I knew about the drop after birth. The baby blues. The hormones crashing while your milk comes in and your body tries to figure out what just happened. I was prepared for that part. Nobody prepared me for this. Five months postpartum. Exclusively breastfeeding twins on demand. And something shifted in the last few weeks that I didn’t see coming — a heaviness I couldn’t name, an emotional fatigue that felt different from the tired I’ve been carrying since April. A second wave. Out of nowhere. Or so I thought. Turns out it’s not out of nowhere at all. There is a second significant hormonal disruption that happens around 4 to 6 months postpartum — particularly for women who are breastfeeding. When you’re exclusively breastfeeding, your body sustains elevated prolactin — the hormone that drives milk production — while keeping estrogen chronically low. Low estrogen affects mood, cognition, emotional regulation, and sleep quality. It’s the same hormonal environment that causes symptoms ...