@MrsDibs: I didn't cut back until I got my BFP, then I stopped cold turkey which I know is not necessary but it was the route I decided to go. Maybe have a half caf in the afternoon as a "step down" method?
@MrsSawyer: That might work, I'll give it a try! Thanks! So you gave up completely when you got your BFP? It's not completely necessary though right, one cup would still be ok?
@MrsDibs: They say so, up to 200mg per day which is about a mug or 2 but I just didn't see a reason to consume any. In the begining I was nauseous in the morning which made me not want coffee, and then I just got used to it. It's one extra thing that I can do to help my baby be as healthy as possible so why not.
@MrsDibs: Do you normally have 1 cup in the morning and 1 in the afternoon? Or more than that? They say that 2 cups (200mg) is okay but no more than that, so if that's what you normally have, then I'd say it's okay to keep doing that. I drink one cup in the morning and that's good for me, and I do this in the TWW, too. When I get a BFP, I'll stop for the first trimester just because if I had a MC, I'd always wonder if there was something I could have done differently. But, like I said, I only do 1 cup a day, so I've never been a heavy coffee drinker (I think I'm more addicted to flavored creamer than I am to coffee...), so it might be harder to do that if you're used to having more than that.
@hardtoconcentrate: For the last month or two I usually have one in the morning then green tea in the afternoon but I know green tea is bad because it blocks the folate from being absorbed so I gave that up during my first TWW. Like I said I did well during the TWW, it was easy when I thought I might be pregnant but now with AF I'm just like screw it I want another cup of coffee and I'm not KU so I'm having it. I kind of wonder if I'll end up not wanting coffee when I get my BFP, guess we will have to wait and see.
@hardtoconcentrate: haha I'm totally addicted to the creamer too! I that is why I drink coffee, for the creamer. (my favorite is International Delight's Cold Stone Sweet Cream: it's the perfect balance of cream and sugar!)
@MrsDibs: I was thinking about this the other day, I found myself at work drinking a soda at 3pm and wondered if I'd had too much caffeine for the day. I think I'll probably still have my am cup and try to stay away from the soda. But you never know with pregnancy cravings. I had a friend who really didn't drink coffee before she was pregnant, but then started craving it like crazy (decaf) during her pregnancy. Now that she's had the baby, she doesn't crave it any more. weird.
@MrsDibs: I totally understand. I would have it if I were you, too. I love wine, and I drink a couple glasses probably 3 times a week. During the TWW, I don't really have as much desire to drink wine because I might be KU - I'll have wine maybe once a week if I really get a craving. As soon as AF comes, though, I'm certainly not restraining. So, yeah, I wouldn't worry about it if you want it. You'll deal with it when you get a BFP. I've heard lots of women say they didn't even want coffee once they got KU. For now, if we have to deal with AF, we should be able have our vices during that time. ;)
@august05: In my opinion, the coffee is really just a vehicle for the creamer. ;) I think I'm legitimately addicted to Pumpkin Spice creamer. Over the years, I've figured out that the "Use by" date is really far off (like something crazy like 4 months or something like that), so I stock pile the flavor while they sell it in the Fall. I have 5 jumbo bottles in my fridge right now. Even my MIL picks them up for me when she sees them. I still run out way before the "Use by" date, but it gets me through March or so. Can you say addict?! ;)
@MrsDibs: I used to have one cup of tea in the morning and then just switched to decaf tea when I got my BFP. Each to there own but I was like @MrsSawyer in that I prefered to give up completely rather than have the caffeine. I knew that if I misscarried I would have beaten myself up over having the caffeine, rightly or wrongly.
Good Luck!
@MrsDibs: I am coming up 12 week pregnant and still have one cup a day.
I did stop for awhile when I first got my BFP but my morning coffee keeps me regular and when I stopped it I got clogged up and was very unhappy and uncomfortable so the Dr said to keep having it :)
My Dr said up to 2 cups a day is fine, I never have 2 tho, and I just make it at home so its prob even weaker. I don't drink any soft drinks at all, and occassionally will have a cup of tea as well in the afternoon.
