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. 

  

appointments update

I had my ultrasound scan on Monday and have just come back from my 34-week midwife appointment. I am currently home sick with a nasty cold virus so I thought I would quickly post an update on how the appointments went while I'm sitting here nursing a cup of tea and feeling yucky.

 The main purpose of the ultrasound was to check that my placenta was no longer low-lying. At my 20-week scan the placenta was very low and I'm happy to report that my placenta has behaved and has moved out of the way. During the scan, the sonographer also checked baby's head circumference (300mm) and abdomen circumference (308mm). Both measurements were in the normal range. 

After the scan, I saw the consultant to discuss the results. She decided that my pregnancy can now be classed as Low Risk and I have been transferred to midwife-led care.  This means I will now have the baby in the midwife-led ward of the hospital and I'm very happy about this. At first I was concerned because the midwife ward doesn't have epidurals available, but the doctor assured me that if during labour I am not coping well and want an epidural I can be moved upstairs to the consultant ward to have one.  

The midwife appointment this morning went well. My blood pressure was normal (120/60), fundus height was good (35cm) and the fetal heart-rate was fine (138bpm). What I was most excited about though was the position of the baby: he is head-down, partially engaged, and in the LOA ("left occiput anterior") position. I googled this when I got home and turns out this is the optimum position for labour. 

I'm not getting my hopes up too much though -  he can always change positions and even if he does stay in this position, it doesn't necessarily mean my labour will be straight-forward. But knowing he is in the ideal position at the moment makes me feel more confident about my upcoming delivery...which is rapidly drawing closer!

special delivery: the essential one

Drawstring bag

After a couple long, hard days at work it was such a pleasure to get home Wednesday evening and find that a parcel had arrived through the door from The Essential One, a fabulous company that specialises in all the essential clothing you need in baby's first year.  They sent me a bundle of products to add to my hospital bag; I have only just been getting my bag ready, so this was impeccable timing!

The first thing I noticed when I opened the parcel was how lovely the packaging was. The clothes all came inside a bespoke cotton drawstring bag which was simply wrapped in tissue paper. I like how they used minimal packaging. The drawstring bag can be used over again and the tissue paper is recyclable, so I didn't feel like there was any wasteful packaging. The bag itself is also so cute! I will definitely be using it in the future to carry spare clothes in the changing bag. 

Vests

The products in the bag were all super adorable too and what came across immediately was the quality. It's hard to portray in images how nice the fabric is, but trust me on this: it's amazingly soft and very high quality. The clothes are all 100% fully combed, soft handle cotton and it shows. 

Baby grows

In the bag came 2 vests, 2 baby grows, a baby hat and a pair of scratch mittens. All of these are going straight in the hospital bag and I expect I will use them all within the first few days that baby is here. The colours of the items sent to me are very neutral but The Essential One also have boy and girl colours. I do like the neutrals though, and the yellows and beiges are really nice (again - hard to portray this in the photos).  

I was so pleased with the quality of these clothes compared to others I have bought in the high street shops. After looking through the brochure I was also impressed with how reasonable their prices are too - so impressed, in fact, that I went straight online and put through an order for some of their adorable baby blankets! 

the hospital bag list

Things have been extremely hectic at work and I haven't had much time to think about anything other than numbers and complicated spreadsheets, so it was a nice distraction to go back to the second NCT class last night. We mostly discussed packing the all-important hospital bags. 

I found out last night that the average first-time mum is in labour for 24 hours and then stays in the hospital for 48 hours after delivery! Yikes, so I could be in the hospital for up to 3 days? I had no idea it could be for that long. I guess the hospital bag issue is more important than I first thought. 

Our instructor suggested we pack two bags over the next couple of weeks: one bag will be used during the delivery in the labour ward; and one will be used in the post-natal ward with baby. The theory is that once I've had the baby and move to the post-natal ward, Mr M can take the labour bag home to lighten the load a bit. 

So here is the list (sorry it's illegible, but you get the idea). I'm hoping that over the upcoming long-weekend I can buy some things and start crossing items off the list. Let the packing begin!