NFP is SOOO SCARY! (possibly too much info)

[CatholicSam]

KCT, as I was thinking of your reply, it ocurred to me that just maybe you were actually being serious in suggesting that I was saying that God has no confidence in families with few or no children. If you didn’t seriously mean that, please disregard this.

But if you are seriously interpreting my words of encouragement to this OP into words of condemnation somehow directed toward you, KCT, you are way off the mark. If that’s what you’re saying, it’s like trying to say that a rectangle is a square based only on the fact that a square is a rectangle. Because it is true that God does not gift parents with children He knows they can’t handle, the opposite is not automatically true. Rather than not having confidence in you as a mom, God has every confidence in you to be able to carry the cross of not having more children. :hug1:

 

[mizznicole]

Are you in contact with any lactation consultants? You might want to check out La Leche League:

lalecheleague.org/

I think that you could find some good support there for your breastfeeding/child spacing.

Also, I personally prefer Creighton Model far more than sympto-thermal. You check mucus only.

creightonmodel.com/

 

[choose_to_love]

Dear AngelBaby99,

I’m an NFP instructor and what I would tell a client who just had a baby is that you need to focus on cervical mucus at this time because you are probably not getting a minimum of 3 hours sleep to take your basal body temp each morning. Talk to your NFP instructor about establishing an infertile pattern of mucus and using the mucus patch rule. Plus, if you are not ovulating (and you probably are not) your temperatures will be all over the place and not be biphasic. It is true that ecological breastfeeding does keep you infertile however you will ovulate before you menstruate so charting your signs is the only way to be sure that you know whether or not you have begun cycling. But for now, don’t stress about the temperatures. You can use stricly cervical mucus as a sign with close to the same degree of accuracy as both temp and mucus. The women of Calcutta (taught by Mother Teresa herself) didn’t have thermometers and they managed to achieve a virtual zero pregnancy rate. I would not recommend using cervical position (high/low) as a fertility sign, especially since you just gave birth and you are still healing (fishing around for your cervix might be painful). Pray for the grace to not fear pregnancy. God knows your deepest desires, ask that He give you the grace to surrender all to Him. He will never present you with more than you can handle.

Love,
Hayley (wife of choose to love)

 

[Jennifer_J]

Dear AngelBaby99,

I’m an NFP instructor and what I would tell a client who just had a baby is that you need to focus on cervical mucus at this time because you are probably not getting a minimum of 3 hours sleep to take your basal body temp each morning. Talk to your NFP instructor about establishing an infertile pattern of mucus and using the mucus patch rule. Plus, if you are not ovulating (and you probably are not) your temperatures will be all over the place and not be biphasic. It is true that ecological breastfeeding does keep you infertile however you will ovulate before you menstruate so charting your signs is the only way to be sure that you know whether or not you have begun cycling. But for now, don’t stress about the temperatures. You can use stricly cervical mucus as a sign with close to the same degree of accuracy as both temp and mucus. The women of Calcutta (taught by Mother Teresa herself) didn’t have thermometers and they managed to achieve a virtual zero pregnancy rate. I would not recommend using cervical position (high/low) as a fertility sign, especially since you just gave birth and you are still healing (fishing around for your cervix might be painful). Pray for the grace to not fear pregnancy. God knows your deepest desires, ask that He give you the grace to surrender all to Him. He will never present you with more than you can handle.

Love,
Hayley (wife of choose to love)

I’m not an NFP instructor, but have used the sympto-thermal method of NFP for over 10 years now.
I disagree that all women ovulate before their first menstral period–it does sometimes happen, but not without any signs of returning fertility–ie mucous. I do agree that temping at this point might be difficult, but as soon as any mucous is found, you can start temping to help confirm an ovulatory/nonovulatory event. I’ve found that just 1 hour of rest can give me a pretty acccurate temp, as well. If the woman is doing ecological breastfeeding, there’s very little need to start charting until 3 - 6 months postpartem, unless she notices mucous or other pms signs. I’m currently 5 weeks postpartum and just monitor my mucous without charting. If I notice a change, then I make a quick notation and keep track a bit closer until I see what’s going on. For me, the return of fertiltiy is pretty obvious. I know others have ambigious signs sometimes and it can be frustrating.

