Everyone is SO militant on what you can and can't do when you have a baby growing inside of you. You have to take control and remember, it's still YOUR body. Don't get pushed around. You can do what you want. Always remember that when you're stressed out, the baby is stressed out. You don't have to TELL your doctor everything you're doing, and that goes beyond birth too, but I'll get to that in a few days time.
Smoking: Of COURSE cut down, and if your baby is PLANNED, I would suggest quitting before you even start trying, smoking lowers your chances anyway. But you don't have to quit. I smoked. Cut down as much as you possibly can, towards the end of pregnancy I was only having one in the morning to wake up to. Remember, anything that stresses you, stresses the baby. If you need to smoke, SMOKE. And guess what? You don't have to have a FULL one do you? If you buy them, you can literally stub it out and light it back up later, if you roll your own you can roll a smaller one. I enjoyed having halves, maybe a bit better. Because you know you're already making a difference to your baby. My last cigarette was the day my baby was born. It is a great time to quit completely, because you're so busy you don't even notice the cravings for a while.
Drinking: They won't officially say anything, but 1-2 units per WEEK, WEEK, NOT DAY, is okay. You can get them to sort of half say it, sort of a, "weeeell..." but again, why not halve it? You and your partner could have half a pint of beer each, or you could get low alcohol stuff and enjoy a full one, or you can buy little bottles half pint size. Don't know about wine or anything, I'm more manly than woman :) The baby will thank you for RELAXING. So yeah, what's wrong with having four bottles of Sainsbury's low alcohol Cider that are half a unit each, at a new year's party? It's OKAY. Don't worry so much. Just remember not to have any at all for a week after.
Caffeine: I can't remember the unit of measurement but you're allowed 200 something's of caffeine a day, where coffee is 100, and tea is 75. Can't remember what chocolate is, but that does count towards your caffeine intake. I think I might get this one. I think if you have too much caffeine in pregnancy you might have a hyper little baby? So I mostly stuck to it. Decaff things can taste like crap and who can go to work without a coffee first? It's something that you really do have to keep track of, and maybe even work out a routine, or caffeine free days if you have an unexpected chocolate pudding on top of your full caffeine allowance for a day. So you're allowed 2 coffee's a day, OR 3 teas...225 isn't BAD, I did it a few days during pregnancy. But this is without chocolate so it is something you have to watch out for, because you can be consuming much more caffeine than you realize. And guess what? If you need to get something done, like cleaning the house or what have you, you're allowed CAFFEINE TABLETS, which are FIFTY of this unit of measurement. HALF that of a coffee and gives you much more energy! So without ANY chocolate, you CAN have FOUR caffeine tablets PER DAY. See how you react though. I became a little too dependent on them, and used them INSTEAD of coffee to get out of bed in the morning. I wouldn't recommend it. Your body can get too used to them. Also your baby might not like them. My baby was fine with them all the way up until I was about seven months, and then I started getting really nauseous whenever I took them. Also, yes you can have energy drinks. Only ONE a day (of Monster anyway, which is my favourite, you might be able to have two of smaller cans), and you really should drink it slowly, but it's okay to have.
Sleep: I slept as much as possible during pregnancy, took naps every single day, and I'm really not sure if that's good or not. Positive: it gets you used to sleeping during the day, and taking naps, which you may need to do with your new baby, and being used to drifting off with sunlight about is a plus. Negative: I got used to having loads of sleep a day, and then it was a shock having to do loads of things all the time, like entertaining her and getting up in the night, so with that in mind I wonder if it might be better to make yourself survive on less sleep and get used to it, it might be better for you. Or make the most of staying up until 3am on games or the internet, because your bedtime WILL drastically change. 10.30 is now a LATE NIGHT for us. But you should definitely choose one road or the other, more sleep than normal or less, and not swing in between. That won't be very good for your baby.
Smoking: Of COURSE cut down, and if your baby is PLANNED, I would suggest quitting before you even start trying, smoking lowers your chances anyway. But you don't have to quit. I smoked. Cut down as much as you possibly can, towards the end of pregnancy I was only having one in the morning to wake up to. Remember, anything that stresses you, stresses the baby. If you need to smoke, SMOKE. And guess what? You don't have to have a FULL one do you? If you buy them, you can literally stub it out and light it back up later, if you roll your own you can roll a smaller one. I enjoyed having halves, maybe a bit better. Because you know you're already making a difference to your baby. My last cigarette was the day my baby was born. It is a great time to quit completely, because you're so busy you don't even notice the cravings for a while.
Drinking: They won't officially say anything, but 1-2 units per WEEK, WEEK, NOT DAY, is okay. You can get them to sort of half say it, sort of a, "weeeell..." but again, why not halve it? You and your partner could have half a pint of beer each, or you could get low alcohol stuff and enjoy a full one, or you can buy little bottles half pint size. Don't know about wine or anything, I'm more manly than woman :) The baby will thank you for RELAXING. So yeah, what's wrong with having four bottles of Sainsbury's low alcohol Cider that are half a unit each, at a new year's party? It's OKAY. Don't worry so much. Just remember not to have any at all for a week after.
Caffeine: I can't remember the unit of measurement but you're allowed 200 something's of caffeine a day, where coffee is 100, and tea is 75. Can't remember what chocolate is, but that does count towards your caffeine intake. I think I might get this one. I think if you have too much caffeine in pregnancy you might have a hyper little baby? So I mostly stuck to it. Decaff things can taste like crap and who can go to work without a coffee first? It's something that you really do have to keep track of, and maybe even work out a routine, or caffeine free days if you have an unexpected chocolate pudding on top of your full caffeine allowance for a day. So you're allowed 2 coffee's a day, OR 3 teas...225 isn't BAD, I did it a few days during pregnancy. But this is without chocolate so it is something you have to watch out for, because you can be consuming much more caffeine than you realize. And guess what? If you need to get something done, like cleaning the house or what have you, you're allowed CAFFEINE TABLETS, which are FIFTY of this unit of measurement. HALF that of a coffee and gives you much more energy! So without ANY chocolate, you CAN have FOUR caffeine tablets PER DAY. See how you react though. I became a little too dependent on them, and used them INSTEAD of coffee to get out of bed in the morning. I wouldn't recommend it. Your body can get too used to them. Also your baby might not like them. My baby was fine with them all the way up until I was about seven months, and then I started getting really nauseous whenever I took them. Also, yes you can have energy drinks. Only ONE a day (of Monster anyway, which is my favourite, you might be able to have two of smaller cans), and you really should drink it slowly, but it's okay to have.
Sleep: I slept as much as possible during pregnancy, took naps every single day, and I'm really not sure if that's good or not. Positive: it gets you used to sleeping during the day, and taking naps, which you may need to do with your new baby, and being used to drifting off with sunlight about is a plus. Negative: I got used to having loads of sleep a day, and then it was a shock having to do loads of things all the time, like entertaining her and getting up in the night, so with that in mind I wonder if it might be better to make yourself survive on less sleep and get used to it, it might be better for you. Or make the most of staying up until 3am on games or the internet, because your bedtime WILL drastically change. 10.30 is now a LATE NIGHT for us. But you should definitely choose one road or the other, more sleep than normal or less, and not swing in between. That won't be very good for your baby.
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