Yesterday I had 3 cups of coffee accidentally. How can that happen accidentally, you ask? Well, I ordered a latte with just one shot of espresso (instead of the two they normally add), but got one extra. I did notice it was strong (which I don’t even like!)… but didn’t do anything about it. Only this morning when I rediscovered the bill with the charge for the extra shot I understood. Ouch.
So there, I haven’t given up coffee completely. Why? Two reasons, mainly. One is the lack of data showing that it’s harmful — I’ve found several resources saying that moderate amounts (1-2 cups) don’t seem to have adverse effects (even though others have seen growth restriction from caffeine during pregnancy, and I’ll be happy to cut it out if/when I manage to get pregnant — note that they consider all caffeine, and actually over 50% come from tea according to their analysis).
The other reason is that ttc can already take out a lot of the fun things in life. Hell, even sex becomes stressful when you follow the chart instead of the moods. I don’t want this “trying” to dictate my life even more than it already does. Normally I just have one cup per day, one short espresso (even before ttc). Hoping that this isn’t too bad. But of course, sometimes I wonder: am I hampering our chances? Would we be pregnant already if I had cut it out right when we started trying? Should I at least reduce it even more in the 2ww? (Here it would help to know what problems caffeine causes / is supposed to cause — I couldn’t find out.)
Then there are the alternatives. In the morning I usually have a cup of green tea — full of antioxidants. Should be good, right? Except that some say it blocks absorption of folic acid. Which would really be a problem. So for now, I have my green tea in the morning, and my folic acid in the evening.
What do you do about the drinks? No coffee, no tea at all? Different in the 2ww than pre-O?
Conceptionally challenged 
I, strangely enough, have never been a coffee fan so it hasn’t been hard for me to avoid caffine. I do like tea but have switched to herbals for now. I think if I was a huge tea/coffee fanatic I would still have up to 2 cups a day, but like I said its not a thing I was attached to before ttc so it hasn’t been hard to give it up.
My RE always tells me that it’s just as important to look after my heart and head as it is my body and he even said that I shouldnt strictly avoid the odd glass of wine because being relaxed is a big part of keeping sane in this process.
So I say drink your coffee!
Interesting point by your RE, egghunt — I like it!
I am 100% addicted to caffeine, so to stay sane, I still have a morning cup of coffee. BUT, I cut back significantly and completely cut out diet cokes. I don’t think a little coffee will do any harm – especially if you enjoy it!
I don’t drink coke — other than coffee and tea there’s no caffeine in my diet, as far as I know.
And, like you, I do enjoy it — otherwise I’d easily leave it out :)
I agree with drinking your coffee. There comes a point where TTC can suck all the joy out of life, and I just don’t think that’s a good thing. I think a lot of the warnings about caffeine are about women who drink many cups on a daily basis. But I say you’re on exactly the right track: enjoy in moderation until you’re pregnant.
I agree with you about the warnings and the many cups, Adele. Another thing I’d be curious about is how coffee/caffeine affect *fertility* (as opposed to the effect in pregnancy). But it’s probably hard to sort out all the factors that contribute — otherwise we wouldn’t have diagnoses like “unexplained infertility”.
I used to drink coffee throughout and stopped once I did get a BFP (m/c.) And then I read lots of research and I decided to switch to half and half. And I drank that, but reduced the amount I drank. And then after my first failed IVF and hearing it was egg quality, I decided to switch to all decaf. Before I started stims, I did the occasional caffiene treat. But once I was on stims, I stopped it all together. Now, I have an occasional small amount of decaf. But I’m learning somehow to live without it. Who knows if it will help, but I figure it certainly can’t hurt. It took a long time to adjust to this as I felt angry about giving up my vices, but now I changed. Though my RE says up to one cup a day would be fine.
Jess — I guess I’d cut back or out the caffeine in ART cycles, but as we’re still trying naturally…
Have you found out anything about a correlation between egg quality and caffeine? Of course, even if there isn’t anything documented, I completely understand your point that it certainly cannot hurt to cut it out.
I have been drinking coffee– I just quit when I found out I was pregnant. I used to abstain during the 2ww, but after months and months of no pregnancy, I eventually said, “fuck it”.
I’ve never been a coffee drinker (except when Hubby makes Turkish coffee after meals when we have company…yum!), and I’ve never done well with caffeine – it just makes me feel shaky.
If you think you’re “hooked” on the stuff…maybe you should cut it out. If it’s only a comfort thing, then I say anything in moderation is fine!
So many do this, do that, don’t do that…make up your mind!?! It is very frustrating. I think the comment you left on my blog today was a perfect way to explain how I was feeling. Thanks for your support!
If you want me to leave my house before noon, I MUST have my coffee. Considering that I have a job that expects me at work before noon, I am a coffee drinker. When we started trying, so long ago, I cut back and limited myself to one cup. I was diligent about it, for month after month after month after month…. Then we got our Azoos diagnosis, and I realized that all my diligence (about coffee, alcohol, hot tubs, medicines, etc) had been in vain. Now I take a special kind of pleasure in my second cup of coffee every morning. If I’ll never turn up naturally pregnant, I might as well appreciate the upside.
egghut – can I have your RE? its awesome to hear that your RE acknowledges your heart and your head!