Of course if a woman is bottle feeding then all this gets thrown out of the window and you start charting immediately The OP wasn’t clear about this…

Jennifer

 

[CatholicSam]

Dear AngelBaby99,

I’m an NFP instructor and what I would tell a client who just had a baby is that you need to focus on cervical mucus at this time because you are probably not getting a minimum of 3 hours sleep to take your basal body temp each morning. Talk to your NFP instructor about establishing an infertile pattern of mucus and using the mucus patch rule. Plus, if you are not ovulating (and you probably are not) your temperatures will be all over the place and not be biphasic. It is true that ecological breastfeeding does keep you infertile however you will ovulate before you menstruate so charting your signs is the only way to be sure that you know whether or not you have begun cycling. But for now, don’t stress about the temperatures. You can use stricly cervical mucus as a sign with close to the same degree of accuracy as both temp and mucus. The women of Calcutta (taught by Mother Teresa herself) didn’t have thermometers and they managed to achieve a virtual zero pregnancy rate. I would not recommend using cervical position (high/low) as a fertility sign, especially since you just gave birth and you are still healing (fishing around for your cervix might be painful). Pray for the grace to not fear pregnancy. God knows your deepest desires, ask that He give you the grace to surrender all to Him. He will never present you with more than you can handle.

Love,
Hayley (wife of choose to love)

If a mom is ecologically breastfeeding she’s probably getting close to a full night’s sleep, since one of the requirements is cosleeping (and thus no need to get up frequently for feeds in the middle of the night) So recording the temps may be good.

 

[choose_to_love]

In response to Jennifer’s comment, the only reason a woman menstruates is because she has ovulated. That doesn’t mean that a woman cannot experience breakthrough bleeding as a result of various other factors but actually menstruating (sloughing off endometrial lining after it was built up for the sole purpose of sustaining life should a fertilized egg implant) should only occur because ovulation has occurred. Also, concerning basal body temps, the sympto-thermal method teaches that in order the record temperature with the highest degree of accuracy it must be taken at the same time each morning upon waking, after a minimum of 3 hours of rest. Waking up in the middle of the night to nurse your baby is still waking up and therefore not continuous sleep (even if you are co-sleeping), so depending on temperatures during this stage is not going to be to accurate. Again, to the person who had the original post, talk to your NFP instructor about charting while breastfeeding. Couples who I teach always come back for a refresher course on breastfeeding charting. And talk to your instructor about using cervical mucus signs to help establish patterns of infertility. Just because you see mucus does not mean that it is fertile mucus. If you are dry, then it is very easy to establish a pattern of infertility. But it is also pretty easy to establish a pattern of infertile mucus. To the person who posted the original question, if you would like for me to contact you to answer some questions directly, please let me know how to do so. God Bless You!

Hayley (wife of choose to love)

 

[Jennifer_J]

In response to Jennifer’s comment, the only reason a woman menstruates is because she has ovulated. That doesn’t mean that a woman cannot experience breakthrough bleeding as a result of various other factors but actually menstruating (sloughing off endometrial lining after it was built up for the sole purpose of sustaining life should a fertilized egg implant) should only occur because ovulation has occurred. Also, concerning basal body temps, the sympto-thermal method teaches that in order the record temperature with the highest degree of accuracy it must be taken at the same time each morning upon waking, after a minimum of 3 hours of rest. Waking up in the middle of the night to nurse your baby is still waking up and therefore not continuous sleep (even if you are co-sleeping), so depending on temperatures during this stage is not going to be to accurate. Again, to the person who had the original post, talk to your NFP instructor about charting while breastfeeding. Couples who I teach always come back for a refresher course on breastfeeding charting. And talk to your instructor about using cervical mucus signs to help establish patterns of infertility. Just because you see mucus does not mean that it is fertile mucus. If you are dry, then it is very easy to establish a pattern of infertility. But it is also pretty easy to establish a pattern of infertile mucus. To the person who posted the original question, if you would like for me to contact you to answer some questions directly, please let me know how to do so. God Bless You!

Hayley (wife of choose to love)

You misunderstood what I said. No, bleeding doesn’t mean that you ovulated, just that something is hormonally happening. I did say that most women have a “bleed” before they start ovulating–whether it’s truly menstration or break through can be confirmed by temps. It’s true that some women ovulate before their first bleed/cycle, but there are fertility signs to look for that happen with ovulation (mucous). You just have to pay attention. I’m not really sure what clarification was needed there???

I know what the recommendations are for temps and sleep. I’m just saying I’ve had very accurate temps, even with interrupted sleep. Co sleeping does help, because I don’t have to get up and do anything, I roll over and feed the baby and go back to sleep. Each woman is different and all you have to do is track your temps to see if it works well enough for you.

A refresher course is always a good idea, if you feel nervous about charting!!!

God bless,
Jennifer

 

[CatholicSam]

I know what the recommendations are for temps and sleep. I’m just saying I’ve had very accurate temps, even with interrupted sleep. Co sleeping does help, because I don’t have to get up and do anything, I roll over and feed the baby and go back to sleep.

I agree. When I wake up with co-sleeping I’d hardly even call it “waking up”. To me, the cosleep wakes are no different than readjusting my pillow or turning to the other side in my sleep.