Pregnancy - smoking

[Sav2011]

Hi Everyone

I am new to this site! I found out im pregnant two weeks ago, it was totally unplanned however we are very excited as its my first and we are engaged....Im due in September... I Had my first ultrasound this week and we have a healthy little heart beat which is really exciting!

With friends visiting / travelling I was drinking and smoking quite heavily over December and through half of January before I knew... In the first week of finding out i was pregnant i stopped smoking immediately, about 5 days later i was really struggling to stay quit and started sneaking a few in ;( I have now quit again (day 3) but I do get cravings which is terrible! Has anyone else struggled with this...

I dont want to take patches / gum, i just want to stop! In some ways i wish i had morning sickness as i know this would cease cravings

[Gigi]

have you had bad experiences with patches/gum in the past? just wondering, as by knocking out those two ways of giving up, that's really reducing your choices. I had assumed "cold turkey" - what you're doing - is the hardest way to give up.

[Glamourcide]

Just wanted to say good luck with quitting - it is the best thing you can do, not only for your baby, but for yourself! Just stay strong, you can always chat to your GP about using nicotine replacement therapy (it is preferred that you go 'cold turkey' when pregnant as there is not enough evidence to conclude that NRT is safe for mums and bubs during pregnancy) and they can help you come up with a plan of attack, but really, they reckon Day 3 of cold turkey is the worst and if you can just get past that, it gets a lot easier.
In the meantime, try not to beat yourself up about it - my own GP told me it was better to cut down drastically (I'm a pack-a-day smoker) than to quit entirely if the stress was too much - which for me, it was. I smoked for the duration of two pregnancies as I couldn't quit no matter how hard I tried I'm now on day 2 of cold turkey, I'm going in for surgery in March and my surgeon won't do the op unless I've been nicotine-free for 8 weeks beforehand (erm... I was meant to quit two weeks ago... pumping the Vitamin C and praying to God my body purges all the toxins in time!) and it's a lot simpler than the attempts to quit using NRT or 'cutting back'. Just keep yourself busy, when those cravings hit, reach for a book about pregnancy/birthing or jump on here and have a chat to us!
Congratulations on your pregnancy, all the very best to you for a happy and healthy 9-ish months And good luck quitting smoking, I really hope you can stay strong!! x

[eza]

I smoked up until I was around 13/14 weeks, wasn't real heavy but still bad enough. It was REALLY hard but did manage to quit cold turkey. I had a jar of boiled lollies on hand to ease any cravings, worked very well for me. Haven't looked back since!! Was very proud of myself when I finally kicked it.

[nickle730]

My first was unplanned and I was a 20 a day smoker. I quit cold-turkey as soon as I found out and it was HARD. What worked for me was, whenever I felt the urge for a cigarette, I pictured my little baby in my belly choking on a cloud of smoke! The image was disturbing enough that it put me off having a fag. Keep some normal chewy handing and busy your mouth with that when you feel the urge to smoke. I also ate a LOT of apples!

Good luck and congratulations!

[Yas]

I was a 30-35 a day smoker. I just found out i am pg and i quit straight away, 11 days and counting. TBH, last time i didn't quit straight away (smoked up to 6wks) and i had a m/c. So totally not worth it, you want to give your bubs the best chance you can!
I know how hard the cravings are, which is y i didn't give up last pg, but after losing a baby i will never be that selfish again, and i am not missing it this time at all.
Good luck

[Miss E]

I also had to quit when I found out I was pregnant. I have to say though, it was much easier that time round than my other attempts had been. Every time I had a craving I would simply think about the baby in my tummy that I so dearly wanted. It made it so much easier to get past the craving, because that choice to break and have a smoke wasn't about me or what I wanted iykwim?

If you are thinking about gradually stopping, I would suggest you hold onto one of those packets that have the warning about smoking when pregnant and only use that to keep your smokes in. I know that sounds cruel or harsh or whatever, but I tend to think based on my own experience, that seeing that each time I went to have a cigarette would make it much, much easier to cut down and resist iykwim.

GL and congratulations on your pregnancy.

[Sav2011]

Thanks for your replies im still struggling with it, but im just about to finish reading Allen Cars, The Easy way, such a powerful book and im so confident im going to kick it this time! I found out after my dating scan that im alot earlier than we throught, so im only 8 weeks along.... which is even more exciting that im quitting earlier in my pregnancy than i thought I was... Im also starting to get occasional morning sickness so smoking just feels awful now...

[Fleur]

I always really envied the women who could quit, just like that! as soon as they knew they were pregnant. I found it so much harder.
When I did eventually quit it was cold turkey, for me it was much easier. Take whatever support you can get & good luck

[Winter]

I quit cold turkey 4 years ago and something a friend said stuck with me..she said "3 days, 3 weeks, 3 months, 3 years" They were the trigger points for most people and once you got past them, you just kept looking to get past the next goal and you'd be a non-smoker! Well, I've got past 3 years and I'm a non smoker. Gotta say that the first 3 days were the worst! Then it gets easier.

And now I think its the most disgusting thing ever invented and can't believe I was ever, ever so stupid or disrespectful to myself to smoke!

You've got such a great incentive to stay smoke-free. And there is lots of support here for you. You CAN do it!!

[fionas]

You need to find what works for you. For some it will be thinking of the baby, telling yourself you just can't have one etc. etc. For me, telling myself I was 'stopping' altogether, that's it no more Nick-O-Teen for me, didn't work. What did work, was telling myself when a craving hit that I wasn't going to have one this time but if I still wanted one later, then I could. Made it seem more manageable and basically I learnt that as bad as a craving feels that it does actually go away without having to have a cigarette. Just takes 5-10 mins and not all day. And once you've learnt that, it's reasonably simple to give up and gradually the cravings go away.