How much tea/coffee do you drink?

[Monkeyandanimal]

Hello, i'm 28 weeks with baby number 3. DS1 is 3.5 years and DS2 will be 2 years in october, and they get up at about 5.30, 6am most days. I am wrecked and find myself needing caffeine to get through the day.....was off it completely for 1st trimester, made me queasy, but now i feel almost dependant on it and terribly guilty about it. i drink about 3 normal sized mugs of strongish tea or instant coffee per day, and eat chocolate, lots of! I know, the sugar and caffeine thing is a vicious dependancy cycle which i need to break, but finding the strength to do so is so hard! I was sooo good to myself and baby when i was expecting DS1, lots of rest, good nutrition; things slipped with dS2 and poor DC3 is getting a bum deal. Feel so guilty about it.......

Hello! I've been wondering about this too - I've never really drunk very much caffeine but I do find that I need it, as I'm just so tired at the moment. I'm 24+5 with twins and I probably have a cup of coffee and one tea a day, but I do try lay off the chocolate. I think that's probably ok, although I do sometimes feel a bit shaky after coffee in the morning and it seems to get the babies quite excited and wriggly too.

too much!

I don't worry about caffeine and although no expert, i'd say what you're drinking is fine - doesn't sound excessive at all. I'm on DC3 and mine get up at the same time as yours. It's sooooooooo tiring that most of the time, I'm just trying to get through it anyway I can! I think that since I don't smoke, drink or take drugs, I can allow a bit of caffeine in my life!!

These are the nhs guidelines so you could do with cutting back if you follow these!

www.nhs.uk/chq/pages/limit-caffeine-during-pregnancy.aspx?CategoryID=54&SubCategoryID=130

I started off with 1 weak tea a day, but found it hard to stick to in an office environment, so sometimes up to three. Or a mixture of decaf and caff in the day.

Towards the end though, from about 30 weeks I realised days I didn't have any caffeine my restless legs were better and I slept more, so I cut down. Now I'm due I'm on noting because I felt like tea was giving me pslpatations.

Each to their own though, I am sensitive to caffeine, and don't have any small children to cope with.

I only have 1 strong tea a day but I also dring a couple of cans of coke, I can't help it I just fancy it and if I want more then I have it. And if i fancy it i'll have a glass of wine on a night (usually at the weekends) I don't think it really does any harm to the baby, my friend is a tea junkie so she drank loads of it and some coffee and her 2 kids are perfectly healthy. Don't worry about it, it's hard when you've got children already, the first is so easy because you can nap and sleep in! x

I have a small cappuccino at work (espresso coffee in it though so it's probably faily strong).. then occasionally (maybe once or twice a week) a cup of tea in the afternoons. Some mornings I feel a bit queasy so skip the morning coffee.

Is there something else you could substitute one cup of coffee for, to cut down gradually? I find a chilled bottle of fresh orange juice really wakes me up. The Millicano decaf instant coffee is actually really nice and worth a try. :)

I think it's a bigger risk in the first trimester as caffeine is linked to a higher rate of miscarriage. It can also lead to lower birth weights, but I don't know the evidence to quote.

I have one caffeinated cup of tea when I get up, and then anything between 2 and 5 cups of decaf during the day. I have a chocolate bar most days too. I don't find the caffeine effects baby's movements though although it does cross the placenta apparently.

I found it hard to get used to. When you get tired its normal to reach for a stimulant (a nice cup of tea or a beer!) to perk you up, and it took quite a few weeks to manage this better.

I love coke too mummyjetsetter and have just swapped normal sized cans for those little ones that you sometimes get as a mixer. I only drank a couple of those before I luckily went right off coke completely so now I have none!

I have a nearly 3 year old DD and I agree that cutting out the caffine is hard. I drink 1 cup of strong-ish (fresh) coffee in the morning and then try to stick to decaff during the day. Quite often on the weekens I'll end up having another.

I also eat chocolate and I only like 70% or 85% dark chocolate so I guess that has to be pretty high in caffine too. In fact I reckon my craving for really dark chocolate is probably my body's sneaky way of getting more caffine. I never like dark chocolate before thia pregnancy!

Greentshirt - that's a good idea with the little cans! Lucky you went off it. i also like dr pepper and dandelion and burdock, according to nhs though you can have 5 cans of coke so i'm not worries. I'm week 35 now anyway so don't see it making any difference now. There are much worse things people do when pregnant and nothing happens so I don't feel bad, at least I eat healthily otherwise except for all the cakes, chocolate and crisps! x

I've always been a big tea drinker (at least 10 mugs a day) so the first thing I did when I found out I was pregnant was switch to decaf as well as (attempt) to cut down on the amount I drink, think I'm at about 6 now! Still drinking diet Pepsi though...

I vary. There are days when I am well over what you are meant to have. I never fail to have a decent mug of coffee though.

I switched to decaf coffee and decaff Early Grey tea when I was pregnant and had one cup of each a day.

I'm glad its not just me; i have several placebo decaf instant coffees as well as the 3 caffeinated drinks and choc, and then i read recently that even decaf has some caffeine in it.....so i was wondering was i upping my caffeine intake by having several cups of decaf. So So unhealthy this pregancy! I'd also have the odd glass of wine, one a week maybe, and 2 some weeks.....but then nothing at all for several weeks....but as previous posters have said, i guess people do worse things during pg and have healthy babies.....

il drink 1-2 coffees a day not de-caff i dont drink coke or anything though

Decaff tea for me only (about 3 cups a day) and if I get an urge for chocolate I make myself a weak/low sugar hot chocolate. I'd be more worried about the sugar intake at your stage to be honest.

wow I have at least a cup.of tea plus one proper coffee a day and some days some chocolate. thought that was probably fine but going on how little the rest of you are having maybe it is too much. as with dc1 I was totally off coffee in the first trimester and only started wanting it again at about 15 weeks so just assumed it was mother nature telling me it was ok. my dc1 was a very healthy 8lb 6oz and I'm pretty sure I drank about the same amount with him so it didn't affect birth weight. why is it supposed to be so bad?

I think you're "allowed" about 200 milligrams a day, and it's worth looking at what the caffeine values are in your drinks / chocolate, but OK within that. I drink a lot of coke zero, and was surprised to find out that the caffeine is actually quite low, and you can have 2 cans for the same caffeine as many coffees.