@MrsDibs: I'm 12 weeks pregnant and still drinking coffee. I don't think it's a big deal. (TMI but - I had stopped drinking it in an attempt to be virtuous, but was so, incredibly constipated and coffee was the only thing that helped! So, I'm back.) I only drink 1 cup a day. One thing to consider is that caffeine leeches calcium from your body, or makes it more difficult to absorb or something, so if you are drinking coffee every day maybe make an effort to consume more dairy or other sources of calcium. I've read that coffee / caffeine can lead to uterine contractions in early pregnancy so if you think you are at an increased risk of miscarriage, maybe better safe than sorry not to drink it. But for most people it's probably fine.
I didn't scale back until I got the BFP and then I tried to stay under 200 mg. I drank a lof of decaf. Also, espresso trink usually have less caffeine than drip coffee... so you can have more coffee if you drink Americanos than if you drink regular brew coffee. Once I was past the first trimester, I stopped regulating myself as much. Some days, I drink none; other days, I go way over, I'm sure. If you currently consume a lot of caffeine, it's important to scale back slowly, even if you are pregnant already. You can really freak your body out and cause a lot of streee by going cold turkey. When my mom got pregnant with me, she stopped cold turkey and had terrible withdrawl symptoms and was on the border of being hospitalized when her OB asked if she'd drastically changed her caffeine consumption. He had her resume drinking coffee immediately and scaled her back bit by bit until she wasn't drinking that much.
I didn't give it Up ( just cut down) until i was 5 1/2 weeks...at which point my morning sickness made even the idea of coffee super nausea inducing and that's still true a month later. So no coffee for me.
Also, just to be clear, there is no direct evidence that caffeine itself causes any problmes for the fetus. The realtionship is correlational, and the major study to suspect causation between caffeine and miscarriage is hotly contested by scientists. The vast majority of miscarriages are due to genetic factors, so measuring the risk caused by caffeine is realyl difficult. The concerns about birth problems are all based on effects observed in animals (again, correlational... and in anaimals, not humans). So in the end, most doctors and the American Pregnancy Association recommend no caffeine or 200mg and less on the "better safe than sorry" assumption. That's a perfectly valid point... safe is better than sorry, but as you continue to research what you should or should not be doing during pregnancy, taking that position absolutely on everything that may be dangerous wven though we have no real proof will limit you so much that you may end up hating life and that's not good for the health of your fetus either.
This is my first cycle TTC but I plan on cutting it down to 1 cup soon and keeping it that way until my BFP. Then I may just quit altogether. I'm not addicted to coffee. I mostly drink it out of habit in the morning or out of boredom other times.
You'll have to pry the black liquid gold out of my cold dead hands.
@deucesarewild1: Haha sounds like me!
This is my first time TTC, but I have a 4yr old daughter that was unexpected.... I'm not going to lie, I drank coffee (no less than I ever would) the entire time I was preggo, AND I drank Mt Dew.... LoL I know probably not good, but I still did it! Plus my craving th eentier time was hot wings! But my daughter is healthy (except for her asthma, which was loving given to her by my horrible lungs) and she is crazy smart! I think it just depends on the person probably, if at any point after I get my BFP (IF I ever get it) that my doc says It hurting me or baby I would def stop! I think the soda is easier to give up then my morning coffee!
@emersynsmommy35: I've been craving soda all pregnancy. I normall NEVER drink soda... I might occassionally have a sugar-cane-sweetened root beer at a bar if I'm DD or something, but soda is not a part of my diet. Yet, here I am consuming coke and cherry coke at regular intervals... on top of some coffee. But my pregnancy has been going smoothly and the baby is the right size with the right heartbeat.
I switched to decaf when I got my BFP and tried to avoid caffeine for the most part until around 11 or 12 weeks. I now have my one cup in the morning, and avoid caffeine throughout the rest of the day.
