For the love of Joe...

I love coffee, like really love coffee. Oddly enough, I made it through college and well into my adult life before I picked up the habit. I thought it was horrible and could not understand how anyone could drink the stuff. I was not stranger to caffeine but I preferred Pepsi or tea, especially iced tea. A couple of years after college, my cousin introduced to the Toffee Nut Latte at Starbucks and I began to consider it much less repulsive but I stuck to that drink and that drink only. Then I discovered a Spice Pumpkin Latte and was in love but still a fancy foo foo drink at Starbucks is a far cry from drinking the "real stuff". A few more years passed and while my husband I were on a trip to the mountains together I decided to drink the brew with breakfast, not too bad with the right about of creamer and/sugar. So I tiptoed into the java world ever so slowly, it was s special treat on a cold day. I was really gaining steam in my addiction when I discovered I was pregnant with my first son and immediately put on the breaks. I limited myself to decaf (GAG) and non-java caffeinated beverages. Throughout my pregnancy and after giving birth I remained keenly aware of my intake until...I returned to work. How in the world was I ever going to make it through 2 hours of commuting and a 9.5 hour day without something? I was still up nursing E at night and working full time. I knew it wasn't the best for a nursing mother to be drinking coffee but this nursing mother had to survive. So I tried to be reasonable with my intake and let it roll. After my nursing days ended and the exhaustion of being a mother continued, the java addiction grew until. So what is the point of all this you ask? Well, here I am 14 weeks pregnant and I am in need of an intervention. Sure, I have cut back my daily caffeine amounts and even skip days but the addiction is still there. I know that there is information out there saying some coffee is OK in moderation but let's be honest none is better. So like any junkie, I have to make a choice to give it up. I can't toe the line with the stuff. So in the hopes that this public statement will help me stay accountable, here it goes....I am giving up coffee. After this post is written, I am going to be a big girl, go the fridge and dump out my creamers and flavored coffee. Goodbye sweet friends, I will see you again once this baby is born and my nursing days are again over. (Well maybe once I go back to work again...hey I am only human!