Well, here we are. My postpartum period has returned, and really took me by surprise! After some on-off “is this a period?” bleeding between 5 and 7 weeks postpartum, I’ve gotten my first true period back a little over 5 months after welcoming baby Sophia (and about 15 months after my last real period).

Honestly, i spent a majority of the last 15+ years without a period, and this is the first time I’m trying to embrace it. Like lots of millennial girlies, my mom took me to the OBGYN when I was 16 and I hopped on the pill and never looked back in the hopes of being prepared for the future. There were so many options with the pill that enabled us to not have a period, and not having to deal with the tampons or symptoms felt like any teenagers dream! I got off the pill at 27 when we were ready to try for a baby and immediately conceived.

I never got my period back after the birth of our first daughter Layla – at my 2 week post c-section appointment, we talked birth control and I happily walked out the door with a prescription for the mini pill, which effectively stopped my period for the duration of the time I took it. Business as usual. When I decided to get off the pill, in the 6 months it took us to get pregnant again, there was a much bigger adjustment in trying to get back to a regular cycle. No periods, very heavy periods, and a range of cramps, moodiness, bloating and other “typical” symptoms.

At my 6 week postpartum visit with Sophia, it was nice to have more discussion when the question of “what do you want to do for birth control?” came up. Knowing we might like to have more children in the future, I was more open to alternatives instead of continuing to hop on and off the pill and having to go through the months long readjustments. I don’t pretend to know much about the potential pitfalls of the pill or effects on the body, although I know it’s a hot topic among a lot of modern women, especially those who were prescribed the pill for issues other than contraception.

Bringing us back to present day, we are happy to let baby Sophia be the baby of the family a while longer before we get pregnant again, and are using non-hormonal birth control methods. It’s not necessarily that I got my period back that was so surprising to me, but the fact that there was no indication leading up to it that I’ve typically experienced with PMS symptoms. I just woke up one morning and there it was. No bloating or being ready to cry at the drop of a hat. No additional fatigue or migraines. Which makes me wonder…is this what it feels like when my body just *does* what it’s supposed to *do*?

Before family planning had crossed my mind with more reality than “oh one day”, I took the pill consistently without much additional thought. I still got PMS symptoms at the end of the pack when I would have had a period (but I always took pills that made my period stop). And even though I don’t plan to get on the pill again, I’m definitely not against it as a tool to prevent pregnancy that can be effective and convenient! But I’m also excited to learn more about my body’s natural cycles and see if this is the start of some regularity or if I still have a ways to go on my postpartum-hormone journey!