TTC while breastfeeding?

[u/Difficult-Basil3606]

Does breastfeeding make TTC harder? My son is 13 months and is a little boob barnacle. He rarely takes solids and I’m struggling with weaning him. He maybe latches at night for less than 5 minutes 1-2x between 10pm and 5am and then frequent feeds during the day.

My periods came back in April and since then my cycles have been 41, 42, and 43 days. I don’t track much outside of apps and my ultrahuman ring, and because I’ve been told ovulation can be delayed we try every day from the first day my period ends until my cycle starts up again.

I’m currently on CD42 and my pregnancy test was negative. The pharmacist told me that pregnancy wasn’t likely while breastfeeding and that I’m either having periods and not ovulating at all, ovulating very close to when my period starts, or my prolactin levels are too high to conceive.

I’m just looking for some advice. We’ve been trying for 5 cycles now.

Thank you!

[u/0elephant-ears0]

Oof that's a lot of sex to be having, I'm tired just reading that haha. Can you do every 2nd or 3rd day? Or track CM and have sex when you see clear, slippery and/or stretchy mucus? I conceived twice while breastfeeding my first and am about to TTC a third time while breastfeeding my second. Since you're already tracking temps with your ring, maybe it'd be helpful to add in CM observations? That should show whether you're ovulating regularly, when, and how long your LP is.

[u/Difficult-Basil3606 → u/0elephant-ears0]

We usually do it daily anyways. I blame it on us being newlyweds hahaha. I try tracking CM but it’s like I’ll notice it one day and then not see anything for 3-7 days and then notice the same type again and so on. I haven’t found it the most reliable. The ring seems off, I’m on my third cycle with it and none of my periods lined up with how it estimated them and my temps are off. They say it takes 3-7 cycles to be fully accurate but I’m hoping it sorts itself out sooner.

[u/0elephant-ears0 → u/Difficult-Basil3606]

Good for you guys! That makes tracking less important at least because you'll hit good days whether you try or not. CM observations can be tricky the day after sex, so I totally feel you on that. Maybe you could do lh strips + ring temps to help triangulate, if you're wanting to know when you ovulate? If you want a second set of eyes on your chart, I think you can post it here (I'm not tech savvy so idk)! I'm not familiar with the ring though, I use a Tempdrop.