caffeine ?

[HannahsMomma]

Do you still drink caffeine ? I'm a huge coffee drinker and I'm wondering if 1 or 2 cups a day is okay during pregnancy. I'm in my first trimester. I avoided all caffeine with my last pregnancy but now I have a 2 year old to chase after :lol
TIA

[seamama11]

I really think that a cup or two a day is fine. I didnt drink much at all with my first, but now that he is 13 months old and I am 4 months pregnant I have been having a few cups a week. I think everything in moderation, and I certainly have heard that a few cups a day cant hurt.
Sarah

[Grace24]

I hear ya! Here's a thread that was running just a few days ago with the same question...it comes up a lot :)

http://www.mothering.com/discussions/showthread.php?t=729981

If you scroll down a bit you will see I posted a link to caffeine counts in various drinks, including many starbuck's varieties.

[MissingMinnesota]

I drank coffee and soda in moderation with all of my kids and while nursing.

[hubris]

Listen to your body and your baby. I'm VERY sensitive to caffeine while pregnant so I attempt to minimize it. During this pregnancy I can enjoy a little decaf coffee, but during my first pregnancy, even 1/2 cup of decaf tea (not herbal/noncaf) would make me jittery and cause my babe to be hyper in utero. I stopped consuming ANY caffeine during that pregnancy because of that.

BTW, If you're limiting caffeine, you might want to pay attention to chocolate consumption, too. Right now I can't eat chocolate anywhere near bedtime! I don't really feel wired but I find it very hard to settle down to sleep if I've had chocolate within a couple of hours of going to bed.

[SandraS]

Yup. Never stopped... docs know it. If I didn't drink it, I'd become dehydrated and lose all of my healthy babies. Even LLL concurrs there really is no solid scientific proof of any harm to my babies, and all of my teams of docs (even the high-risk ones!) concur! Yay!

[misskerri]

With both my pregnancies, I gave up caffeine entirely for the first trimester, and allowed myself *some* (a soda or two or three, or a couple cups of coffee per week). I have just in the past couple weeks started drinking caffeine again...and I feel so baaaad for doing it, but coffee is like a whole new drug once you've been off it for awhile!

[Grace24]

Listen to your body and your baby. I'm VERY sensitive to caffeine while pregnant so I attempt to minimize it. During this pregnancy I can enjoy a little decaf coffee, but during my first pregnancy, even 1/2 cup of decaf tea (not herbal/noncaf) would make me jittery and cause my babe to be hyper in utero. I stopped consuming ANY caffeine during that pregnancy because of that.

That's true for me too... I became sensitive to it over the years as it was, so I was down to about a cup a day (maybe 2 but that was the max) if I wanted to minimize heart palpitations... plus if I overdo it now, this kid kicks the heck outta my insides! So I just mix a big pot of mostly decaf with about 1 or 2 T. of regular in the grounds, and have a glass or two of that a day. Probably no more than the equivalent of a cup of real coffee.

But cold turkey...though it's what I intended to do... never happened. There's only so much a person can give up in a lifetime! I'm so happy "they" have changed their stance on caffeine in pregnancy... I think it used to be totally taboo.

[ChrisR]

I stopped for a while while pregnant but then began having a cup a day in my 5th month. Everything was fine. As long as it's in moderation I believe it's alright.

[aylaanne]

I have a cup of tea or (gasp!) diet soda every once in a while. Some days I need it more than others.

[crazydiamond]

With my first, I had 2 cups of coffee everyday for the duration of the pregnancy. No problems whatsoever.

With this pregnancy, I only have coffee once a week or so. I cut back long before I got pregnant for completely unrelated reasons. I would not hesitate to drink my 2 cups a day with this kiddo either, otherwise.

[hubris]

But cold turkey...though it's what I intended to do... never happened.
Oh, goodness, I wouldn't advise that anybody quit cold turkey, pregnant or not! Caffeine withdrawal is very real and hard on your body. I don't drink a lot of caffeinated coffee even when not pg, but when I find myself "back on the bean" and want to reduce caffeine intake, I slowly wean myself by reducing how many cups I drink per day and also by gradually altering the mix of grounds (changing proportion of reg to decaf a little every day until I'm totally on decaf, at which time I can usually stop drinking coffee entirely without problems).

[crazydiamond]

Oh, goodness, I wouldn't advise that anybody quit cold turkey, pregnant or not! Caffeine withdrawal is very real and hard on your body. I don't drink a lot of caffeinated coffee even when not pg, but when I find myself "back on the bean" and want to reduce caffeine intake, I slowly wean myself by reducing how many cups I drink per day and also by gradually altering the mix of grounds (changing proportion of reg to decaf a little every day until I'm totally on decaf, at which time I can usually stop drinking coffee entirely without problems).

I wouldn't do cold turkey, either.

But that's exactly what happened to me, though it was out of my control. Essentially, I had major surgery and then post-op complications that left me so bad off that I didn't really eat or drink for 6 weeks. Coffee was the last thing from my mind. But I do have to wonder how much those headaches I had a few days after the surgery were do to caffeine withdrawal and not the surgery/anesthesia itself.