I did note that during my first trimester if I had decaf in the morning, I could in good conscience have an unsweetened iced tea at lunch when I really needed a pick-me-up. I was quite fatigued my frist trimester!
@DaneLady: I have been craving Coke lately?! I used to HATE Coke, and only drank Mt Dew or Cherry Coke, but DANG i'm all about the coke lately!
I drink ALOT of Sweet Tea! LoL But Like I said I drank Mt Dew & Coffee regularly throughout my first pregnancy. I mean now I would take not drinking either for 9mo if it would gimme my BFP though! haha
I'm trying to only drink 16 oz or less per day, which is my usual practice but sometimes I would do a second coffee in the afternoon or evening. Once I have a BFP I'll probably cut back even more.
I drink decaff now, both tea and coffee. Can't give up! For a while the smell off coffee made me sick but thanks to hyperemesis medication it doesn't any more.
@emersynsmommy35: I have a 4 year old that was a surprise too! I also still drank coffee when I was pregnant and he is just fine.
I would drink Dr Pepper sometimes as well, but I would usually try to drink either one or the other, not both in one day. Since ttc, I have switched to naturally decafinated coffee at home (Dunkin' Donuts brand) but I still drink my regular morning coffee during the week. I'm not drinking Dr Pepper much anymore, but that's more because I am trying to lose weight and less about the caffeine.
There is a brand of coffee that I fell in love with called...wait lemme find it....Teeccino. It tastes like coffee, it actually tricked my brain into thinking that I was drinking it and I was able to forgo the caffinee crave. It's completely herbal, basically a lot like tea. I would suggest going to the website and looking it up. It helped me get through my coffee craving days.
I'm not pregnant yet but NTNP, so I have been trying to scale back in preparation. I used to drink 2 cups (16oz) minimum on my days off and 3-4 cups when I work (night shifts!). I did it slowly over the past 3 months but now I'm down to almost no coffee on my days off and 2 cups of weak coffee when I work (Brew 10oz and then dilute it to 16oz). I also switched from a light roast to a medium roast. The lighter the roast, the more caffeine.
i thought I was pulling it off with no problems but DH says I'm a little more grouchy than usual the past month.
When I was TTC, I switched to half caf/half decaf and sometimes all decaf. I did go through a phase in the summer when I was tired of that though and was obsessed with iced coffees so I know I went over the 200mg then. But, overall, I tried to stay under 200mg and either do decaf, half and half, or espresso-based drinks. When I got AF I usually got drank as much regular coffee as I wanted for a couple days. Anyway, I'm glad I started back with mostly decaf over the past couple months though because I am now 7 weeks pregnant and have a huge aversion to coffee! Even the smell makes my tummy turn which is so odd for a major coffee loving girl like myself! But, because I switched to mostly decaf, I have had absolutely no withdrawal headaches or symptoms. I don't have real nausea or morning sickness, but I think my main pregnancy symtom is the coffee aversion. All that to say, you never know how your tastes will change so if nothing else, I think switching to decaf or at least mostly decaf, will help down the road to avoid headaches in pregnancy, esp if you end up like me and can no longer stomach dear coffee.
Try to completely cut it out if possible. It is the BEST thing I ever did and I didn't do it just for TTC. I feel very energetic nowadays. Back when I used to have coffee (and a cup and a half a day max), I felt a little bit tired ALL THE TIME. I didn't know what is normal until I quit one day cold-turkey. Best thing ever!
I do drink de-caf lattes from time to time and some teas with VERY LOW caffiene.
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I have a question for you bees who drink coffee, how are you doing with cutting back/giving up? I was doing really well during the TWW only my morning cup and then some decafe tea in the afternoon. However now that AF is here I am craving my afternoon caffeine. I really want to cut back but I keep thinking oh well I'm not KU so it's fine and having an afternoon cup anyway.