Did you go decaf during your pregnancy?

Poppy523 · July 2014

I was completely decaf with DD because I didn't like coffee anyways or soda and tea is the same to me no matter what. But then I found the magic of coffee. I went back to decaf when I found out I was pregnant but gave in a few weeks ago when I was hitting a wall. Since then I have given in a few more times and today that one cup completely turned my morning around. Just curious how many of you went decaf completely.

babywisher · July 2014

I did. I just drank water, juice, and milk. Then when I would really want coffee I would do decalf.

SummerLove21 · July 2014

I go decaf on my soda as much as I can. If I have a really bad headache, I'll usually have a glass of caffeinated soda with a Tylenol.

tamarar5 · July 2014

Nope! I try, but I couldn't do it. I have caffeine on a daily basis.

BabyMayinMarch · July 2014

I cannot imagine going decaf - is that terrible?

sjames2 · July 2014

I quit drinking most caffeinated beverages till the last month when I was sooo sick of water. I mainly gave up pop. I was also really vigilant about staying away from aspartame, which I usually stay away from. I did not go crazy like a co-worker who gave up chocolate because it has trace amounts of caffeine.

DublinMama · July 2014

I did. I had the occasional hot chocoloate from Dunks, which has a little caffeine, but other than that, I didn't have any fully caffeinated beverages. The only thing I needed to cut out was coffee bc we don't drink soda or anything.

StephPeth · July 2014

I didnt go decaf. I limited, and am currently limiting myself to one cup of morning coffee on my work days. My ob says that this is totally kosher

brachysira · July 2014

I still drink it. NP at OB office said 1 drink/day, but I often do two...

wells2010 · July 2014

You can safely have 150mg caffeine during pregnancy. I think it's safer once you are out of the 1st tri too. I don't think I drank it that much in the beginning as it made me feel sick. Later on in my pregnancy I hit up Starbucks a lot! One shot of expresso at Starbucks has 75mg of caffeine. I would do a grande half-calf latte or just a small coffee. I always did whole milk too. mmmmm

SummerLove21 · July 2014

sjames2 said:

I quit drinking most caffeinated beverages till the last month when I was sooo sick of water. I mainly gave up pop. I was also really vigilant about staying away from aspartame, which I usually stay away from. I did not go crazy like a co-worker who gave up chocolate because it has trace amounts of caffeine.

Okay...giving up chocolate isn't even an option. Totally unacceptable. :-O

PhieryBFly · July 2014

I did. And still am. I pretty much drink water. And more water. Maybe the occasional root beer but even that's pretty rare.

holly321 · July 2014

I usually drank 2 cups of coffee, one was usually half caff because that is what work has. If I wanted a soda later in the day, I drank that too.

Poppy523 · July 2014

lilsebastian said:

DC2London said:

PeanutR1 said:

Agree with@thejack. Everything I've seen says the decaffinating process is much worse. Is the issue with caffiene a low birth weight thing? Well I drank coffee and DD was 9 lbs 14 oz, soooo..... I apparently need to smoke and/or drink with next one to have a normal sized child.

I cut it out in first tri bc it can increase the risk of miscarriage. Supposedly. I'm too paranoid to take chances.

This is me, too. First pregnancy, I had no caffeine during first tri and hardly any the rest of pregnancy. This pregnancy, after first tri, I have typically poured myself one cup of coffee a day 3-5 times/week...it's a good day if I get to drink the whole cup, though.

Hahahaha yes this is a whole different issue!

cinnasugar · July 2014

This reminds me of my last pregnancy. I had an OB appt in the morning and had a few minutes to spare so I went to a coffee shop to treat myself. I paid for a cup of brewed coffee, and the lady working the register was like, "Oh, is it okay for you to have that? I avoided coffee when I was pregnant."

I was sooo not happy, I haven't been back to that place. First of all, B, I have pretty much abstained from caffeine during most of my pregnancy and was totally treating myself. Second, I totally planned on filling my cup with half caff and half decaf, because it was one of those places where you fill it yourself. Third, how dare you? Not like I was smoking in front of you or anything! I was so not happy!

To answer your question, I pretty much abstained from caffeine but treated myself every once in awhile.

tamarar5 · July 2014

I guess I should correct my initial response. When I was pregnant with C, I did cut out caffeine entirely. I did pretty good all the way through. I think I was like 36 weeks before I caved in and allowed myself a soda. But I would get horrible migraines with her. It was awful. I was so sick and still had to be nice at work.

With DS, I took a less strict stance. I remember being pretty careful during the first trimester, but I had also gotten pregnant with him on the first cycle following a m/c-- so I'm not sure that had anything to do with caffeine as much as it did with being careful about EVERYTHING. I was, however, cautious allowing myself soda because I know soda is my Achilles' heal. With C, I gained 80 lbs and never could lose it all. I was determined not to repeat that with my second pregnancy, and it began with soda. I drank caffeinated coffee, but again didn't indulge in soda very often.

