You mean, you're serious??

So, I was sitting in the doctor's office the other day, and he made a statement that made me laugh.

"And of course, you'll have to give up caffeine."

I laughed in the man's face. "Of course, you know I have two small children."

"Well, I don't recommend going cold turkey, especially with small children. Just cut back slowly."

It finally occurred to me, he wasn't laughing. Oh God. The man was serious.

Now if you know me, you know, I consider caffeine a sixth food group. Coffee in the morning, a diet coke at lunch, and chocolate whenever required. Each dosage is carefully metered out until the next one is due. But according to the science geek in the white coat, all my favorite things were now all off limits. Damn him.

Of course, I could just ignore this recommendation, but becuase I love my children and want to be here with them for a very long time, I decided to listen.

This conversation happened last Thursday. My efforts began on Friday morning by going to half caf coffee in the morning and skipping the lunch time diet coke and other doses of chocoloate. I did okay until three pm, then exhaustion hit. I worked through the afternoon, slept like a log, until a pounding headache awoke me on Saturday morning. Of course, I crawled to the coffee pot, resolved my headache, and my day followed the same path. Today, the same headache woke me up.

Everytime I've told another mom about my plight, they laugh. Several have told me, they'd ask for drugs to treat the condition and keep the caffeine. It was an issue of survival. Today, someone bought me a decaf out of pity.

I don't think I'm overly cranky, but my children may disagree. I do know that I'm pretty tired and the morning headache is pretty miserable. I'm hoping that going to half caf solves my problem and I don't have to give it up completely.