Periods and Breastfeeding

What you describe sounds very normal for a women starting her period after birth. Being pregnant changes your hormones. You may not have the same pattern. Your periods can be irregular. Pain is possible. Your internal organs are still healing from the major changes caused by pregnancy. Your hormone balance is different.

Sounds like you're concerned about pregnancy. Perhaps starting a more reliable for of birth control would help you to worry less. Fertility is unrelated to nursing. How much and how often your son nurses has little connection to the pattern of your periods.

Is the period pain behind the pelvic bone, a sort of constant throb that feels pressure related? or is it more like cramps that come in wave like spasms?

If its the first kind of pelvic pain, Its really really common for women to develop pelvic floor disorder as pregnancy will exasperate any brewing issues. Don't quote me on this stat, but I think I remember that 1/3 of woman develop pelvic floor disorder. There are exercises you can do. But it can be a very troublesome condition, not just with the throbbing pelvic pain, but urinary incontinance, organ prolapse, and a host of other issues. And because pelvic floor disorder really stems from poor alignment (namely, tucking the tail bone), there are often accompanying issues like knee pain and hip pain. Any ways, PM me if you think this might be the case. I can recommend some resources.

I still bf my 18 month old and my periods are crazy heavy and long.

My periods after baby are much different than before- they still are after 4 years. I used to have zero cramping or other symptoms and was regular down to the hour. After baby, my period has a 3-5 day window during which it may appear, with a couple times of it being up to 2 weeks late. (Which had me really freaked out, lol.) I all so get cramping, headaches, mood swings, and breast tenderness when I'm PMSing. And yes, I noticed a HUGE difference in the discharge.

For what it's worth, I have gotten myself worked up about the possibility of being pregnant several times in the last few years. Having a wonky period sucks! Lol. When I was nursing, I was on the mini-pill for a few months, but hormonal birth control messes with my system horribly so it really wasn't the best option for me.

You can get a period tracker app, and it will give you a better idea of what is going on. Mine is fairly accurate, and I usually start my period within 2-3 days of the projected start date. (Like I said, I'm very irregular so that's actually pretty good... Pre-pregnancy, the app tracked it perfectly.) it also tells you when your "fertile" timeframe each month is, and your ovulation date, so you can be extra-careful during that time. (This is referred to as the rhythm method of birth control.) it's definitely an imperfect system, but along with condoms will give you a little extra peace of mind.

There is a special birth control pill for nursing mommies. The benefit is that is stops you period completely.

I would recommend that you make an appointment with your OB as soon as possible. She determine if you are pregnant, and give you a more reliable method of birth control. I used both the mini-pill and Mirena successfully for birth control while nursing, and there are other options as well.

Seems unlikely that you would be pregnant.