This time... I barely remember the first trimester. LOL I'm sure I had coffee daily. I probably had soda more often than I should. I know that I've had more soda this last trimester than I did with either of the other two. Unfortunately. I try to cut it out, but.... I'm just a nicer person and a better mommy when I have a little soda. How terrible is that?

jesuisfatiguee · July 2014

I did, but I wasn't really dependent on caffeine to begin with. I don't know what I'd do pregnant AND with a toddler, though.

lbonga1 · July 2014

I'm going to start off by saying that I first read the post as "did you go deaf during your pregnancy," and then I was just really confused. :-/

I tried to limit it a lot more when I was pregnant with DD because I worried about everything, but this time it kind of cut itself out for me because coffee made me feel sick until third tri. Now I've been drinking a coffee or soda most days because the caffeine helps my headaches, and I might just fall asleep otherwise.

TarheelMama202 · July 2014

jesuisfatiguee said:
I did, but I wasn't really dependent on caffeine to begin with. I don't know what I'd do pregnant AND with a toddler, though.

This. Not a huge caffeine-drinker because it really has an impact on my sleep habits. I would have one caffeinated drink a day, maybe a few times a week. All outside of first tri.

This is one of those million things that I think we take a tad bit too seriously. Flame away.

kleigh926 · July 2014

DC2London said:
Caffeine for life. Don't get between me and a cup of coffee.

Unless it's Folger's. You can keep that, I'm all set.

"The best part of waking up, is Folger's in your cup."

I'm not a coffee drinker, but I assume the commercials aren't true?

tamarar5 · July 2014

DC2London said:
The best part of waking up is knowing that I buy decent coffee.

Ditto! Folger's tastes stale. And it's all my parents drink. Yuck!

djm31012 · July 2014

i did no caffeine until probably mid way through my 2nd trimester and then I went to one small cup of coffee a day...usually half in the am and half in the pm...

brachysira · July 2014

DC2London said:

tamarar5 said:

The best part of waking up is knowing that I buy decent coffee.
Ditto! Folger's tastes stale. And it's all my parents drink. Yuck!

We bring our own coffee to the IL's house. "Ohhhh we drink a lot of coffee, we would feel badly depleting your supply. We brought our own."
My dad is a total coffee snob so we are good to go when we visit my parents. and he drinks coffee pretty much constantly so there is always a fresh pot brewed. It's probably the second best thing about visiting them (The first being that they love on the kids and everyone has a blast)

Man, this is a huge thing. DH buys some kind of snotty coffee, and that's fine with me--I usually just have other forms of caffeine and when I do share, it is great. However, before we moved in, his parents were staying at our new house, helping us get it ready for move in--so they bought a big canister of Folgers. Then my parents came to visit and drank it, and then bought another canister to replace "our canister. And various coffee miscommunications have continued with all involved over the last year.

Dannysmama · July 2014

In America, it's fascinating at how once they find out that *something* could cause a possible issue during pregnancy, they tell women to avoid it categorically and entirely. The restrictions stressed me out to an insane degree when I was pregnant with DS. Literally, I started crying once after leaving a gourmet foods store because I thought jamon iberico was off-limits (blame the hormones).

Look at the foods you are told to not eat, due to the risk of listeria. But, do a search of recent listeria outbreaks and you find that they occur not in, say, high-quality sushi or smoked salmon, but lettuce and cantaloupe. Nowhere did I see that I wasn't supposed to eat cantaloupe, but I know there was a deadly outbreak from it recently.

What changed my perspective and made me not so intense was finding the FDA's handout on listeria. It literally has a question that says "I'm Latina. Am I at greater risk for listeriosis?" Short answer - no, but yes, because Latina women are more likely to buy homemade queso fresco than non-Latina, and there have been several listeriosis outbreaks due to homemade queso contamination.

So all pregnant women are told, don't eat soft cheese, feta cheese, any cheese except fake cheese in a can because there is a risk from eating unpasteurized, homemade, not-sold-in-a-store, queso fresco.

My long answer to your short question ... I had one cup of 1/2 caff coffee with DS, and with this pregnancy, I have my one delightful small cup a day.

Poppy523 · July 2014

I'm a keurig girl and a girly one at that. Gloria Jean hazelnut is it for me

nikkisun54 · July 2014

thejack said:

No. I'm not ok with the chemicals they use to process decaffeinated coffee. Unless it says organic on it. If a decaf coffee is labeled as organic, they use the Swiss Water Method and that is chemical-free.

This - the chemists in my office say that drinking decaf is actually worse than drinking regular due to the chemical process coffee has to undergo to extract the caffeine. One minute talking to these people and you can do NOTHING! But for reals, their two cents was coming from a scientist, if you're going to stay away from anything, it should be diet sodas during pregnancy...I definitely did not do this and DS turned out just fine, but that was their two cents.