raspberry leaf tea

I am 35 weeks and 3 days pregnant today and during my lunch break at work I felt the sudden urge to go to the health food store and buy some Raspberry Leaf Tea. Maybe it's because I recently read about the health benefits of the stuff or maybe it's because I just wanted to see what it tasted like - who knows! But I bought some and put it on my desk at work and stared at it on and off for an hour or so. 

My husband said I shouldn't drink any. I suspect he thinks I'm going to have the baby early. But all 3 of my mother's children were late and the baby seems quite content in my uterus, so I don't have the same fears. 

The articles I have read on Raspberry Leaf Tea and the stories I have heard from people about it are mostly all positive. The key apparently is starting it early, quite a few weeks before your due date, to allow it to accumulate in your system. And the vitamins and all the other good stuff in the tea are supposed to help tone the muscles of your uterus, assisting with labour (particularly the second stage of labour) and making postpartum recovery quicker. 

Do I believe all of this? To be honest, I'm not fully convinced - but I can't see why I shouldn't try it. So I made my first cup a few minutes ago with a big heap of sugar and am currently sitting at work sipping on it (and blogging...can you tell I'm having a quiet day at work?). Anyway, I'm surprised to say it is rather tasty! The brand I bought has some apple pieces in it for flavouring so I think that is disguising the taste of the Raspberry Leaf itself. 

Now I just have to continue to drink it regularly over the next few weeks and wait and see. 

  

thirty-five weeks pregnant

Pregnancy day 245...35 days to go!

Baby is now 18 inches long and weighs about 5.25 pounds. 

Another week has flown by and I have spent most of it in bed trying to get rid of my nasty cold. Luckily today and tomorrow are bank holidays here so by the time I go back to work on Wednesday I should be more or less back to full health. I can't believe how much I have missed my usual cold medicine!

There isn't a whole lot to write about regarding medical appointments this week because I already posted about my Ultrasound last Monday and my 34-week midwife appointment here. Have a look at that post if you want to know how those appointments went.  

Over the weekend we went to Mamas & Papas to pick up our full-size crib. My husband's parents bought this for the baby, so a big thank you to them for this lovely item! We also bought a couple cute canvases that were on sale to go on the walls.  Mr M assembled the crib while I packed my hospital bags and after only an hour or two our nursery started to come together! 

There is still a lot more work to do on it though. We need to get the chair from IKEA, a bookshelf, and to sort out some toy storage, but it looks much more like a nursery than it did a few days ago!

This weekend my husband and I also watched an interesting documentary called The Business of Being Born. It's an American documentary which looks at the current state of childbirth in the United States, particularly the medicalisation of normal birth. I highly recommend it to anyone in the USA who is pregnant or is planning a family in the near future.