Monday, August 25, 2008

Caffeinated

My summer continues. I'm waiting on my prints to clear before I can begin in the new district, hence the gratuitous posting. I just hope they don't find out about that pesky bank heist in the mid-90's. :) I'm counting on the disorganzation of the system here. Meanwhile, I am further honing my abilities to sit for so long that my butt goes pleasantly numb. Maybe I'll do something productive for a change instead...or maybe not.

So, the poll to the right is one that addresses a challenge, er, a vice of mine. I was still on my full dosage of caffeine when I got pregnant (and I say dosage because only IV drug-users could stomach imbibing as many stimulants as I was). Each day, I had the pleasure of consuming truck loads of caffeinated beverages. Behold:
  • 2 cups of coffee before leaving in the morning, approx. 170 mg. caffeine
  • 1 16 oz. mug of coffee on the way to work, approx. 170 mg. caffeine
  • 2 cans of diet caffeinated soda during the day, approx. 72 mg.
  • And the occasional Starbucks run or Energy drink (once weekly), approx. 200 mg.
Grand total: Between 412 mg. and 612 mg. daily.

Oy. It's a wonder I got pregnant at all. While only recent studies have truly illustrated how much a hindrance caffeine can be on fertility and pregnancy, it has been a long held piece of knowledge I clearly chose to ignore. But you can bet your bottom that I stopped the very minute I found out I was pregnant. That morning, I dumped the rest of my mug out, suffered through a few headaches and sliced the habit down to nothing over several days. I even avoided chocolate (including chocolate ice cream, oh the pain!). I am now fairly certain that Starbucks' recent financial issues was the direct result of my pregnancy.

Today, and on most days, I only allow myself one cup of coffee and let me tell you, it's painful. Especially today. While I don't have the same physiological addiction to it as I had before (getting migraines if I didn't have my cup within 30 minutes of waking up, I kid you not), the psychological addiction is still there full force. I have dreams about swimming in pools of lattes, being lathered in diet Rock Stars, having glistening cabana boys laying out in the summer sun and offering up frappucinos on their well-oiled, rock-hard abs (ok, maybe that one was going a little bit too far). But, like many other things, I have my priorities and am more than willing to make sacrifices, this being the least of them.

I am well aware that excluding caffeine (or at least cutting down) won't solve any of our IF problems, but I'm willing to give anything a shot at this point. Even if I do have to lock up the coffee pot behind more steel than Fort Knox.

11 comments:

Nikki said...

My vice is tea - once in the morning, and MAYBE once during the day - mostly not though. So if I had the 412-612 mg coffee, I'd be bouncing off the walls here!

LOL on your dreams - specially the one with the cabana boys. Maybe you can send one down here to me, he can serve me my tea in the morning ;-)

I Believe in Miracles said...

When we first started ttc, I cut out everything that was "supposed" to be bad for you, and I weaned myself down to 1 cup of caffine per day. Then, after several months without success and a new job, I switched over to drinking 3-4 cups of coffee in the am (1 nalgene bottle). Last month, I went cold turkey and cut everything I thought would be 'bad' out... to no success. I wonder, what would it be like to drink lots of coffee and run 4-6 mi daily and still be able to get pregnant? How crazy would that be?

PS. I've taken up walking and cut out caffine this cycle.

Happy said...

I was a two cup of coffee a day girl, so I gradually had 1 cup regular and 1 cup decaf. I finally switched to decaf until we decided to try IVF and I decided that was too expensive to make me doubt myself so I'm now on decaf herbal tea. It was a huge headache filled adjustment (hee hee).

Josée Martens said...

I hate this all. I tell you... how do all the heroine junkies reproduce.

I am off caffeine most of the time. Now that i am not cycling in the next month, i am back to a cup a tea every day since i am still 'cutting back on dairy.

sigh. i loved my morning starbuck lattes. i love babies more.

Just Me. said...

I agree. How do these crack whores do it??? It's just so unfair!!!!

Now about these cabana boys. Do they come, wearing practically nothing or in just their small tight speedos like MP? :)

Shelby said...

I think tiny little speedos are just fine, leaving little to the imagination but covering up just enough so that frapuccinos poolside don't start to mimic a porno.

And as for those crack hos, I have a story that will make you sick. I once had a mentally ill crack addict client who was on her 6th pregnancy at the age of 26. All 5 of her kids were born addicted and as a result, were developmentally disabled, and all were taken by child protective services. With her 6th, she was on a quest to keep having them, "until they let me keep one."

It's stories like this that prove that infertility has nothing to do with what we deserve.

AnotherDreamer said...

I cut back on my caffeine greatly. Caffeine free soda, and tea, for me now... usually. I have found that caffeine free tastes the same as regular drinks, for me, so I go hog wild on them.

I make an exception and have caffeinated drinks when I go out to eat, but that's rare.

I used to drink 3-4 cans of mountain dew a day... oh, the horror. All that caffeine, all those empty calories... not to mention the carbonation hurting me... shame on me. I've learned my lesson.

Hope2morrow said...

HA! I completely understand. I only drink about two or three cups of coffee per day, but I MUST have it. I cold-turkey it once we do the transfers, but it nearly kills me, if not from the headaches alone.

When I went to visit Doctor B (mentioned in one of my posts), he felt that two cups of coffee a day was okay no mater where I was in my cycle because he said we IFers had to have some kind of normalcy. I never want to regret any decisions I made, so I completely cut it out after my fresh and frozen transfer. UGH!

Lost in Space said...

I gave up the caffeine completely a year ago because it wreaks havoc on my jacked up bladder (interstitial cystitis). I have never liked coffee or tea *gasp*, but had to have my 1 diet Pepsi every day. I know that wasn't much, but it was still hard to let it go at first. Now I think I would be bouncing off the walls at the hint of any caffeine. Okay, that and in some serious pain.

If you need a little to keep your sanity, I think it is worth it. No caffeine on any cycles for the last year and minimal caffeine the 2 years before that hasn't helped knock me up yet.

Shinejil said...

Um... This past cycle, I drank more caffeine than I have in a long time (not tons by average US standards, but still) and that's when I finally got pregnant. I had spent more than a year drinking one cup of green tea a day, and no dice. So for me, the verdict is still out. And while I've seen studies on caf. and miscarriage, I haven't seen anything convincing about caf and conception.

I say cut back as much as you can, but don't torture yourself. Stress, after all, is supposed to impact fertility...

Karen said...

I quit caffeine when we started ttc and it was so hard. I could do without coffee, but I had to have diet coke. I drank copious amounts of it. My mother used to joke that when a blizzard was coming, other people rushed to the store for bread and milk (that's a New England reference-don't know if it tranfers to CA), but my sister and I made a run on the store for diet coke. Give me diet coke and Ben and Jerry's and I could ride out any storm.

Once I got over the headaches and tremors and kicked the habit, I lived happily without the stuff for a while. Now I'm back on the juice. I started sliding back down when we gave up ttc. Drinking caffeine became a way to flip the bird to the whole ttc journey. I plan to quit sometime, but not yet.