Starting LDA a couple weeks later?

[angieb]

With my second pregnancy, my MFM had me start LDA with a positive test, and lovenox was started around 7 weeks after confirming a heartbeat (and it took the pharmacy a few days to get it in.)

So...I just got a *very faint* + test. I am only like 3 weeks x days. (We were trying but not really expecting much since it took a year and a half to conceive the first time and 9 months (6 of those with fertility treatments) to conceive Lucas.) He is almost 10.5 months and still breastfeeding. I am more than ready to wean him but would rather do it gradually over a couple of weeks instead of all at once cold turkey. I have read mixed information on breastfeeding while on blood thinners and I'm not sure how comfortable I am with the idea- I am pretty sure neither of my doctors are going to be comfortable with the idea at all (although Dr.Hale indicates that low dose aspirin and lovenox are most likely safe to take while bf'ing.) Do you think it would make a huge difference to start LDA at 6ish weeks vs. now?

[danielsmom]

How exciting! I bet that + is going to darken in the days to come.

A close friend of mine was advised to take lda while breastfeeding and her doctors danced around the question of it being safe or not. There is a small risk of Reyes syndrome should your baby develop a virus. I sent a facebook message to my lactation consultant, who was a NICU nurse for 25+ years, and for the last 10+ years she's been working out of the NICU, but had focused on lactation consulting. She's VERY knowledgable. Here's what she passed along for my friend:

" I say take 81 mg aspirin but make pediatrician aware and watch baby closely for viral infections. Benefits of milk esp. this time of year outweigh risks of aspirin. We send some babies home on aspirin. "

Good luck!
Kristi

[angieb]

Thanks! And thank you for the info!

I went ahead and called our pediatrician and stumped the nurse than the pedi (well, he said he wanted to ponder it and research it more and will get back to me later.) If he thinks it's okay then I'll probably start taking it now, if not, I may try to wait a couple weeks to make sure the pregnancy is viable and more gradually wean.

[heather j]

Congratulations! I have two angles for you. When Oliver was conceived, we'd been trying for awhile, and it wasn't happening. We decided to stop and just see what happened. I'm supposed to take LDA outside of pregnancy as well as during, and I wasn't taking it (I'd stopped when we stopped TTC). Anyway, I had some symptoms, took a test, and got an immediate positive at about 3 weeks and a couple of days. I started LDA right then. The second thought is that I took LDA and used Lovenox while breastfeeding. The lovenox was during the first six weeks only, though (however, this is when baby is eating most frequently, too). I cleared this with my MFM, my IBCLC, and Oliver's pediatrician. Everyone gave it the okay.

[angieb]

Thanks Heather!

So my OB said it was fine, our pedi thought about it awhile and came up with "eh, I don't feel great about it since there's not a lot of research" (I think they mostly don't want the liability of telling me outright that it's okay..but didn't want to say outright to wean either.) That is good to know about lovenox too because I will be starting that next after we confirm a heartbeat at the end of March, by then I had hoped to have him fully weaned (though this weaning thing is not going great right now, I wish my milk would start drying up or something to help force it, b/c right now I try to give him a bottle first and he just gets mad, but will take one from DH no problem.) Anyway, he's 10.5 months now and we are DEFINITELY DEFINITELY weaning at the year mark if we haven't already by then, so at least his exposure to it will be relatively short-term. Though I really wish I could get him to take more bottles, right now he gets mad and I don't have the willpower (especially early in the morning/late at night) to "fight" over it.

[julieb]

I am not sure about the LDA, but I was also on Lovenox for 6 weeks postpartum while breastfeeding my daughter. All of my doctors knew about it and no one was concerned, and she is a beautiful and healthy almost 2 year old Good luck!

[flori]

Angie, I tried to login like 10x last night so I could say congratulations!

Sorry I have no idea about the thread topic.. just excited for you.

[mom41]

Congratulations ! Hopefully by now your pg test shows strong // ! And maybe even a decision on lda.. In my case my MFM and OB wanted me to wait for the positive heartbeat to start lda and Lovenox. But my indications to stat both were not strong because my tests ( coagulation deficits/thrombophilia) and autoimmune work up was essentially negative after the pre-e pregnancy. See if you can get all 3 doctors on agree on one thing

[cmccaffrey]

Congrats! so excited for you!

[angieb]

Thanks!

I did start LDA and am still nursing, weaning is not going so great, I am hoping my milk dries up soon so DS has no choice. (Not really weaning so much because of the lovenox/aspirin but because I would like a few months "off" and we have a deep freezer full of breastmilk that needs to get used soon.)

We aren't doing betas this time right now since I got pregnant the easy way and all indications are that everything is progressing well. I know that I am in for plenty of needles and bloodwork anyway so I can do without them for now. (I am limiting myself to one HPT a day until I run out, so far they've all gotten progressively darker and my symptoms have come early and strong.) First ultrasound is March 26th when I'll be about 6.5 weeks, expecting to see a heartbeat and then start lovenox.(Blech, while I am looking forward to the ultrasound, not looking forward to lovenox again, so I'm trying to enjoy these last few weeks without it.) Thanks to your comments about breastfeeding while on lovenox, I'm not too worried about weaning by the time I start it (although I would love for him to be weaned by then if it works out!)