"We are not doing that again for a long time!"
That's what my husband said after Miriam arrived. Turns out childbirth had been a bit more difficult then we expected, and he was not wanting to coach me through it again for another, oh, ten years or so.
And yet somehow, just two days later, we were talking about baby #2. And now, two months later, as Miriam smiles and makes sweet baby noises, my husband keeps repeating, "I don't see how people can just have one!"
When will we have another? That's anybody's guess right now. But despite his enthusiasm, we're not quite ready for it to be right this instant. So when 6 weeks rolled around and I was cleared for, ahem, physical activity, my husband asked if we needed to start charting again or anything.
"Nope," I replied. "I'm breastfeeding, we're fine until at least 6 months."
He was less than impressed. I tried to explain to him that ecological (not just exclusive) breastfeeding (1) was 98% effective for the first 6 months if your period hasn't returned yet, and that in addition to that I was paying attention to my mucus signs and we were clear until that changed. It's officially called lactational amenorrhea.
He was still a bit wary. I think he likes charts - maybe it's the scientist in him.
So we went back to the NFP drawing board. Postpartum NFP is notoriously confusing, so I knew we'd need some help. Since we were used to sympto-thermal (STM), I ordered CCL's postpartum book. I also asked a couple other young mothers what they used and got a variety of answers. One used Marquette (which I tend to forget about); another used STM but was thinking about switching to a different method; and another used a combination of a LadyComp thermometer (which I had never heard of) and Creighton.
Since I wasn't that familiar with some of these, I decided I should do a bit more research. I thought I'd come up with a nice compilation of all the methods. Turns out, someone's already done that - sweet! Here's a great list of NFP methods (which I found while browsing around at Living the Sacrament).
I think most people are familiar with sympto-thermal methods (CCL, TCOYF, diocesan programs) and mucus-only methods (Creighton/NAPRO, Billings, Family of the Americas). I've never heard of anyone who does temperature only (Doering) or rhythm (Cycle Beads). Then there are these other methods.
The Marquette model is a sympto-hormonal approach that uses a fertility monitor, optionally crossed with mucus signs. Unlike temperature taking, there's a pretty wide window (6 hours) during which you can pee on the stick. The downside to this method is that it's expensive - anywhere from $140-$200 for the Clearblue Easy Fertility Monitor (2) and then approximately $10-12/month for the test sticks (purchased in packs of 30 for $35-$50).
Then we move into unfamiliar territory, at least to me.(3) There are two other types of NFP methods - one using smart thermometers and one using saliva.
LadyComp, BabyComp, and Pearly are all what I just now dubbed smart thermometers, made by the same company. I'm not sure what the difference between them all is. They have an alarm clock that beeps each day when you need to take your temperature. They then compare your temperature both to your previous temps and to a stored memory of thousands of other women's temps, and give you a light to let you know where you're at in your cycle. No surprise - red light means you're fertile, yellow means you're in "transition", and green means you're infertile.
And finally, your spit. With Ovulens, you essentially use a tiny microscope to look at the patterns in your saliva to determine your fertility. With Ovacue, your saliva is analyzed on a (expensive) monitor.
I wouldn't go for the last two myself. We've decided to try Marquette at this time, since they have a pretty clear breastfeeding protocol that won't depend on my potentially confusing mucus patterns.
What's your method of choice? Have you tried multiple NFP methods? Any advice on the best method while breastfeeding?
1 Kate Wicker has an interesting article on ecological breastfeeding
2 Apparently the Clearblue makers also have a similar product called Persona, but it's not sold in the US.
3 Also unfamiliar to me: I know there are various apps and software for charting, but I don't believe those are actually different methods - just different ways to chart.