It’s a question any coffee/tea loving nursing mother has probably asked, and for good reason; no one wants to hurt their baby because of what they consumed. Same goes for fathers for the same reason.

I never finished detailing my birthday weekend from yesterday’s post as I only covered Saturday, the day before my actual birthday. As I mentioned then, we stopped at the restaurant Brewed after the 5k race for coffee and brunch. I didn’t eat, but enjoyed their locally roasted coffee with many, many refills.

Going Mom also partook in the coffee consumption, and rightfully so, she was up early and boldly drove us around some of the “unpleasant” areas of Forth Worth to get us to the race. Kelley has only had one full cup of coffee a handful of times since having Avery, but that day, she had 4 cups. Yep, and we don’t add cream, sugar, and all of that crap, so the cups were purely coffee.

Avery had been up for a long time with minimal napage (it’s a word), and we fully expected to have her hit the crib hard and sleep through the night. WRONG! Kelley nursed her to sleep after bath time as usual, but just a few hours later Avery was wide awake crying.

We knew something was wrong when the crying didn’t subside after 5 minutes like usually would happen at this time. Kelley marched back in the nursery, loaded with fresh breast milk, and proceeded to calm and nurse Avery back to sleep. An hour later, she was back asleep in her crib, and we tried to go back to sleep as well.

Silly parents, Avery didn’t feel like sleeping that long; she was sitting up crying maybe an hour and a half later. Kelley did her thing once more, and finally made it back to bed again only to have Avery again! My poor, tired wife didn’t want me to have to go in there for my birthday, but I insisted on giving it a shot.

Keyword, “shot”, because I did nothing to help! She wouldn’t take a bottle and all she did was make it very awkward to hold her. At one point, she let out a blood curdling cry which had Kelley in the nursery faster than you can say “crazy baby”. At this point, this sun was rising and we decided to give up and stay awake.

I asked her if she wanted coffee and then we both laughed. We actually have a non-caffeine herbal coffee alternative that I make her, so I prepared a cup for both of us as we sat on the back porch with our spawn from hell sweet baby.

That’s Avery’s head and you can see my legs in the background. As long as she was being held, Avery was happy, and it was actually a pleasant way to start my 30th.

After sitting outside for a while, we went back inside where Kelley had my gifts sitting out on the island. Sneaking lady, that wife of mine!

Schneider Weisse Aventinus is my favorite beer, and I got three; one for each decade. I’m not a big drinker, and usually keep it to one glass on most days (unless I’m at a brewery!), but I expect high quality from my beverages and Aventinus is just that!

Kelley made the card herself as she knows I think buying cards is unnecessary most of the time and handmade is more thoughtful. She did a lot better than my handmade cards to her and I loved it! Inside the card I found this…

A Microbrew Beer of the Month Club for US Beers! Most of you probably think I’m lying, but I promise, I don’t drink a lot, just want good beer when I do. I’ll be getting 12 beers from different US microbreweries for the next four months to enjoy. Perfect timing since Avery is showing signs of teething!

With 12 beers each month, I bet we’ll have a nice stash by the end since we haven’t finished the 6 pack I bought over a month ago. I expect to share these with Kelley so we can enjoy together, because drinking alone is just sad.

The brown bag had fresh cremini and portobello mushrooms; one of my favorites! I could eat a huge bowl of mushrooms (the non-trippy kind) and go back for seconds; yum! For my 28th b-day, my co-workers knew how I avoid sugary, processed food, and that I love mushrooms, so they even gave me a Portobello mushroom cake!

They didn’t have the right candles, so a “0” had to do, and I loved it.

I’ve been enjoying several birthday mushrooms on top of my salad every night since and am glad Kelley bought them for me. Thanks, Kelley….and Avery too!

Despite our earlier than expected start to the day, we ended up have a great time together and even brought Avery for another trip to the pool. Thankfully, the caffeine must’ve finally wore off as she slept a little better that night. I need to extend my b-day weekend stories to another post as it’s late and my bed is beckoning.

Oh yeah, to answer the question; a little caffeine shouldn’t be of concern and is generally safe to have while breastfeeding. From what I read, only around 1 percent actually ends up in breast milk, and up to 300mg/day should be okay. Of course, everyone is different, so drink at your own risk!

Do or did you drink coffee or another caffeine source while breastfeeding?

Fathers, same question but for your wife/girlfriend/partner.

Have you ever had a non-traditional cake?