your REs said? We have our first appointment with RE this upcoming Tuesday.

Here is a blog post that spells out my feelings exactly: https://babydustdiaries.wordpress.com/2010/06/10/breastfeeding-through-fertility-treatments-ivf-and-fet/

Need help thinking through this. Thanks in advance!

Mrs.AmyDylan · May 2016

Sorry, I'm not on TB very much anymore. We BF through IVF, but a but accidentally. My DD was 2 when we cycled again. I met with an IBCLC and we went through my meds list. She indicated the fertility meds would be okay for a toddler, but not a baby. The meds will tank your supply, but pregnancy will do that too. I was concerned about the drug exposure, so I elected to wean during stims (we didn't BF for 12 days). On the morning after my ER DD fell and busted her lip. She was screaming for boobies. So I put her on for comfort. Fast forward 1.5 years, I'm tandem nursing DD and DS.

I told my RE that I was weaning DD and he wasn't concerned. My prolactin levels were 14, which was a normal, non-BFing level when I did all the pre-cycle blood work. I didn't tell him that we restarted. I limited her to once per day until after the ET. Then it crept back to 3-4x per day. I'm certain she was dry nursing, but she was satisfied to continue.

Good luck with your decision! Congrats on your sweet DD.

dp21 · May 2016

Hi,

We ended up weaning. My doc was not ok with us breastfeeding on birth control pills either because of the estrogen.

What I posted on other thread. Hello all, I definitely was planning on consulting with doctor but was posting to mentally gear myself up for the news I was about to hear (which is what I expected, but was in denial about, I needed to wean). We decided to wean over 6 days. We were breastfeeding twice a day, we dropped a feed over 3 days then went on vacation without her to drop the morning feed ( a weekend away, 3 days). She did fine without bf all weekend. But since we got back, it has been really rough. My child cries every single day to nurse, it's been 8 days since we last breastfed. I've cried every day all week. It just sucks. My body can't get pregnant on its own but breastfeeding was the one thing we could do right and my child wasn't emotionally ready to wean. I feel like infertility stole this away from us but now is the time for us to have a second child if we are going to do IVF again. But anyway, lots of emotions right now and fears if we don't get pregnant, did I wean for nothing? did I traumatize my child? what if she is my only child and I ended my last bf relationship prematurely? It's been really rough around here, trying to get through day by day. Thanks for listening and hopefully this helps someone out there. It is a 1000x harder than I expected emotionally.

ajlmom · July 2016

Hi @dp21, I haven't been back to TB for a while but today I was lurking on this board and saw your post. I actually think I "met" you on "pregnant after IF". My DD was born in Dec 14, a month before your DD. So sorry to hear what you went through. I'm in a similar situation as you are and I feel your pain! Are you doing a fresh IVF cycle or FET? A few months ago I had the thought of having our next child and called the nurse at the RE's office. They said I cannot be breastfeeding even for a FET cycle and I can't do bloodwork until I'm down to BFing once a day. Right now I still pump 2x at work and she still nurses 3-4 times on the weekends. I just can't take it away from her.....I've decided to continue nursing and delay having our next child unless it happens naturally. We'll see how things are when she turns 2. Good luck on your next cycle and finishing up your NP training. You're one super momma for being able to do all these at the same time!

dp21 · August 2016

@heleng5 Fresh IVF cycle. Sorry, I disappeared on here for awhile. I've just been a hot mess over here. I'm currently in the 2ww. We transferred a morula on day 5, nothing left to freeze. On pins and needles over here. With my diagnosis and crazy schedule I didn't feel like I could wait any longer. Hopefully we get a positive. Not sure what we will do if we get a negative......

Intro - Breastfeeding through IVF.......

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